Is Big Tech Merging With Big Brother? Kinda Looks Like It

Technology companies are cooperating with foreign governments to create digital surveillance systems overseas.

China is implementing a “social rating system” with the help of data technology. Chinese citizens who make moves that please the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will end up in the “green channel,” enjoying eased access to employment, health care and travel opportunities. Meanwhile, those who displease the party will find their options limited in ways both big and small. For example, a person’s social rating affects whether they can leave China.

Citizens in Western countries may balk at the idea of a one-party government employing a system for social control, but their data is already collected, analyzed and sold for marketing purposes. The same US companies who currently sell user data in America are cozying up to foreign governments on more controversial projects. Google created Dragonfly for the Chinese government, a search engine that would curb access to information when a user searches for terms like “student protest” or “human rights.” 

Some tech company officers have protested surveillance...