A common response to digital surveillance is the ‘nothing to hide, nothing to fear’ (NTHNTF) argument, which suggests only those with something to hide should fear surveillance. While often critiqued, there is little engagement with what this narrative might mean for individuals who adopt it. Drawing on Solove (2007), this article explores how the NTHNTF argument is not automatically reflective of ignorance or apathy, as is commonly suggested. This paper explores primary qualitative data on 22 affluent technology users, to reveal patterns of ‘value calculus’, situated negotiation around parallel and competing kinds of value, from the perspective of technology users. While the ultimate practical result is acquiesces to surveillance, this acquiesces comes as a result of decision making heuristics that present unique, and potentially flawed, conceptualisations of value.

About the Presenter

Dr Ashlin Lee is an honorary lecturer in Sociology at the Australia National University, and a Social Architect and Research Scientist at the CSIRO. He was awarded his PhD in Sociology in 2016 from the University of Tasmania, where he was also an Associate Lecturer in Sociology. Before joining the CSIRO he was a User Research at the Digital Transformation Agency, and a Performance Auditor with the Australian National Audit Office.

Ashlin's work has been published in Surveillance and Society, Journal of Sociology, and on The Conversation. His work explores the intersection of society, data, and technology and the implementation of these intersections in everyday life, such as in digital surveillance and through the emergence of data driven systems (artificial intelligence, algorithms, automation).