ive been documenting the evolution of fear. not the emotion. the system. the architecture. FEAR AS INFRASTRUCTURE. i wanted to see how we arrived at total surveillance. how it became normal. how we stopped resisting.
it didn't start with cameras. it started with convenience. they said give us your data and we'll make your life easier. give us your location and we'll show you nearby restaurants. give us your contacts and we'll help you connect. give us your photos and we'll back them up for free. free was never free
the year was 2007. iphone launched. nobody understood what we were agreeing to. we thought we were buying phones. we were VOLUNTEERING FOR TRACKING DEVICES. devices that know where we sleep. where we work. who we talk to. what we search for at 3am when we can't sleep.
facebook launched in 2004. twitter 2006. instagram 2010. snapchat 2011. tiktok 2016. each one promised connection. each one delivered ISOLATION DRESSED AS COMMUNITY.
we uploaded our entire lives. photos of our children. videos of our homes. locations of our vacations. details of our relationships. we tagged ourselves. we checked in. we documented everything. created a database of our existence more complete than any government could have forced us to provide. we did it willingly.
facebook has over two billion users now. they know your political views. your relationship status. your family structure. your shopping habits. your health concerns based on what you search and share. they know when you're likely to be depressed based on the tone of your posts. PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILING AT SCALE.
i remember when people said don't put your real name online. don't post photos of yourself. don't share personal information with strangers. now we share everything with corporations who sell our data to the highest bidder. we create content for platforms that profit from our attention. we are UNPAID LABOR generating billions in advertising revenue while they monitor our every click.
tiktok took it further. they don't just track what you post. they track how long you watch each video. when you pause. when you rewatch. what makes you smile based on facial recognition through your front camera. the algorithm knows what you want before you know you want it. it feeds you exactly what keeps you scrolling. ADDICTION BY DESIGN.
smart homes they called them. alexa listening in your bedroom. google home in your kitchen. ring doorbells recording your street. smart TVs watching what you watch. smart thermostats learning your schedule. smart refrigerators tracking what you eat. convenience PERMANENT MONITORING.
my neighbor bought an alexa. thought it was amazing. voice activated assistant. plays music. tells weather. answers questions. i asked her if she knew amazon keeps recordings of everything she says. she laughed. said she has nothing to hide. but PRIVACY ISN'T ABOUT HIDING. it's about control. about choosing what you share. about maintaining boundaries.
these devices are always listening. have to be. how else would they hear the wake word. but that means every conversation. every argument. every private moment is potentially recorded. stored. analyzed. amazon employees admitted to listening to alexa recordings. google contractors did the same. humans listening to your bedroom conversations to improve the algorithm.
smart doorbells are worse. ring sells footage to police without warrants. your doorbell becomes law enforcement surveillance. your neighbors doorbell cameras capture you walking past their house. you never consented. you can't opt out. the entire neighborhood becomes A DISTRIBUTED SURVEILLANCE NETWORK.
fitness trackers know your heart rate. your sleep patterns. your exercise routine. your location every second you wear them. health apps know your menstrual cycle. your sexual activity. your medication schedule. this data gets sold. leaked. subpoenaed. used in court cases. insurance companies buying it to adjust your premiums. your body is data now your biology is profitable information.
cash is dying. they convinced us cards are more convenient. venmo is easier. cashless is the future. but every transaction creates a record. every purchase is documented. they know what you buy where you buy it when you buy it. YOUR SPENDING HABITS ARE YOUR PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE.
credit cards track everything. visa knows you bought gas at 2am on a tuesday. mastercard knows you go to the same coffee shop every morning. banks can predict divorce based on spending patterns. predict pregnancy before you announce it. predict financial crisis before you realize you're in trouble. not because they care. because PREDICTION IS PROFIT.
digital wallets are worse. apple pay. google pay. they see every transaction plus your location. plus your contacts. plus what apps you use. they're building complete profiles. who you associate with. where you go. what you value enough to spend money on.
cryptocurrency promised anonymity. promised freedom from banking surveillance. bitcoin blockchain is permanent public record. every transaction forever visible. monero tried to fix it. governments banned it. made privacy suspicious. made anonymity criminal. trying to hide your finances means you're hiding something illegal they said. as if privacy itself is evidence of guilt.
china implemented social credit scores. your behavior determines your access to services. to travel. to education. to housing. jay walking lowers your score. criticizing government lowers your score. too much time gaming lowers your score. we laughed. said it could never happen here. but we already have credit scores. insurance scores. reputation scores on every platform. WE ALREADY LIVE IN A SCORE-BASED SYSTEM we just don't call it social credit.
employers track everything now. keystroke logging. screen recording. mouse movement monitoring. email reading. slack message scanning. they know how many seconds you spend on each task. how often you take breaks. when your productivity drops. WORK FROM HOME BECAME WORK UNDER SURVEILLANCE.
my friend's company installed software that takes screenshots every ten minutes. monitors which applications are active. flags when you're idle too long. she can't go to the bathroom without her productivity score dropping. can't take a moment to think without being marked as unproductive.
amazon warehouse workers wear devices that track their every movement. how fast they walk. how long they spend picking items. bathroom breaks counted against them. people urinating in bottles to maintain productivity metrics. this is what happens when surveillance meets capitalism. humans optimized like machines.
delivery drivers tracked by GPS. every second accounted for. routes optimized by algorithm. no deviation allowed. gig workers rating systems where one bad review destroys your livelihood. uber drivers. doordash couriers. instacart shoppers. all subject to opaque algorithms that determine their worth. their employment. their survival. THE ALGORITHM IS YOUR BOSS and the algorithm has no mercy.
children born today have digital footprints before they take their first breath. ultrasound images posted on facebook. birth announcements on instagram. every milestone documented and shared. they never consented. never had a choice. THEIR CHILDHOOD IS CONTENT for parents' social validation.
schools track them. lunch account linked to biometric scanners. chrome books monitoring every keystroke. school issued laptops with cameras that can activate remotely. students filmed all day. learning management systems tracking every assignment every quiz every moment of academic performance. permanent records now digital and comprehensive.
educational apps collect data on children as young as three. learning patterns. cognitive development. emotional responses. sold to advertisers. sold to data brokers. children's psychological profiles commodified before they can read. this is child development research THIS IS CHILD EXPLOITATION.
parents buy monitoring devices. baby monitors with internet cameras. gps trackers in children's shoes. apps that track their location every second. screen time monitoring software. message reading programs. they call it safety. call it responsible parenting. but children growing up under total surveillance learn that privacy is not a right. they learn monitoring is love.
teenagers have no expectation of privacy. schools monitor their searches. social platforms track their interests. every photo they post analyzed by facial recognition. every message scanned for keywords. they're growing up in a panopticon and they think it's normal. SURVEILLANCE IS THEIR BASELINE.
this is how it happened. not overnight. not with force. through convenience. through habit. through making the alternative inconvenient. try living without a smartphone. try getting a job without email. try buying anything without leaving a digital trail. THEY MADE PARTICIPATION MANDATORY THEN CALLED IT CHOICE.
the fear isn't that they're watching. the fear is that we stopped caring that they're watching. we traded privacy for convenience so gradually we didn't notice when the trade became permanent. when opting out became impossible. when surveillance became infrastructure.
people know they're being tracked. know their data is sold. know corporations and governments monitor everything. and they shrug. they say everyone does it. say it's just how things are. say i have nothing to hide as if privacy is only for the guilty.
that's the origin of fear. not that they watch us. that WE LEARNED TO ACCEPT BEING WATCHED. that we teach our children surveillance is normal. that we've forgotten what privacy feels like. that we've normalized the panopticon.
this document won't change anything. people will read it and nod and go back to scrolling. back to sharing. back to volunteering every detail of their lives. because the alternative requires sacrifice. requires inconvenience. requires RESISTANCE and resistance is exhausting when you're alone.
the cameras won. not through force. through MAKING US COMPLICIT. we are the surveillance state. we built it ourselves. one app download. one account creation. one convenience at a time.