New border and surveillance technologies are being lauded for their accuracy and fairness. But how ethical can forced identification be? Late nineteenth-century enthusiasts of pinning down the ‘born criminal’ enlisted scientific advances to sinister ends. Might biometric data processing that registers migrants entering the EU risk a similar transgression of human rights today?
Unlike the enduring half-life of radioactive materials whose toxicity lasts for thousands of years, evanescent clouds in the sky are the embodiment of impermanence and ephemerality.
In all likelihood, we don’t actually know what, exactly, we’re signing up for when we use the internet. We do now know, in broad strokes, that technology companies build their wealth on selling user data to advertisers; as the saying goes, “if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product.” While some might find that a bit reductionist, we cannot deny that we have lost control over what we are giving up when we use digital platforms. Our passive acceptance of these terms and conditions paves the way for constant surveillance, and for the warping and shaping of our online behaviors and identities to match what is deemed profitable and usable to others.
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