Abstract

RAMOS-ZAGA, Fernando. The Paradox of Security and Freedom in the Digital Age: A Critical Analysis from Biopolitical and Philosophical Perspectives. Rev. secr. Trib. perm. revis. [online]. 2026, vol.14, n.23, e568.  Epub Feb 23, 2026. ISSN 2304-7887.  https://doi.org/10.16890/rstpr.a14.n23.e568.

Abstract: The tension between security and freedom constitutes one of the fundamental dilemmas of contemporary societies, exponentially intensified by the advent of mass digital surveillance technologies. This work critically examines this paradox from biopolitical and philosophical theoretical frameworks, arguing that contemporary digital architectures do not simply balance security and freedom but radically reconfigure the very modalities of governmental power and individual subjectivity. Through an analysis that integrates Foucauldian concepts of biopolitics and governmentality with contemporary perspectives on digital surveillance, it is argued that the current security paradigm operates through preventive control mechanisms that transcend traditional disciplinary forms. The research explores how predictive algorithms, facial recognition systems, and mass datification platforms construct visibility regimes where freedom is simultaneously proclaimed and eroded. It is argued that this paradox represents not an accidental contradiction but a structural feature of surveillance capitalism, where the extraction of biometric and behavioral data constitutes both the means of control and the economic foundation of digital platforms. The conclusions suggest that resolving this tension requires fundamentally rethinking the political categories inherited from early modernity, developing normative frameworks capable of protecting individual autonomy without succumbing to illusions of total transparency or absolute security.

Keywords : Biopolitics; Digital surveillance; Governmentality; Freedom; Security; Surveillance capitalism.

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