We Do Not Need An Outside Entity to Erode Privacy We Do It to Ourselves: Internalized Casual Internet Surveillance in the United States and Brunei

Life in a tiny monarchy taught me how surveillance reshapes culture and the internet proves it everywhere

I lived in Brunei a couple of years. A country of less than half a million people where life felt compressed and everyone’s business felt like public knowledge. Surveillance was not just the job of the government. It was woven into daily life through family networks, tight communities and unspoken cultural norms. Schools, workplaces and neighborhoods were tightly connected. Almost everyone was related, went to school together or had known each other since childhood. Privacy was a luxury that did not exist in any meaningful sense. Even a small, ordinary action could travel quickly through those tight channels.

Freedom of expression was limited by design. You learned to keep certain opinions to yourself because the risks were obvious. Criticism of leadership or any public institution could damage your job prospects or create lasting problems for your family. Yet even in that environment, people found cracks in the system. The internet created an unexpected space for dissent. Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat and the rising TikTok were more than entertainment platforms. They became digital gathering places where people shared things they could not say aloud.