Are you being watched? Smartphones and surveillance.
It takes 32 hours to read all of the terms and conditions for the apps of an average phone . The T&Cs on iTunes alone are the length of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1). What do we miss about our privacy as we readily accept the contracts of apps and online accounts? We increasingly experience strange moments when our phone ads seem to reflect exactly what we want, and even align with our new geo-location when we travel abroad. So what exactly do our smartphones know and how are they being used?
Personal data is argued to be worth more than oil. The Economist argue that smartphones and the internet have been instrumental in this transformation, making data ‘abundant, ubiquitous and far more valuable’ (2). Technology came with the promise to help us navigate our lives and the choices that we make. But slowly it’s becoming the choices of the technology industry that influence what we do and think. James Williams speaks from his years of experience working at Google, and explains that when ‘most people in society use your product, you aren’t just designing users; you’re designing society’ (3).
Liverpool Albert Dock, Smartphones and Surveillance (2020) Warren-Smith
In 2019, New York Times obtained a file, which they deemed as ‘the largest and most sensitive ever to be reviewed by journalists’ (4). Secretly released by workers from a location data company, the file revealed more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of over 12 million Americans. The company, like many other organisations, collects the exact whereabouts of individuals through software embedded within mobile phone apps. You consent for this data to be accessed when you agree to share your location in an app.
As the reporters studied the live dots of smartphones on a map, they found it fairly simple to calculate who the dots resembled. A simple trip from home to work is enough to identify a person. Location data gave away hugely personal information, from evidence of drug addiction, records of visits to psychological facilities, to hints of faltering marriages. The policies which lay a foundation for these types of companies, justify their business on the basis of three claims: ‘people consent to be tracked, the data is anonymous and the data is secure’. The reporters laughed in response as they proved each one of these statements to be far from the truth.
Technology came with the promise to help us navigate our lives and the choices that we make. But slowly it’s becoming the choices of the technology industry that influence what we do and think.
In my last article, I discussed the impact of smartphones on our sense of location and relationship with physical space. The smartphone enabled the mobilisation of our personal and professional lives to our live location. As Kevin Slavin once said in a technology conference, ‘we are always in the centre of the map’ (5). But what happens when this map is no longer ours, and is released to the hands of the tech giants? Smartphones aren’t just tools for users, they are surveillance machines used to shape our behaviour. Are we prepared for our personal data to be utilised by these organisations, so that they can achieve their sole goal of making capital off our decisions?
In the documentary ‘The Great Hack’, data activist David Carroll, fights to claim back his data from Cambridge Analytica, the infamous political consulting firm (6). The company abused the rights of 87 million Facebook users, improperly mining their data to influence the 2016 United States presidential election. Through the guise of a psychological questionnaire, users were invited to answer several questions to summarise their personality, but not before granting permission to access their Facebook profile. This not only revealed the details of user’s historical activity and personal details, but their friends too.
Access to their Facebook profiles gave the company the information they needed, to create individual psychological profiles of American voters. In their contract and pledge to Trump, the company utilised this information improperly to manipulate this so called democratic election. Even more troubling, or at least personally relevant to the United Kingdom, Cambridge Analytica were found to work for the Leave.EU Brexit campaign, although to this day, the company still refuses to admit their part.
Commenting on the UK’s recent election, George Monbiot discusses the influence of the media on the final results (7). As he analyses our world’s current leaders, from Scott Morrison to Boris Johnson, he argues that they have cracked the formula to influence society, utilising the billionaire press to persuade the poor with the values of the rich. He argues that to resist this formula we must build our skills in digital literacy, which empower individuals with the knowledge to resist dark ads, fake news, and the epiphany of lies which exist online.
At the crux of these manipulations, is how the human brain is so easily targetable. Online marketing techniques are driven by expertise knowledge in psychological tactics, playing with the weaknesses that we all possess. James Williams comments on the relationship between attention and the online economy:
‘If we accept this broader view of attention as something akin to the operation of the human will, and we pair it with an understanding of the centrality of the human will for politics, then it’s hard to avoid viewing the attention economy as a project that ultimately targets and shapes the foundations of our politics. It is not merely the user, but indeed the citizen is the product’ (3).
And as we invest more and more of our time into increasingly digitised practices, we consent for our personal data to be accessed by countless organisations. It is the information they collect which informs their psychological games, and which eventually drive us to change our habits, values and decisions.
Next time you download a new free app, question what they could be gaining from your use of their product. If they’re not receiving your money, remember that your personal data is worth more than oil. Your information could be harvested, sold and used against your own will. Although a dramatic end to this article, I hope that like me, these examples are enough to get you thinking seriously about your online privacy.
References
1. Children’s Commissioner (2017) Growing up Digital, a report of the growing up digital taskforce. Available online.
2. No Author (2017) The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. The Economist. Available online.
3. Williams, J (2018) Stand out of our light : freedom and resistance in the attention economy. Cambridge University Press.
4. Thompson, S., Warzel, C (2019) Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy. New York Times. Available online.
5. Bilton, N (2010) I live in the future & here’s how it works. Crown Business.
6. The Great Hack (2019) [online]. Amer, K., Noujaim, J. United States. [Accessed 26th January 2020]. Netflix.
7. Why Labour Lost: Oligarchs are Gaming Democracy. George Monbiot. (2019). YouTube Video. Double Down News. [online]. Available online.
