The Shepherd, the Doctor and the Big Data

Abstract

The rise of the Internet as a space for global interaction makes the political subjectivation of automated surveillance especially important for understanding the mechanisms of social control in our current culture. This essay approaches mass electronic surveillance from the perspective of the processes of production of subjectivities among users of the Net. It will briefly outline a history of the production of subjects as related to the necessity of expressing a certain truth about themselves, of confessing and conforming to a normality regulated by the strategic frameworks of power. At the same time, it will attempt to associate the logic of that history with the rise of Big Data as a device for the tracking, discrimination and management of personal data. Finally, the paper will provide some reflections on the significance of resistance to the loss of privacy in digital culture.