Online Risks and Harms: Citizens Under Surveillance

Contemporary societies are facing an unprecedented set of hazards. With more and more of their lives being conducted online, people’s lives are ever more subject to depredations by predators and by bad actors seeking access to their data. The potential for harm is real and substantial. Equally, people face the prospect of state surveillance and restrictions in the name of their own safety. What does this mean? Are we forced to make a hard, binary choice between ‘harm’ and ‘safety’? Is privacy now a redundant concept? And what are the implications of all this for democratic citizenship and political activism?