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are they really able to claim to be democratic if they are analyzing and storing forever all this data without the informed and explicit consent of the surveilled?

I suggest that the number of people who are aware of the full extent of the scale of this surveillance AND have fully thought through all of the future implications of this comapred to the populations is a rounding error. A minority are capable of mouthing something cynical like "oh yeah they record everything." With no further thinking beyond that. Perhaps even here in this community.

Yes, they are able to. Democracy in no way prevents this level of surveillance, clearly. And in fact, the entire surveillance state/economy developed almost entirely under democratic governments. If you were to make any inference based on that alone, then, it would be that it at least enhances or enables it.

Democracy requires the consent of the governed, which I say is absent here.

Dictatorship can and has come out of democracy, this does not make dictatorship democratic.

As well as (current|fascist) governments!

welcome to November 6, 2024