Abstract
This commentary examines the role of the ‘selfie’ as central to the teleological management of the COVID-19 crisis in India. It suggests that the incorporation of the self(ie) within the technologies of quarantine apps is a simulacrum of intimate surveillance that seeks to experiment in the present in order to extend its reach into the visual governance of intimate domesticity in the future.
Highlights
In late-March 2020, the Indian state announced a complete lockdown to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus
The COVID-19 war rooms have been focused on contact tracing and quarantine apps that have seen the reduction of civil liberties and data privacy (Kitchin, 2020)
If a person fails to upload on time, or the software deems that the selfie does not belong to the quarantined individual, there is a capability within the app to directly call the individual on their mobile phone or officials may even visit their home to conduct further checks (Ananth, 2020)
Summary
In late-March 2020, the Indian state announced a complete lockdown to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus. If a person fails to upload on time, or the software deems that the selfie does not belong to the quarantined individual, there is a capability within the app to directly call the individual on their mobile phone or officials may even visit their home to conduct further checks (Ananth, 2020). The use of pixelated data like the selfie comes on the back of several decades of using analogue facial recognition systems for everyday governance.
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