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1/n In my new book, Technologies of Speculation, I talk about 'control creep': data surveillance justified for one purpose is inevitably repurposed elsewhere.
Exhibit A: Self-tracking & Internet of Things, 2007-Today. http://tiny.cc/TSbook
Exhibit A: Self-tracking & Internet of Things, 2007-Today. http://tiny.cc/TSbook
2/n Self-tracking technology took off as a promise that you'll own your data & use it to really understand who you are. But the massive popularity of this tech has also made it a golden goose for surveillance capitalism, opening up new frontiers of profit & manipulation.
3/n Remember when Fitbit was just a plucky startup? That was 2007, the year the Quantified Self community launched. Track your exercise and calories, live a healthier life on your own terms.
There was even a digital flower that would grow if you were doing the right things!
There was even a digital flower that would grow if you were doing the right things!
4/n But even the data’s ‘primary’ use is questionable – hence the class-action lawsuit alleging Fitbit misrepresented heart rate tracking accuracy. After all, what’s 33m in settlement fees when those big promises got you all that $ to begin with? https://time.com/4344675/fitbit-lawsuit-heart-rate-accuracy/
5/n And the data always travels. By mid-2010's, Fitbit’s partnering w/ insurance companies. One is John Hancock, which now sells *only* data-sharing ‘interactive’ policies.
Like smartphones, there's increasingly no effective choice to opt out.
Like smartphones, there's increasingly no effective choice to opt out.
6/n Obvious next step is obvious: employers who hand out free fitbits, can use those fitbits to spy on employee health. Bosses look at your steps & workout data.
Lots more on this in @phoebemoore’s book The Quantified Self in Precarity as well. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/with-fitness-trackers-in-the-workplace-bosses-can-monitor-your-every-step--and-possibly-more/2019/02/15/75ee0848-2a45-11e9-b011-d8500644dc98_story.html
Lots more on this in @phoebemoore’s book The Quantified Self in Precarity as well. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/with-fitness-trackers-in-the-workplace-bosses-can-monitor-your-every-step--and-possibly-more/2019/02/15/75ee0848-2a45-11e9-b011-d8500644dc98_story.html
7/n Such control creep also enables what @karen_ec_levy @s010n call refractive surveillance. E.g a retailer may be banned from directly surveilling workers, but gather enough customer location data & they can easily triangulate worker movements through it.
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/7041/
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/7041/
8/n The book also touches on Amazon's patent for tracking wristbands.
The 'primary' purpose? It pings warehouse workers when their hand is near the right item. Efficiency!
The horizon of potential use? Intensified worker surveillance. Efficiency!
The 'primary' purpose? It pings warehouse workers when their hand is near the right item. Efficiency!
The horizon of potential use? Intensified worker surveillance. Efficiency!
9/n All this control creep in self-tracking that I talk about in the book mirrors what researchers have shown re. smart cities ( @jathansadowski) emotion surveillance ( @luke_stark) & algorithmic scoring ( @FrankPasquale).
The data always travels, & always finds new uses.
The data always travels, & always finds new uses.
10/n In the book, I argue that for some, “datafication might seem an empowering choice, a sovereign and individual decision to walk boldly towards the posthuman future. For others, to appear correctly in databases can be the unhappy obligation on which their lives depend."
11/n A lot has happened since I finished the book. In 2019, Google bought Fitbit for a cool 2.1B$.
Such consolidation creates massive ecosystems for data extraction. That 2.1B$ is all for new ways of getting into people’s homes & under their skin. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fitbit-m-a-google/u-s-eu-advocacy-groups-warn-against-googles-purchase-of-fitbit-idUSKBN2430D4
Such consolidation creates massive ecosystems for data extraction. That 2.1B$ is all for new ways of getting into people’s homes & under their skin. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fitbit-m-a-google/u-s-eu-advocacy-groups-warn-against-googles-purchase-of-fitbit-idUSKBN2430D4
12/n When the data market takes charge of the process, they also make lopsided decisions about what kinds of data gets tracked and what doesn't.
Today, Amazon tracks Whole Foods employee movements to try and predict stores 'at risk' of unionising. https://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-tracks-unionization-risk-with-heat-map-2020-1
Today, Amazon tracks Whole Foods employee movements to try and predict stores 'at risk' of unionising. https://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-tracks-unionization-risk-with-heat-map-2020-1
13/n At the same time, Amazon won't even count and report the data on how many warehouse workers tested positive for COVID because the data 'makes no difference and makes employees fearful'.
Different kinds of data for different kinds of bodies. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/technology/amazon-coronavirus-workers.html
Different kinds of data for different kinds of bodies. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/technology/amazon-coronavirus-workers.html
14/n I get into these forms of control creep & more in Technologies of Speculation: The limits of knowledge in a data-driven society, out this month!
If you order on the NYU Press website, use code HONG30 for 30% off. https://nyupress.org/9781479883066/technologies-of-speculation/
If you order on the NYU Press website, use code HONG30 for 30% off. https://nyupress.org/9781479883066/technologies-of-speculation/
