Surveillance at the (inter)face: A nexus analysis

Abstract

This paper discusses how facial recognition technology is changing the way interfaces are designed for digital surveillance. Drawing on work in mediated discourse analysis, it argues that interfaces for surveillance (as well as digital interfaces more generally) should be understood as sites of engagement where particular texts, bodies, social relationships, and social practices come together to make surveillance possible. To illustrate this framework, I analyse the controversial facial recognition service PimEyes, exploring how the ‘discourses in place’ on the PimEyes website, the ‘interaction orders’ it makes possible, and the ‘historical bodies’ that users bring to the site work together to lure users into using the service and contribute to the normalisation of digital surveillance using facial recognition. This paper contributes not just to our understanding of surveillance, but also to our understanding of digital interfaces more generally by showing how they function to enable new kinds of social identities, social relationships and social practices.