If the design of the panoptic prison influences prisoners to discipline themselves, the electronic version could tell people how to view themselves. Once a person is strapped into a straitjacket of self-identification, it doesn't cost much to control his or her behavior. Corporations are keen to exercise such power because it helps them influence what people buy. In the absence of an Orwellian government, corporations will control the Panopticon. Already television ads tell us who we should be and what products we need to be that person.
Shopping becomes a pastime.
It is controlled by the invisible exercise of corporate power. This is the key to understanding the politics of the Information Age. Many North Americans are aware technology could pose a threat to personal privacy. But those paid to think about the impacts of the information age, have for years been warning of other major concerns. It is power gains of bureaucracies, both private and public, at the expense of individuals and the non-organized sectors of society, by means of gathering information through direct observation and by means of intensive record keeping.