I saw you on the Kiss Cam at the Coldplay concert.

Last week, two executives who worked together were caught on camera at a concert where they were acting like more than colleagues. This probably isn't news to you, because this story is everywhere. It's been remixed by brands for social engagement, acted as the subject for late-night shows, and appeared in the headlines of every major news publication. The story has caused such a scandal that the CEO has already resigned after the company stated they'd launch a formal investigation.

I'm not going to focus on the actions of the two people involved, because quite frankly, it's none of my business, and it's most likely not yours, either. But it feels like our business because of the way surveillance has become part of popular culture, and how smartphones empower us to tell other people's stories without the care they deserve.

The moment in question was first captured on a kiss cam, video technology used to feature audience members on a Jumbotron in the arena. Kiss cams give fans a harmless few minutes of fame within the arena, and make the audience feel more connected to the entertainment they're seeing. In this concert's case, it seems like Coldplay uses them to create interaction between the artists and their audience, fostering a deeper sense of intimacy in a massive venue. Kiss cam content can certainly cause harm or embarrassment to those featured within that space, but when it was popularized in the 1980s, it wasn't designed to be cultural artifacts that live in perpetuity in a much larger arena. And yet, because of a video recorded at the event, that moment became public.

We know about it because of a more insidious form of surveillance technology – the smartphones in our pockets, and specifically, how we choose to wield them. One person at the concert was recording the kiss cam when the moment popped up, and chose to post it on TikTok, where it's generated over 100 million views, making a fleeting moment last far longer than the concert itself. We've become quite comfortable filming interactions between strangers and sharing them with our audiences, often without knowing the context. Some of these interactions are filmed to record unsafe and inappropriate behavior, which can help document abuse or help victims locate and identify those who have caused them harm. User-generated recordings of police brutality or state-sanctioned violence have helped to build awareness, shift public perception, and demand accountability.

But there's a collective eagerness to capture and display strangers beyond matters of justice and public safety, whether it's to gain social capital, boost awareness, make money, or simply share a moment we found resonant. Regardless of the reason, we've normalized that it's okay to share others' experiences with our own communities. Their behaviors, which are likely appropriate and contextually relevant to themselves and their communities, are now available to be judged on a public stage. This isn't a conversation; those in the spotlight are rarely given a chance to respond or add context; their story has been taken from them, and their perspective isn't given a stage. It's more akin to a witch hunt than a trial, a social execution of character led by likes and comments. This has caused severe harm, even sparking physical violence. 

More dangerously, these practices normalize this form of surveillance led not by people, but institutions with their own agendas. Workplaces are monitoring employees to determine how productive and effective they are. Surveillance footage is being used to track and incriminate people who participate in public protests. Cities are adopting surveillance tech as a form of policing, using drones, cameras and AI-powered facial recognition to monitor its population. Anti-abortion legislation in states across the country uses apps and consumer data to be weaponized to criminalize those seeking or providing abortion care. The Trump administration is exploiting new surveillance technologies to propel its unethical anti-immigration campaign and boost deportations.  In the age of digital technology and the ease of video recording, our privacy is becoming a thing of the past.

As our privacy becomes less protected by the systems and structures around us, what can we as people do to preserve it for each other? And how can we model the discretion required to preserve each other’s dignity? If we can’t learn how to do that for each other, we won’t be able to understand when it’s being weaponized against us, especially marginalized communities, by larger, more intentionally destructive forces. This spectacle has encouraged the public to judge the actions of two people, whose actions were shared with the masses beyond their consent. What we weren’t prompted to do was consider the actions of those who create and capitalize on our diminishing privacy.

• Support the work of S.T.O.P., the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, which fights to end discriminatory surveillance – both individual misconduct and broader systemic failures. 

• Read these resources provided by the ACLU to fight for the right to privacy.

• Learn why data privacy is imperative for communities of color.

• Read how the response to 9/11 normalized discriminatory surveillance against Muslim communities, and its ongoing imapct.

• Read how surveillance and data-sharing is used in immigration enforcement.

• For more books on surveillance technology, read The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff or Citizen Spies: The Long Rise of America's Surveillance Society by Joshua Reeves.

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HEALTH

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IMMIGRATION

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ENVIRONMENT

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