Threat to Privacy

Many people respond negatively to the prospect of a new technology. They might associate the invention with a dystopian future in science fiction movies. When a new technology emerges, people may react negatively to the change because they fear the potential consequences that the technology may bring about. One of these foreseeable threats is of users’ privacy.

The article I chose, “Say hello to the camera, goodbye to privacy”, describes a near future of tiny cameras attached to contact lenses and how this could threaten the privacy of others. Even the way that the title is written might leave a reader feeling out of control, threatened, and even apprehensive towards this new technology before opening the article. The first line of the article reads “Did he just wink at me, or was he turning on the contact lenses embedded in his eyes? You may have a reason to wonder [...]” (Robbins). This statement might instill a sense of paranoia in the reader, who imagines a future where they will not know whether or not they are being filmed by the people around them. In class, we read Nancy Baym's piece "Making New Sense of Media" which describes how people's reaction to new media is shaped by the technologies themselves, but also how people tend to think about new technology. Robbin's article connects to Baym’s piece when she argues that “The internet’s ability to store and replicate information without regard to its content leads to fears about what that content might include and how this power might be abused in harmful ways” (Baym, 2). Many people are already hesitant with including certain personal information online, for fear it will be stolen or misused, but the idea of hidden cameras recording everything brings about many more issues.

Further in the article, Robbins writes that “the U.S. has become a ‘shoot and share’ society that’s flooding social media with content that’s alternately sublime, endearing, trivial, violent, and an assault on privacy and civility” (Robbins). The reader may fear that with the introduction and potential popularity of contact lenses with cameras, their actions will be recorded without their knowing or approval and posted online. This fear of technology because it threatens one’s control connects to Baym’s piece which states “Dystopian reactions [to technology] emphasize fear of losing control, becoming dependent, and being unable to stop change” (Baym, 28). People might fear what they do not understand (the technology) and worry about how that will impact their everyday life.

Despite these anxieties and fears, there is no shortage today of social media users - in fact the business is booming. Robbins writes that “A 2016 survey led by the Newmark Foundation says that about 80 percent of Americans over the age of 18 use social media on a daily basis. But 95 percent of them have little or no confidence that social networking companies will protect the privacy of their data” (Robbins). Already, users have little trust in the social networking sites that they use to upload and share photos, videos, and personal information on. When a new technology emerges (such as camera lenses embedded into contact lenses) to aid social media users, some people may distrust it at first but adjust to it later, similar to how people might adjust to anything new in their lives. This connects to Baym's piece when she states “the social concerns that we voice when we discuss technology are concerns we would have even if there were no technology around” (Baym, 41). The author means that whether or not technology exists, we would still have the same social issues. While camera embedded contact lenses would allow more freedom in ‘capturing the moment’, I feel like there would be serious ramifications -especially in regards to privacy and graphic content- of such a small and stealthily hidden device.

Works Cited

Baym, Nancy K. "Making New Media Make Sense." Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Malden, MA: Polity, 2016. 22-48. Print.

Robbins, Gary. "Say Hello to the Camera, Goodbye to Privacy." Sandiegouniontribune.com. N.p., 06 Feb. 2017. Web. 20 Feb. 2017. <http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/sd-me-smart-cameras-20170202-story.html>.