From supermarkets and streets to the comfort of your own home, surveillance technology is everywhere. Amid the widespread panic over America’s (now-postponed) TikTok ban, concerns regarding intrusions on privacy have erupted across social media.
A study published in Neuroscience of Consciousness found that when undergraduate students were asked to perform a task while being monitored by a series of faces looking at them, hyper-awareness was significantly increased compared to the non-monitored control group.
More interestingly, the study revealed a notable disconnect within the participants as they reported feeling relatively indifferent towards being monitored even though their brains very undoubtedly registered the surveillance.
This evidence highlights the normalisation of constant observation in the modern age – it is so deeply ingrained in our lives that we don’t think to question it. Nixon’s presidency was lost for wiretapping to spy on his opponent’s campaign in the 1972 Watergate scandal. Nowadays we willingly purchase Alexas, Echo Dots, etc. allowing corporations and governments to transform our homes into a marketplace of consumer behaviour to be harvested, analysed and then monetised. Timothee Chalamet was rather accurate in Ladybird when he said “the government didn’t have to put tracking devices on us. We bought them and put them on ourselves”.
There has always been a struggle with the balance between privacy and security. One could argue that technologies like CCTV are crucial in proving innocence and solving crimes. Research suggests that the awareness of being watched can elicit behavioural changes such as increased compassion or reduced likelihood of engaging in antisocial behaviour.
However, Randolph Lewis argues against this in his book Under Surveillance. He references the Kajieme Powell shooting, where the video footage doesn’t match the police account, to demonstrate that “what we get from his video is knowledge, not justice, not a preventive measure that stops the abuse”. The growth of CCTV in public spaces often enables racial profiling rather than protecting against it as minorities are persecuted more harshly with video evidence compared to white defendants. This is exacerbated more now in a world where accountability has been reduced to a notes app apology posted to an Instagram story rather than impactful legal consequences.
Ironically for a country whose foundations are rooted in ideologies like the American Dream and fiercely uphold the right to privacy, surveillance has become even more politically significant in the US. Donald Trump’s conservative agenda, including attempts at mass deportation of illegal immigrants is being backed by four of the richest men in America, all who are key drivers of the global tech industry.
Political influence in these technologies such as facial recognition and AI driven healthcare could lead to a level of heightened surveillance never seen before, submerging the state into a cultural panopticon governed by those with the intent of ruthless, efficient exploitation of a uniquely human psychological blind spot – our information.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk” by Thiện Ân is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.