Is There a Society That Is Covered in Cameras and Microphones?

Paris Marx is joined by Chris Gilliard to discuss the ethics of tech media recommending surveillance devices, aspects of “smart” technologies you might not have considered, and why we should think twice about surrounding ourselves with cameras and microphones.

Chris Gilliard is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center. Follow Chris on Twitter at @hypervisible.

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Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Chris wrote about the history of home surveillance, and the concept of luxury surveillance with David Golumbia.
• Caroline Haskins went in-depth on what Ring does to communities.
• Health apps and fitness trackers help rich people but don’t do much for poor people.
• The New York Times thinks the Theranos scandal soured the media on Silicon Valley. (We don’t buy it.)
• US Infrastructure Bill will require monitoring systems for drunk driving in new vehicles as early as 2026.
• Amazon has worked to kill or undermine privacy legislation across 25 US states.
• In 2019, video circulated of a man talking to someone’s 8-year-old daughter after he hacked the Ring camera in her bedroom.
• In the US, wage theft matches all other property theft combined, but the media sensationalizes shoplifting while ignoring wage theft.
• Chris recommended people read Simone Brown’s Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness.
• The Wirecutter Union is asking people not to visit the website from November 25-29.

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