> Most of human civilization has been a pattern of small communities where everyone knew everyone. The privacy granted implicitly by anonymity is relatively new

> Most of human civilization has been a pattern of small communities where everyone knew everyone. The privacy granted implicitly by anonymity is relatively new I find that hard to believe. Teotihuacan (first example that came to mind) already had 100,000+ inhabitants around 1 to 500 CE, and according to Wikipedia it was only the sixth largest city. Regardless, I don't see why it's particularly important what cities were like during "most of human civilization" when discussing electronic suirveilance.