That's not comparable to Russia today. Now there are surveillance cameras, internet surveillance and machine learning, but not back then.

Also it wouldn't have happened hadn't it been for Gorbatjov who introduced the glasnost (transparency) policy reform. Another Stalin, and history would have looked different.

I did not intend it as a serious point. However, the Zuboffian trade that you mention will end in most of the species having no autonomy left to trade for comfort, completing a historical trend: land ownership for service access, self-sufficiency for product quality et cetera