Good God, that's me! Long before Google & co. there was the phone book. After I had my first telephone line installed, I looked myself up. There I was, that was my name, I knew I existed, I was someone, I was contactable.
It was similar to the sense of pleasure I felt when I first appeared on Google: there I was, for all the world to see. There are people who still Google themselves every day. Others set up e-mail alerts to let them know when their name comes up on the Internet - the service isn't called Google Alert for nothing. But you find that your mood changes over time and your initial euphoria about being traceable gives way to an oppressive sense of being caught in some or other act.
I blame Google's newest service, Street View. It creates the wonderful illusion of seeing streets of houses with our own eyes, of seeing the people who live in those houses or who just happen to be there at the time. Great - till it dawns on us with a start: "Good God, that's me! That's my house. Those are my rusty garden chairs and my geraniums, all covered in greenfly. I could be snapped knocking back wine after midnight with Peter Schneider, or kissing a complete stranger."
The Internet makes you paranoid. It thrives on the fact that we can look up anyone and anything and can stalk anyone - until we ourselves are stalked. We happily spy on others, but then complain when we are spied on. The voyeurism with which we trawl through the net comes back to bite us when we become the potential object of voyeurs.
Hence the almost heretical question: is surveillance really so terrible? For centuries the "Eye of God" kept watch over the world. It saw everything people did, thought or dreamt. Being constantly spied on by the cosmic Big Brother could be damned uncomfortable and there was nowhere to hide, but from a psychological point of view, it worked wonders. We all do it: when no-one's looking, we happily get up to all sorts, ducking and diving our way through life - until someone sees us. We flinch and think "God, someone can see me, everyone can see me - what am I doing? Do I really want that? Is that really me?"
Luckily, Google is a gentle god who doesn't issue punishments. He only observes. It's character building. Being conscious that others might be watching us makes us do what we do more courageously. Even if it's kissing a complete stranger in our garden.
Ludwig Hasler
Ludwig Hasler is one of the sharpest writers in the Swiss press. The university lecturer in philosophy and media theory was a chief editor at Weltwoche, and prior to that at the St Galler Tagblatt. He is also well-known as a longstanding columnist for the marketing and communications magazine, Persönlich. Ludwig Hasler writes a monthly column for Swisscom on the pleasures and pitfalls of the information society. The column obviously reflects his own personal opinion and may differ from Swisscom's position.
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