‘Don’t look up!’ Older adults’ views on digital state surveillance: a cross-sectional multi-country study

In contemporary societies, older adults tend to be exposed to multiple forms of surveillance by different actors. However, studies exploring the surveillance of older adults tend to be limited to the contexts of care, protection and assistance, overlooking the relevance of state surveillance to this population. This study examined the predictors of older individuals’ perceptions regarding digital state surveillance. The data were collected from 1,495 individuals aged 60 years and older from Austria, Canada, Israel, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain. The results of multinomial logistic regression analysis show that older persons with stronger conspiracy ideation and higher levels of privacy-induced technostress were less likely to perceive the influence of state surveillance as positive or neutral. Israeli respondents stood out in their more positive approach towards digital state surveillance compared to participants from other countries. In addition, gender, age, education level, income and self-rated health were associated, in different ways, with older adults’ evaluation of the influence of digital state surveillance on them. By showing that half of the respondents believed that they are subject to state surveillance, this study diverges from the dominant scholarly contexts of care and protection to demonstrate the importance of digital state surveillance in the daily lives of older adults.