Invasive behaviour that would have shocked us a decade ago now barely registers. And that includes the way we digitally track and monitor each other
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TikTok comedian recently launched a fake ICE tip line and received dozens of calls – including one from a teacher suggesting agents look into a kindergartener in her class. Governments and companies are the architects of surveillance culture, but civilians are increasingly keen to play a part. And it’s not just our perceived political enemies we’re willing to watch. It’s our friends, neighbours, partners and children.
As corporations and governments tunnel further into our digital lives – hoarding information about where we shop, who we know and what we believe – we’ve grown increasingly comfortable demanding the same access in our personal lives. While multiple apps log our location throughout the day, we demand that our friends also share their real-time movements through Apple’s Find My feature. While OpenAI uses our chat logs to train its models, we peek into the text messages of our partners. And while Palantir analyses social media data to help ICE identify its targets, we record strangers in public without their consent.
Indeed, invasive behaviour that would have shocked us a decade ago now barely registers. I think of the young man I spoke to who had a new co-worker request that he share his location indefinitely because the man “just liked to know where people are”. Or the young woman who parked outside her boyfriend’s house to hack into his text messages using her car’s Bluetooth.
