Once we decided it was OK to film strangers for every minuscule thing they do outside the norm, we lost the plot. People can’t kiss on a park bench without becoming the main characters of the day.
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Several years ago, I was boarding a plane to head back to New York City. The woman in front of me was on Facebook Live, detailing a disagreement she’d had with the American Airlines staff to anyone who would watch.
At one point, she and another traveler began arguing, all of which was recorded on the livestream. I vaguely remember thinking she had a point. But as she was detailing her frustration, she panned the camera on my face and asked me how my day was.
In the moment, I was too stunned to say I didn’t want to be in her video, or to simply put my hand up in front of my face. I simply responded to her question, then quickly scurried ahead to board the aircraft.
Living in the city, I’m constantly reminded that I could end up online at any point. I speed up on the street when I walk past someone taking a vertical video of themselves. I avoid the flash of iPhone cameras when I’m out at a bar. I notice when I’m at a coffee spot, and someone holds up their phone to record their hand reaching for their drink, a surefire sign of an influencer.
But not everyone is in the constant headspace to notice these things. I often come across videos online of unhoused people on the train, people having mental health crises or those who are otherwise acting outside the confines of what we have deemed “polite society.” A recent viral video of two people kissing in Central Park quickly led to the couple’s identification as lawyers at the same firm engaged in an act of infidelity.
It’s an ick, for sure. It’s also a symptom of the larger issue of mass surveillance becoming mainstream.
The fear of Big Brother watching you is not new – the very idea stems from a novel George Orwell published more than 75 years ago about a year that happened more than 40 years ago – but it is leaving the pages of sci-fi books and becoming our reality at an alarming rate.
In 2010, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg declared privacy a thing of the past. Since then, his company has become known for playing fast and loose with our data. And that’s just one example.
But it’s not just the powers that be surveilling us. We are also deciding to surveil one another, no matter the consequences in our own lives.
United States is quickly becoming a hub of public surveillance
Since the AI boom, companies have begun selling their surveillance services to anyone who will buy. The most satisfied customer seems to be the U.S. government.
Flock, a nationwide camera system for reading license plates powered by artificial intelligence, has recently been in the news for what happens when police officers misuse the technology. It doesn’t mean these cameras are disappearing any time soon – in fact, it seems that they’re poised to continue their national domination of the industry despite serious safety and accuracy concerns.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been partnering with AI companies to implement facial recognition technology and mapping software on the ground across the country in the hopes of terrorizing anyone who might be undocumented.
The new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently spoke about “abortion surveillance,” although it’s unclear if this means recording patients as they walk into clinics. The government has deals with tech companies to get your data if they really want it.
The private sector isn’t much better. A recent Wired article detailed the use of AI surveillance on concertgoers and performers at Madison Square Garden. The companies we work for are beginning to track our screen time to measure productivity. Companies like Amazon are using algorithms to bust unions. Grocery stores are implementing AI surveillance pricing, which will affect the price of a good you’re looking at depending on data from your shopping habits.
Americans seem to be very comfortable with this
Faceless corporations aren’t the only ones policing our behavior through mass surveillance. We are also creating the panopticon among ourselves.
It started with the Ring cameras – suddenly, everyone’s front porch was visible to the whole world, a small price to pay, supposedly, for peace of mind.
Then, once we decided it was OK to film strangers for every minuscule thing they do outside the norm, we lost the plot. People can’t even kiss on a park bench without becoming the main characters of the day.
This debate has been supercharged thanks to the rollout of Meta’s collaboration with Ray-Ban and Oakley, aptly called “mass surveillance predator glasses” on guerrilla posters showing up all over New York City.
The glasses typically have an LED light to show when they’re recording, but that light can be tampered with. Now we do not know when we are being filmed, something that brings up a whole new level of security concerns. Social media is rampant with videos of people not knowing they’re being recorded. It’s becoming the new norm.
Can the surveillance state be slowed down, or stopped?
The government could do something, and the authorities are – sort of. There seems to be bipartisan support for ending the use of surveillance pricing in grocery stores.
On the other hand, the U.S. government benefits from these surveillance tools. If the powers that be are not seeing the downsides to this issue, then it’s unlikely they’re going to ban surveillance technology.
Companies also don’t have the internal motivation to curb these practices. After all, surveillance is making them money, or at the very least not hurting their bottom line.
So what can we do as individuals? We can reject the idea that keeping tabs on one another through surveillance technology benefits us as people, when all it does is incentivize government and private companies to continue marketing this technology as a public good. We can call into question the use of cameras and artificial intelligence in our daily lives; we can opt out of a culture that calls on us to record our fellow man if we ourselves would not like to be documented.
Privacy could soon be a luxury only afforded to the wealthy. To combat this, we must all reject the idea that surveillance is safety.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social