It is common knowledge that in today’s digitalised world, there are always virtual minute-takers that jot down our every move, track our behavior and then report it to their superiors. This prized commodity is then packaged and distributed to entities in exchange for ludicrous amounts of cash.

But should we allow this under-the-table trade, known as surveillance capitalism, to prevail?

A democratic government traditionally solves its problems by listening to the will of the people; policies and action plans that earn popular support will naturally be adopted and passed. However, when then a majority of the public is intentionally kept ignorant, then this strategy crumbles - and this is precisely what Big Tech is doing today.

And that’s the catch. Today’s democracies have turned a blind eye to the unscrupulous commerce happening behind their backs. What’s worse, Big Tech are doing everything in their power to keep them in their slumber.

What we need is to give them a wake-up call, since only democracy can combat the tyranny of surveillance capitalism. We need 21st century policies that give the people epistemic rights and eliminate the financial incentives. Democracy has done this in the past, it can do it again.

Proponents of surveillance capitalism frequently cite that economic interests of Big Tech act as a wall that governments cannot demolish, warning that its collapse will unleash a plethora of challenges and uncertainties.

Yet, democracy was never afraid to tear down entire organisations in pursuit of its founding principles. The black market trade for human organs and babies once supported entire economies, producing an estimated $150 million in 2014 alone. However, democracies around the world have nevertheless systematically cracked down on this undisputedly inhumane and immoral business. So, shouldn’t democracy act the same in reaction to Big Tech?

Indeed, they should. However, the issue is that there is a lack of awareness about Big Tech gradually encroaching on our personal data. One fundamental reason why is that governments have not been cracking down enough about how these companies handle their user data. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal has definitely sparked temporarily high interest in data privacy, and Facebook was subject to hefty fines, but no other meaningful action was taken in the aftermath, and the awareness slowly faded into obscurity. Meanwhile, Big Tech is instinctively pouncing on the pervasive economic opportunities presented to them, and only the most watchful of analysts have awakened to this reality.

Surveillance capitalism is a concept that utterly breaches our epistemic rights. Big Tech has shown that it is content with suppressing our rights to knowledge and our freedom of our personal data, as demonstrated by the rising epistemic inequality between surveillance capitalists and users. Say you’re blind and your view of the outside world was shaped by what your parents told you. How would you feel if they have been deliberately filtering information such that the outlook you have on life is polarised by their beliefs and preferences? This is precisely what Big Tech is imposing on us today, waging an informational war on us defenseless prey, consequently keeping democracies in the dark.

Already, Big Tech is emerging as a significant political player in today’s landscape. They have us in a position where we are solely dependent on them for information, giving them the power to influence opinions and therefore popular belief. Having the ability to manipulate the information fed to us users enables them to exert political pressure, all the while bypassing electoral procedures currently in place. When Apple and Google can isolate millions of Trump followers by banning Parler, it begs the question - what more can they do to disrupt the power play? This, coupled with the current lobbying measures and financial contributions that are ingrained in companies since the 20th century, ensure that Big Tech stays on higher ground.

Here I will discuss two steps democracies can take to awaken, regain their footing and return the control of the people, to the people.

Policymakers can use current antitrust regulations as a stepping stone for a new wave of policies that fundamentally address the mechanisms that hold up Big Tech. Current regulations put excessive emphasis on the transparency and accessibility of data, but are not putting enough attention to why data was collected in the first place. What we need are laws that eradicate the data collection practices of Big Tech, because without them, all their recommendation algorithms crumble, and regulations that remove the financial incentives that drive Big Tech to conduct these activities in the first place.

Next, democracies desperately need to recognise that Big Tech is deliberately infringing on our epistemic rights, and therefore take steps forward to codify them as they have come under increasing systemic threat. This empowers the people to be the sole, rightful bearer of their own experiences and behaviour - they should have absolute control and transparency over how their data is collected and managed. They should be the puppeteers, not the puppets. As Justice William Douglas wrote in 1967, the individual “should have the freedom to select for himself the time and circumstances when he will share his secrets with others and decide the extent of that sharing.”

Democracy was the one that raised surveillance economics. Democracy must also be the one that disciplines and moderates it. What we need to do is to be the Prince Charming that wakes the Sleeping Beauty in democracies from her eternal slumber.