Under watchful eyes, by Roderick Thomas

Every day we share ourselves, our thoughts, our preferences knowingly and unknowingly across the web and elsewhere, leaving our digital footprints behind. But why should we care?

The first decade of the 2000s saw the birth of several current-day digital marquees: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google. In 2006, I remember uploading pictures and posting status updates on Myspace, the most popular social network at the time – periodically reorganizing my Top Friends. The social media boom ran almost concurrent with the mass expansion of mobile technology. And while the association of digital expansion with Millennials and Gen Z is understandable, it would be a mistake to dismiss concerns regarding the misuse of digital footprints as a problem for these kids nowadays – the concerns apply to everyone. Surveillance capitalism is why you should care.

Surveillance capitalism involves the collection, analysis, selling and buying of personal data and information. It is by no means limited to any generational cohort, nor is it limited to just technology companies. Today, when using nearly all apps, digital products and services, we agree to giving companies our information through lengthy privacy policies and terms and conditions that are almost never read.

As a common practice, the information we offer is used in training models for AI technology. Data surpluses that were once considered “waste” at the dawn of the 2000s are now gold. Your commute to work, pictures, voice, likes, shares, opinions, etc., are funneled through complex algorithms that produce rich, predictive information that companies then sell to other parties. Surveillance capitalism fuels an entire hidden market, hidden by the veil of “providing convenience,” and we’ve all bought into it.

Tech giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook, to name a few, are parent companies to many other giant subsidiaries: Facebook’s Instagram and Whatsapp, Google’s YouTube. There is seemingly no escaping the gaze of digital surveillance. While most privacy infractions go unnoticed, security breaches occur more frequently than one would think.

Early last year, Google finally acquiesced to concerns about the discovery of a built-in microphone in its home device, Nest. Google did not reference the microphone in any Nest diagrams or manuals at the time. Remember Cambridge Analytica? The “analytics” company that stole the data of 87 million users through a third-party Facebook app? In April 2020, a Federal judge approved an unprecedented $5 billion settlement to be paid to the US Federal Trade Commission by Facebook.

Also, this year, Facebook settled an Illinois class action lawsuit regarding the misuse of its facial recognition technology for over half a billion dollars. No one was being harmed, facial recognition doesn’t count as biometrics data, Facebook argued.

Social psychologist, author and Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff discusses many of her findings and concerns in interviews and in her book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.

“We think the only information they have about us is what we give them. The information we provide is the least important part about what they collect from us – it’s the inferences, the residual data that matter most. Surveillance capitalism is an economic logic, it is not the same as technology. Loss of your privacy is not an inevitable outcome of technological advancement. We are going to need a response that outlaws it. Most of these apps are shunting information to third parties, who feed your information primarily to either Facebook or Google,” Zuboff said.

 Zuboff has also discussed the “shadow intention” behind Google-backed Niantic’s Pokemon Go. Zuboff states that Pokemon Go’s location-driven catching and training of fictional creatures was a fun distraction for the sale of your footsteps to businesses: the guarantee of your body in a location. The understanding and manipulation of users’ psychology is a vital component to the surveillance market. The use of rewards, propaganda and gamification tactics, in essence, creates a zoo for humans, without us recognizing we’re the exhibit.

I recently spoke with the chief operating officer of GetGlobal International, an international data privacy consulting company. COO Marcio Cotts shared his thoughts on surveillance capitalism from an international perspective.

Roderick: When thinking about surveillance capitalism, how do you see other governments handling this in their respective countries?

Marcio: Many countries have regulated the use of personal data. In Europe for instance, they have the GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation. Brazil has passed into law its General Data Protection Law as well.

Now, in the US there are some sectoral regulations, and the state of California was the first state to have a comprehensive data privacy law, CCPA. However, the European GDPR and the Brazilian LGPD are more restrictive on the use of personal data by businesses.

Roderick: What can be done to control the selling of our personal information?

Marcio: Well, in Europe and Brazil the individuals or data subject can decide what companies can and cannot do with their personal data.

In California, as far as I know, based on the premise that people desire privacy and more control over their information, the law ensures Californians five rights, including the right to say no to the sale of personal information. I’m not sure about other states.

Roderick: Is there any way to protect ourselves legally?

Marcio: Data protection laws are needed to solve these problems, and digital education is the key. People need to know their rights.

Today, the infamous Cambridge Analytica is a company named SCL Elections, yet another analytics company – eerie to say the least. The age of digital surveillance and surveillance capitalism has unfortunately changed the concept of privacy. Surveillance capitalism is particularly pernicious because it combines an insatiable need for data, with an eclipsing thirst for money. Concern over privacy can’t simply be about anonymity anymore; it’s about access to our psychology at the deepest levels – digital footprints turned into digital DNA.

Roderick Thomas is an NYC-based writer and filmmaker and the host of the Hippie By Accident podcast (Instagram: @Hippiebyaccident; email: [email protected]; site: roderickthomas.net).