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Its becoming inevitable, for most of us alive today, not to be under surveillance, or the threat of surveillance much of the time. I expect most people on steemit are highly familiar with this concept. I see the cry for anonymity to be returned by many people, and I partly agree, but its already too late. What can we do about it? I attempt an answer.

Tech

Im sitting at my computer now, typing this. My laptop has a camera, its next to me. My mobile phone has two cameras, my TV has another camera, if I look out of the window my neighbour has cameras which cover the entrance to/from my home. Audio is another problem, my phone and TV have microphones. Location services on Windows are activated by default, Android and Google locate me to within a few meters at all times of day. My home broadband IP address reveals my location, my web traffic can be intercepted and analysed, every webpage I visit is logged by the ISP and made available to the government. Even if I use a VPN or TOR, being unidentifiable is pretty hard, using these technologies probably makes me an even more interesting target, so they may be counter productive.

I have nothing to hide

Often when people unfamiliar with surveillance discuss it, they assume because they are 'good' then survelliance cant hurt them. They are very wrong, every one of us probably breaks laws every day without even realising it, and even if you never broke a law in your life, that does not make you innocent, you just didnt do anything yet. We have seen in the UK that law enforcement are relying more heavily on surveillance for many years, and there is a danger that our data may start ruling us into short-lists of 'probable guilt'; if someone is murdered and your data shows you were nearby at the time, should you be questioned by the police as a potential witness, are you even a suspect?
Major corporations are using our data to sell us stuff we didnt even know that we wanted, who knows how they are bending our opinions through targeted news and advertising?

Consider the problem

Surveillance means 'being watched from above', and most of the problem is that the surveillance is not visible to us at all times, nor do we know who is watching, why they are watching, or what they intend to do with the data, and even how securely they will be able to store the data.
What if you knew, exactly who was surveilling you at all times, what if you could see what had been recorded about you? Maybe even with a augmented reality device, you could be aware of every device watching and monitoring you at all times?

The problem with surveillance isnt your identity, its the identity and intentions of the watchers, if you start to dismantle their anonymity, then the playing field is levelled, you start to have power and control. Your anonymity as an individual then becomes less of an issue, you can know when you are and are not monitored, and adjust your behaviour accordingly, you can even use surveillance to your own personal defence and advantage.

Maybe you are in danger and you want your imminent attackers face to be seen on camera, you could stand in a place of known surveillance? What if when the police come to question you about your potential as a witness or suspect in that murder you walked past, you recorded the interview? Maybe when that ad for shoes comes up, you can see that it was based on data gathered about your habits?

So anonymity isnt needed, understanding exactly when and how you are surveilled is

If you live in a small community, you have no anonymity anyway, most people probably know your business through gossip. So others knowing who you are or what you do isnt really a human right, as most humans lived without this until the last few decades when local village communities started to become less prevalent and people started living in big cities. In those small communities though, you knew who the gossip was and you could ensure certain things about your life didnt get known by them, and therefore could not be used against you.

Maybe Im wrong, thats cool, let me know.