UNVEILING TECHNOLOGICAL ARCANES: ALGORITHMIC ETHICS IN THE INFORMACIONAL STATE

Abstract

Introduction: the information surveillance diffuse practices by state institutions and
 large corporations of the 21st century run into issues and dilemmas related to the
 networked information such as the various forms of opacity, individuals’ privacy, and
 governance systems. Objective: we propose the idea of "technological arcanes" to
 understand the secrets tangled in the networked society, in order to promote a debate
 that includes contemporary themes related to information ethics. Methodology:
 through a bibliographic review, we explore the context of informational state
 surveillance and the “panspectron” model; the notion of secrecy by the social
 perspective and by the approach of cyberactivism; and the ethical dimension that
 permeates the presence of algorithms in digital networks. Results: we see that the
 technological sophistication and complexity involved in the global governance process
 of cyberspace constitute a new and unknown sociopolitical sphere. In this sense,
 effective forms of resistance such as counter-vigilance strategies, leaks of official
 documents by cyberactivists, media actions in specific cases, and measures for
 accountability by society emerge. Conclusions: a pragmatic ethics of algorithms
 should highlight accountability to society by both state and non-state actors. Digital
 realms made up of internet oligopolies need to accept the same burden of liability they
 require of individuals, making it imperative to raise everyone's awareness of the power
 structures that pass through the "technological arcanes".