Will the Future contain a Panopticon?

[u/Endward24]

I use the word "panopticon" as a metaphor for a state of affairs in which the majority of people are under observation.

Some people tend to wrongly reduce the risk of mass surveillance to the consciously act of posting things on social media. This may be one reason why personal information can be known by the public or the government, but it is not the only reason. It is a well-known fact that social media corporations are able to create profiles of people who do not have accounts themselves by using the network functions of those who do have profiles. Another way to gain information is by investigating the associations between certain interests or reports and demographic information. For example, the city you live in and your job could be used as sources of information about you.

Most people buy things with credit cards or other methods of cashless payments. These methods come with their benefits, and there are rational reasons to choose them. Yet, at the same time, this flow of money must be well-documented and saved. Some organizations, such as intelligence agencies and advertising corporations, have a vested interest in obtaining such data.

Until now, one major obstacle to using this data has been the sheer amount. Investigating thousands of data points to recognize patterns is challenging. With the recent progress in the field of artificial intelligence, this is about to change. From the viewpoint of an organization that is interested in using such data, there is a huge urge to develop AI-agents that are capable of searching for and recognizing patterns in this cloud of information. We are already seeing such advancements in the context of medical and other research.

Given this information, can we not conclude that the future includes a "panopticon" where every action is observed?

[u/FirstEvolutionist]

We either continue our existing models where companies act as middle men between personal data and information about that, through their analysis, or we progress into an actual pay for service with your data (an evolved version of the current model).

The latter is likely considering the soon to appear personal AI assistants will require a lot of personal data in oder, or at least acces to it, in order to be useful.

Depending on how this progresses, it is plausible we will end up with a model where you mot only get personal assistant services but citizenship related services as well, like UBI and access to other government services. You are still allowed to own your personal data and not share it, but it comes at a personal cost. You also control the amount and type of data you share, to a certain extent. However, the government will know which kind of substances you consume, so that you still have access to universal healthcare.

[u/Endward24 → u/FirstEvolutionist]

Your idea is interesting.

For many people with less money, saling their privat information in order to get access to services and products would be a deal. The problem is that this individuals are most likely of lesser purchase likelihood and therfor, less interesting for the industry.
Maybe, their data could be useful though, e.g. for training AI models or because some law requiered their access.

Yet, their is a point.
Their are exmaples of cases in which people pay and spend their data. From the viewpoin of a company, why choice?