Coldplay kiss-cam flap proves we're our own surveillance state

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/18/coldplay_kiss_cam_privacy/

by rntn • 1 year ago

26 28 1 year ago

garciasn2• 1 year ago

There is no 'surveillance state' here. There were two people engaged in an apparent affair that were caught and people close to them were notified. These two having an affair is a big ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and no one should care; however, being these two are the 1) CEO of a company and 2) the head of HR for that same company, the employees of said company, its shareholders (if any), and its board (if any) should be REALLY interested in this. And it has absolutely fucking nothing to do w/surveillance; this could have happened anywhere, at any time in history, with or without technology.

JohnFen5• 1 year ago

There is no 'surveillance state' here.

I disagree. This is totally an example of how we're living in a surveillance state. A relatively minor example, sure, but it's part and parcel of the fact that it's impossible to exist in public (and difficult to exist in private) without actively being under surveillance.

If that's not a surveillance state, I don't know what is.

jpc03• 1 year ago

Explain how this is any different than Myrtle down the road saying: “Did you hear Bob and Julie are having an affair, I saw them out at Bobby’s last week!”

Being out in public has never been a privacy violation, only an anonymity one and who ever guaranteed your anonymity?

ncruces• 1 year ago

If they didn't want to get caught, don't do that in public, cameras or no cameras.

Could've been 20 years ago in a concert and they bump into someone who knows them while hugging.

So what's different here? That people on the internet where “quickly” able to figure out who they are because it went viral?

I'm sure randomly getting caught on national TV 20 years ago could have had the same effect. All it takes is one person to know them.

NicuCalcea3• 1 year ago

How do you define a surveillance state?

MoonGhost• 1 year ago

If that's not a surveillance state, I don't know what is.

If it is a surveillance then street photography is too. Camera pointing at spectators isn't good either...

Barrin92• 1 year ago

And it has absolutely fucking nothing to do w/surveillance; this could have happened anywhere, at any time in history, with or without technology.

It absolutely has. This is what real everyday surveillance is that shapes people's behavior. When you cannot go anywhere without in your head thinking "am I on a camera or a microphone?" you're in a surveillance society. It's significantly more insidious and pervasive than any public camera is.

I recently talked with a friend about the fact that you don't see people going skinny dipping any more as we did when we were teenagers spending a day at a lake, and it's pretty obvious why. Smartphone cameras, everyone says they're afraid that someone takes an unflattering picture and shares it with the entire internet. That's how you breed a nation of neurotic people. This wasn't possible a few decades ago or at least not practical.

Every single spot with an internet connection has effectively become a stage where the slightest mishap can turn you into a joke in front of an infinitely large audience. It is no surprise that the mental state of young people is what it is and why they're anxious about the most everyday things. It's literally the logic of the Panopticon, you're going to police yourself harder than anyone externally ever could.

tpmoney• 1 year ago

It absolutely has. This is what real everyday surveillance is that shapes people's behavior. When you cannot go anywhere without in your head thinking "am I on a camera or a microphone?" you're in a surveillance society. It's significantly more insidious and pervasive than any public camera is.

I’ve heard discussion around this idea that used “panopticon” as the descriptor. An all seeng eye that might or might not be looking at you right now, but since you can never know, you’re better off not doing anything the eye’s controllers disapprove of.

UltraSane• 1 year ago

They went to a PUBLIC concert with thousands of other people. They could have just as easily ran into people they know as been shown on TV. If you are having an affair don't go to very crowded public places.

Not too long ago they would have been publicly shamed.

bdangubic• 1 year ago

by this definition Thomas Jefferson lived in a surveillance state if someone drew a picture of him as he rode his horse on his farm and showed the painting to a bunch of people :)

fred_is_fred• 1 year ago

We may well be in a surveillance state but it’s not because of crowd cams at a Coldplay concert.

Permik• 1 year ago

It's super strange that there's this huge gap of expectation of privacy and lack of social consequences when compared to the past.

Way back when villages and towns were hella smaller, unapproved behavior was nipped on the bud, because people talk and there were less people that you just couldn't disappear into the masses. There were _actual_ real social consequences.

_Technically_ we're just moving back to basics, but the social consequences of the increased awareness should apply to everyone – equally.

salawat• 1 year ago

Counterpoint: There was a 95 year old woman in my life who was a Stephen Minister living in a small town. Stephen Ministry is a bit like being a professional listener. You kind of do outreach and be present for people to help them through hard times. She was a widow, in a small town.

She would go to a nursing home with a gentleman from the same town, whose wife had come down with Alzheimer's to the point the wife could not recognize her husband most days and would become highly agitated. The wife did recognize the 95 year old woman, with whom the wife had gone to church for many years. The husband would sit in the other room whilst the 95 year old and his wife talked, and share in what lucid moments the woman he loved (his wife) had left.

The other ladies in the church, on the other hand, found the 95 year old widow's behavior highly scandalous, despite the fact the widow had had no one else in her life, even after her husband passed more than 20 years ago.

Point being, don't romanticize small town life. It can, in it's own way lead to collective psychological pathologies just as rapidly as urban living does. The difference being that there's no such thing as "community therapy" to get an entire village turned around. Religion is about the closest there is, and ecumenical politics is about as bad as academic politics in it's toxicity. People are hell, and we do ourselves a favor by not making it any easier for anyone to constantly keep tabs on anyone.

However, I will admit to a bit of schadenfreude that a tech company executive got caught out by this sort of thing.

randerson• 1 year ago

At least back then, the hit to your reputation was confined to that small town. You could move to one town over and start fresh.

perilunar• 1 year ago

Sousveillance, not surveillance.

Coldplay kiss-cam flap proves we're our own surveillance state

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