Why is total surveillance dangerous for the common man?

Question

Information Security

Not for a journalist, politician and public figure, but for a government worker, small private entrepreneur, accountant, tiler, programmer, farmer, etc.
Total surveillance - the collection of information by large corporations (Google, Facebook, etc.) through Internet resources or by government through wiretapping of phones or SMS (such as the NSA, which has analogues in one way or another in other countries).
I decided to ask the question because I often hear in the IT media about this very surveillance and how dangerous it is, etc., but I still don’t understand why it is dangerous for an ordinary person.

Answer 1

paranoia

Answer 2

1. Volume.
Believe it or not, but with a LARGE volume of data of the same type, you can build very surprising assumptions that may - suddenly - turn out to be true. Here is my favorite, very revealing example - an American schoolgirl hid her pregnancy, but ... Recently there was an article on Habré about analytics about which of the students will not go to the second year - according to the student pass card inside the campus :) Perhaps the most well-known - a map of patrol routes of the American army according to fitness trackers :D That is, by analyzing data that seems to be "nothing" simply due to their volume, you can reveal some thing that a person diligently hides (or maybe even does not know himself)
2. A leak
Careless storage, unscrupulous personnel, technical failures can lead to the fact that your data will be refused at all where it should not be. Parcels thrown away by the Russian Post, documents thrown into the trash by Sberbank - these are all real cases. And it's good if they just end up in the garbage, where only the homeless will laugh at them :) They may end up with people who treat you unkindly or just want to cash in. For example, I don’t know for sure whether dropbox admins look at client photos or whether whatsapp bots read correspondence in order to identify “keywords”. But since I don’t know for sure, I prefer to assume that they are watching and reading so as not to suddenly find someone’s photos on pornhub :)
3. Control
When the amount of data exceeds a certain threshold, it becomes possible not to assume what a person wants (and follow in the wake of his desires), but to direct his desires. Overtly or implicitly, in crude or imperceptible ways. And also to warn him not to do things that are undesirable for society. Officially, you do not work for several months - a reason for close attention to you by the police. He issued an IP - a reason for the close attention of the tax. Do you often receive packages from abroad? - the attention of both, and more likely, "polite people" from the same office :)

Answer 3

For a normal person who follows the laws, works and pays taxes, nothing is dangerous. The system needs ideal consumers - it will strive to keep them.
Do not feed paranoia - remember the principle of "Elusive Joe", which is elusive because no one needs it.

Answer 4

Well, I agree with abroabr.
There is another danger:
a) leakage ... nevertheless, the data is stored and processed somewhere
b) abuse of authority by the parties involved

Answer 5

You can see what a non-state structure can do with your data on the example of Cambridge Analytica
What has been done for many years, you can see in targeted advertising
If you don’t see the dangers in the above examples, then don’t worry