Maria Van Brittan Brown, a Black woman from Jamaica, Queens, NY invented a system to spy on would-be burglars on her stoop. Now it watches entire families and anyone who crosses the system’s threshold. wired.trib.al/h6JeETv 1/7
Her invention and countless others have led to a boom not only in home security products like the Amazon suite and Google’s security cameras, but increasing measures to make the home, the neighborhood, and all public and private spaces a 24/7 watched fortress. 2/7
Earlier this year, Amazon focused on how it would like us to think about security by previewing a security robot named Astro, essentially a roving Alexa with a camera that rolls around your house and scans the faces of people in your home. 3/7
The company’s Ring partnered with more than 400 police departments across the country after a successful multi-year strategy that turned law enforcement into part-time doorbell sales agents and cemented the term “porch pirate” into our lexicon. 4/7
Many of these tools have become agents of gentrification. They offload the “policing” of Black folks in public spaces to individuals. Brown’s invention demonstrates that the repressive function of technologies lies in their overlapping pervasive notions of race. 5/7
Despite Brown’s best intentions, no amount of advances in technology will change the basic truth that surveillance systems, no matter their origin, will always exist to serve power, not people. wired.trib.al/rcyclZO 6/7
Subscribe to WIRED for less than $1 per month and get unlimited access to our longform features, buying guides, and tech news. wired.trib.al/RzetCkJ 7/7
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