Big Brother Is Watching You: Designing in the Age of Surveillance Technologies

This paper engages with the resurgence of the panopticon in the form of surveillance technologies which have assumed a significant presence in the post-pandemic world. The continuous existence of surveillance, especially for monitoring work, is seen as a crucial aspect of the designer’s socio-political context of the present. This requires that a designer both understands the phenomenon critically and considers what subversive design would mean in a world where scrutinous eyes can be omnipresent with the apparent purpose of ensuring maximum productivity. The present paper primarily engages with the former concern—a critical understanding of this phenomenon itself before any subversion can be attempted. To this end, a comprehensive review of literature is undertaken to gauge the extent to which the implications of surveillance technologies have been recognized and how they have been interpreted so far. The perpetuation of the panopticon by the development of digital technologies providing 24X7 connectivity has given it a form and presence today that is unprecedented. This phenomenon has so far been studied by observing the shift in work cultures that the pandemic brought about, and the consequent use of surveillance software to watch over a workforce that has been distributed globally. Technologies like surveillance software seem to hint at employer anxiety at a loss of control over the workforce and can be seen as symptomatic of a lack of trust between employers and employees. On the other hand, the lack of security provided to individuals via legal frameworks enables employers to collect such data. What remains to be considered is if the panopticon can now be seen as a consequence of technological development or if technology continues to be a tool in the hands of organizational cultures that are essentially panoptical in nature.