https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/23/panopticon-digital-surveillance-jeremy-bentham

The panopticon is a scary and accurate depiction of our world and the threat we have to our privacy through technology. We may not feel ownership over the things we do online which makes the panopticon metaphor feel distant; there is “no dead-eye lens staring at you every time you enter a URL.”

The article speaks best for itself: “In the private space of my personal browsing, I do not feel exposed – I do not feel that my body of data is under surveillance because I do not know where that body begins or ends. We live so much of our lives online, share so much data, but feel nowhere near as much attachment for our data as we do for our bodies. Without physical ownership and without an explicit sense of exposure I do not normalise my actions. If anything, the supposed anonymity of the internet means I do the opposite. My data, however, is under surveillance, not only by my government but also by corporations that make enormous amounts of money capitalising on it. Not only that, but the amount of data on offer to governments and corporations is about to go through the roof, and as it does the panopticon may emerge as a model once more. Why? Because our bodies are about to be brought back into the mix.