The movie In Time has excellent examples of unethical usage of government surveillance and information collection. The government of this world is the elite or wealthy people of society. They also work with law enforcement, called the “Timekeepers”, a dominant force that enforces strict laws and regulations around the distribution and accumulation of time. Those who cannot pay their debts or run out of time face punishment or in the latter case death.
The movie serves as a warning about the dangers of unchecked government power and the importance of privacy. In a world where every aspect of people's lives is controlled by the government, there is no room for individuality or freedom. The constant surveillance and lack of privacy make it impossible for people to express themselves or live their lives as they wish. We can see this through the bodyguards that follow the rich such as the Weiss family, and the strict surveillance of the poor. The Timekeepers are shown to have a map displaying the distribution of the time across all time zones, allowing them to see any drastic changes between zones. The TimeKeepers also use advanced facial recognition and surveillance to identify and track the location of suspects. Another measure of surveillance by the government is the usage of payphones in lower time zones. With no mobile communication devices, people have to use pay phones to communicate with one another away from one another. This is very restricting as both parties have to be at a payphone to converse and all payphones have surveillance cameras in the area. This causes people to not be in time to help out one another as seen by Will Salas’s mother passing away.
Furthermore, the government's control over time leads to a massive wealth disparity, with the wealthy hoarding time and the poor struggling to stay alive even though the wealthy have the resources to help the poor. This wealth gap further perpetuates the government's power and control over society.