Etymology

You may wonder where the name of this software came from. It's a Greek work meaning "all-seeing" and there's a story behind choosing it.

When planning this software I wanted its name to remind the user its purpose: something which constantly watches. It turns out there was something similar in Greek mythology: the giant Argos, also known as Panoptis (all-seeing). According to the myth, Hera tasked him with guarding Zeus' lover, Io, after she was transformed to a cow by Hera upon finding out about their affair. The giant was said to have a hundred eyes arrayed around his head, only half of which would be asleep at a given time. He was a constant watcher of everything around him.

That was a perfect analogy, so I decided to call my software Panoptis. However, I had two problems. The first problem was that trying to design a logo with a head full of eyes was both beyond my (nearly non-existent) artistic abilities, and very spooky. The other problem is that while Panoptis sounds perfectly fine to my Greek ears, the same cannot be said for non-Greek people. I could foresee people pronouncing the last syllable as "-ice" instead of the correct "-eesh".

It turns out, I was not the only person fascinated by this myth. 18th century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham was apparently inspired by Argos the Panoptis, designing a monitoring system he called the Panopticon. In his design, there is a central tower which looks upon the subjects to be monitored, arrayed around it in a circular fashion. If that's a dead ringer to the Greek myth you'd be right; this would not be the last time an Englishman stole ancient Greek stuff and presents it as his own. But I digress. Originally described as a prison system, Bentham insisted it could be used wherever constant monitoring is required such as schools, factory floors, etc.

The word "panopticon" has since been used to describe constant surveillance, usually with a negative connotation. Being able to take back a perfectly fine Greek word to describe software which is meant to restore privacy in site monitoring was delightfully mischievous, so I decided to go with it. Added bonus, it was much easier designing a logo that looks like a watchtower.