ALGORITHMIC GOVERNMENTALITY AND THE THREAT TO PERSONALITY'S RIGHT TO FREEDOM IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Abstract

This paper discusses the tension between the personal right to freedom and the control inscribed in algorithmic governmentality and strategies of surveillance and power in the technological society, and asks: under what conditions is it possible to affirm the existence of a new technique of power and government based on surveillance capitalism and algorithmic governmentality? To what extent this power mechanism represents tensions to the general right to freedom? The hypothesis is that the technologies used in social media, based on Big Data, represent a new form of power and represent tensions and threats to the general right to freedom. The general objective is to analyze the forms of power and control in the technological society from the point of view of governmentality and the tensions to the right to freedom. The first section brings a brief evolution of control techniques based on Michel Foucault’s ideas about power and governmentality. Then, the second section analyzes Rouvroy’s algorithmic governmentality and Zuboff’s surveillance capitalism, and investigates the techniques of power to control subjects in the technological society. The final section discusses the tensions with the right to freedom. This paper uses the hypothetical-deductive method and the research technique of literature and document review.