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Venice wasn't a democracy in any meaningful way, either in the style of Greek democracy that preceded it or western liberal democracies that succeeded them. It was an oligarchy with limited democratic elements.

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Well, sure. But the Athenian-style Greek democracies were such an outrageous success that they're still a part of the common political discourse after 2,500 years and we still have things to learn from the stories they left us. I mean, not every democracy is going to achieve that level of success or quite that place in the public imagination.

What Venice had was pretty good compared to dictatorship.

It's worth noting that the popular conception of "Greek democracy" tends to ignore the massive caste of slaves that Greek city states had.

Tell me again how this applies to user privacy concerns?

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