Today's #dailysignal looks at luxury surveillance - those little expensive technological vampires that we invite into our home that we can't get rid of once we do.
The ankle monitors (sorry, "fitness trackers" we voluntarily attach to our limbs for health purposes, and the not-so-friendly neighbourhood surveillance cameras we install in and on our homes fall into this category : opt in paid for tracking of our day to day lives.
But what happens to the (very, very personal) data that's being tracked? It lives on a cloud controlled by a for-profit company subject to shareholder incentives and government demands that may be in conflict with your own personal best interests. For example, in the case linked below, Amazon informed him that they were being forced to hand over his in-home Ring footage to the law, because of a suspected crime on his neighbours property...
Again, I ask - what does personal pricing mean in the face of the greater good?
How is the (opt in) "surveillance capitalism" economy balancing private and social rights and responsibilities (or is it)?
Who is watching the shift from opt in to no-opt-out bio and in home surveillance?
I had a few thoughts a few years ago on Big Brother Businesses (back then, Western Big Brother went by the nickname of the FAANGS (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google and , now it's big MAMA (Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Apple) but the main ideas persist - what, exactly, have we invited into our homes and bodies in exchange for the illusion of control?) - but what do you think? Let me know!
Read more:
Big brother brands : https://heavychef.org/all-articles/2019/2/7/bronwyn-ruth-williams-how-big-brother-companies-are-shaping-society?format=amp
They’re like vampires (I was on this way back in 2019) :
The Ring : https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/07/privacy-loophole-ring-doorbell-00084979?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Luxury surveillance in the Atlantic : https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/10/amazon-tracking-devices-surveillance-state/671772/
They're like vampires, you have to invite them in