13 hours ago
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We have a habit of dismissing social media trends as inane and vapid while ignoring the disturbing undercurrent. A few weeks ago I was reminded of that when I saw an Instagram carousel by British fashion personality Alexa Chung. Shared with her 6 million followers, she showed different outfits through screenshots of herself entering and leaving her home on her security camera. Rita Ora commented, “Good angle keep this series going”. Security system company Ring commented, “Fit checks on Ring cam? Next level.”
The post caught my eye among the feed of curated noise, a counterculture take on the traditional iPhone outfit photo. Its presumed effortlessness felt intimate and off the cuff. Social media loves that sort of thing.
But something about it didn’t sit right with me. The fish-eyed lens and zoom-in and zoom-out icons made me feel voyeuristic, like I was stumbling on private footage I shouldn’t be seeing. Maybe that’s exactly what it was.
It called to mind Ring’s dystopian Super Bowl ad from earlier this year. The story of finding a lost dog using neighbours’ Ring cameras and AI tools was intended to pull at heartstrings. Instead, it was a revealing confession of how the Amazon-owned tech company leeches itself on to communities. Its ability to use facial recognition software, not to mention how it partners with local law enforcement, is deeply concerning.
On TV, we’re sold heartwarming stories about pets found via private cameras. On social media, we see influencers turn security footage into “fit checks”. In our suburbs, we face hyper-surveillance in our grocery store chains.
At the same time, there’s been a rise in in-home CCTV social media content and people modifying old CCTV cameras for personal use. We now don’t blink an eye at strangers being filmed in public. Taken individually, we might not like these content styles. Lump them together, and they point to a larger question: are we normalising tech surveillance?
It was all but confirmed when Meta unveiled its new line of AI glasses in late June. The Meta Glasses have built-in cameras, speakers and microphones, letting wearers livestream directly to social media, take hands-free photos, videos and phone calls, listen to music and access Meta AI.
The safety and privacy concerns write themselves. Inconspicuous wearable tech that can record people without their knowledge puts others – particularly girls and women – at risk of indecent filming.
New innovations bring new concerns. Known as “stealth mode”, there are tech modders (modifiers) who turn a profit by disabling Meta Glasses’ recording light. We’ve previously seen the same thing happen with drones and listening devices, with legislation changing accordingly.
Meta chose to launch with Kylie Jenner as the face of the product. The celebrity supposedly co-designed the frames and even licensed her voice to soundtrack Meta AI’s assistant. “We partnered with Kylie. She’s such a fashion icon that it was just really fun getting a chance to work on this with her,” Mark Zuckerberg said in an Instagram Reel. “We love a tech moment,” Jenner says in the following cut in the same reel.
Here you have a 28-year-old reality TV star mostly known for her lip kits and Instagram posts promoting invasive tech through the lens of style. Surveillance and privacy issues (even the tech itself) are skirted; instead, its fashion aesthetic is framed as the drawcard.
This redirection is intentional. In branding these AI glasses as aspirational, cool and fashion-forward, tech elites are trying to pacify their entry into the mainstream world. The marketing collateral featuring Jenner and the glasses reads more like a fashion editorial photoshoot than a tech product launch. It’s all deliberate.
The marketing has been distinctly feminised, too. Alongside Jenner, DJ Peggy Gou and fashion influencers Victoria Paris and Lara Bussmann are just some of the public figures tapped to promote the frames for money. Win the approval of the fashion world, and the rest will follow.
Choosing to “empower” women – who are disproportionately the victims of sexual harassment and non-consensual filming – with this intrusive tech seems manipulative. Just last month, Meta was exposed by Wired for quietly incorporating facial recognition technology into its Meta AI app. The code, known internally as NameTag, allegedly can identify people captured by Meta Glasses. Meta deleted the code after the news broke but it’s unclear when and if this tech will return. That’s horrifying to me.
I used to love taking selfies in the security camera screens of grocery stores (I’m Gen Z after all!) but now it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. What was once trivial and quirky to me is deeply serious, as surveillance is increasingly part of our daily lives. Coles’ partnership with the US spy tech company Palantir on security methods such as smart gates and in-aisle motion sensors is just one example of this.
Big tech and big surveillance think they can get away with it because they are. Palantir even has a lifestyle merch brand, complete with chore coats and caps.
We’re in a modern panopticon, willing participants in our own policing. I don’t want to see surveillance tech continue to get the Instagram treatment. I don’t want to see it be rebranded into something harmless, or worse, glamourised as chic.
