The Birth of the Database State: Planned Parenthood or Accident?

Guy Herbert, General Secretary of NO2ID, was the society's first guest speaker this term. He discussed the ideology behind the database state, explaining it as the product of two distinct trends: a maternal, 'enabling' view of the state, which wants to empower people, and a paternal, authoritarian tool of social control. He presented a persuasive case that their convergence in recent years on surveillance and monitoring as a means of advancing both causes is a worrying trend that should be resisted by civil libertarians.