Cybernews podcast #37: the erosion of consent in the digital era

Has disruptive technology gone too far? Is privacy and consent just a thing of the past now?

This week, a few rather disturbing inventions caught our attention. One of them is the NUCA camera – a camera, or, as its creators put it, a speculative design and art project, that renders people naked. Unlike deepfakes, it takes away anonymity since you need to be facing the person you want to photograph naked, meaning it is nearly impossible without consent.

Another disturbing invention is a surveillance camera that shoots paintballs and releases teargas.

“Being passive falls short,” the camera’s creators from Slovenia say. PaintCam is said to be able to recognize a welcome guest from a potential intruder and, in the event of unwanted intrusion, to start shooting paintballs or tear gas and even mark them for “easy identification by authorities.”

No matter the causes, the new gadgets seem really intrusive and might be exploited to intrude on people’s privacy, assuming that’s still a thing.

Both technologies – and there are many more of them, of course – challenge existing norms, prompting a critical question about disruptive technology: has disruption gone too far?

In this podcast, we deep dive into the following concepts:

• How can these disruptive (and already conventional, such as Air Tag) technologies be abused by bad actors?

• How are these and other similar inventions contributing to the growing concern around cyberstalking?

• What not to do if you suspect you are being cyber stalked

• How convenient internet of things (IoT) devices like doorbell cameras contribute to surveillance.

• Are we being too sensitive online?

• What’s happening to consent – do we have any control left over our public image?

• Why does deepfake nudity disturb us?