This incident, along with many similar other ones, raises interesting philosophical questions about the surveillance society. One thing Orwell failed to (understandably) anticipate was the means to survey and record a society’s citizens principally rested in the hands of those citizens, at their own fingertips. As do the means to widely distribute that material, in a way that can be disseminated at bewildering speed.
This has to be good from a law enforcement perspective, but where does it end?
Overall, is this technology making us happier as a species? I lost my phone for a few hours on Thursday and felt like my arm had been amputated. How can that be good?
On the other hand, think of all the times in human history that women who were suffering from violence didn’t have a voice because of a small piece of plastic and metal that they routinely carry around with them.
It’s hugely complicated.