Wearables will supercharge the surveillance state
Wearables are becoming a serious threat to our privacy.
Our private lives have been under threat for many years now, and it seems every new piece of technology creates more privacy problems. This is true of AI, and it's unquestionably true of the growing number of wearables that are hitting the market.
We're talking about Meta's smart glasses, a product called Pocket that records and transcribes your conversations, AI pendants and more. While things like Alexa and smart appliances were concerning because they were in your home, these products are even more concerning because they follow you everywhere you go.
Much has been written about how creepy these products are, and how Meta's smart glasses might be utilized by sex pests is certainly worth discussing, but less attention has been given to how these wearables could empower the surveillance state. The more cameras and recording devices we have out in the world, the more the government can collect information on us.
You might be thinking, "We already take our smartphones everywhere," but I don't constantly have my phone camera pointed at the world. I don't have AI transcribing all of my conversations throughout the day. What’s happening right now does feel like an acceleration of the erosion of our privacy.
"Surveillance is a tool of power. It could easily become something that really exacerbates existing issues," Matthew Guariglia, a senior policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells me. "Whenever you collect any data for any reason, eventually there will come a time when the government will try to get access to that data, whether it is your home security devices, your smart home appliances or wearable technology that collects voice or biometric information."
Thor Benson
My concern is that these wearables could become something like the Ring doorbell cameras so many people have. You get one because they're popular and solve a problem, like package theft, but then law enforcement starts using them to spy on people.
"If devices start getting smaller and smaller and are designed to not be seen, I think that would be a concerning development," Guariglia says. "There are certainly more [wearables] on the market, and they're becoming increasingly accessible."
Something that used to be a problem for law enforcement agencies is that they could collect a ton of data from the public, but they couldn't always use it in the ways they wanted to. There was too much of it, and sifting through that data took a lot of time and energy. Artificial intelligence might eliminate that problem because it can search through the data for them.
"There was a labor and time problem with mass surveillance—with hundreds and hundreds of hours of data—where somebody actually had to sit down and watch all of it. That is becoming less of a problem with AI," Guariglia says.
Fortunately, there is something we can do about these issues: Congress can pass a consumer privacy bill. Unfortunately, Congress has refused to do that for quite some time. Perhaps the people need to get a little bit louder about their desire for more privacy.
"As more and more data-consuming technology is put on the market, the need for actual consumer privacy laws in America will become more apparent. We need governance around how that data is stored, how it's collected, more transparency about when devices are recording, the ability for people to maybe request that the company erase that data," Guariglia says. "I don't know if they're quite aware of how prevalent this is going to be."
