The myth of the free market survives because it suits those who profit from it. It intellectualises inequality as natural and adverts as information. It makes greed look like preference and extraction like efficiency. The sober truth is less flattering. Markets are made, not given. Choice is often scripted. If freedom matters then we must stop treating markets like a sacred black box and start designing them so they serve people rather than the other way round.

The private sector supplies the instruments and a compliant narrative. Amazon’s Ring panels and doorbell cameras have signed video sharing partnerships with hundreds of police departments. Home surveillance enters public policing not through law but through voluntary uploads, requests and corporate APIs. The idea of neighbourhood safety is reshaped so that private cameras become auxiliary arms of the state. Residents are solicited to trade footage and privacy for a promise of reduced crime. The promise is hollow if the footage expands state reach and is used selectively. The company’s business model profits from turning private property into node of a public surveillance web.