No Privacy means No safety

Dave Eggers, the author of The Circle, wrote this book mainly based on the controversy of privacy versus safety. The main goal of the company, The Circle, it to become all knowing, so that its users can become all knowing as well. This controversy is now becoming a real world problem in the United States and around the world. Should people have to give up their privacy to be ensured their safety? Dave Eggers writes about one of the possible outcomes of the world becoming all-knowing and the consequences of it.

Eamon Baily, one of the three wise men of the Circle is the main voice of the company. He stands strong to his belief that the world needs to be all knowing so the population can be as successful as it possibly can be. Bailey encourages his employees to believe the way he believes. This way everyone at the company can all work together to reach the common goal. During one of his speeches on a new piece of technology called “SeeChange,” he says this:

“Folks, we’re at the dawn of the Second Enlightenment. And I’m not talking about a new building on campus. I’m talking about an era where we don’t allow the majority of human thoughts and action an achievement and learning to escape as if from a leaky bucket. We did that once before. It was called the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages. If not for the monks, everything the world had ever learned would have been lost. Well, we live in a similar time. When we’re losing the vast majority of what we do and see and learn. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Not with these cameras, and not with the mission of the Circle” (Eggers 68)

Eamon Bailey has a strong suit for persuasive speeches. While reading that paragraph or this entire book the reader begins to see themselves becoming persuaded by Bailey to believe that giving one’s privacy will ensure one’s safety. Bailey was giving his speech on the SeeChange, an idea to begin placing small cameras all around the world. On every street, beach, bar, park, in schools, anywhere would be a camera recording what was going on. The entire population would then have access to these cameras. This idea has its positives: home-bound or hospital-bound people will be able to see and experience things that they never thought they could. Bailey uses his own son as an example of this. He explains that his son, Gunner, has cerebral palsy and that he cannot go out and see the world, and that this new technology will allow his son to see parts of the world he originally thought he was never going to see. Mae explained how she would not have trespassed to go kayaking if she knew she was on camera. This led Bailey to his point that surveillance leads people to be their best selves (Eggers 301). A surveillance project, like this one in The Circle, was set in place in Tampa, FL. Tom Kirchofer, author of “High-Tech Snooping Spotlights Safety vs. Privacy Rift,” explains that Ybor was the first city to go public with the “high-tech face-recognition programming, [by] installing a system dubbed FaceIt in its 16-block Ybor City nightlife quarter” (Kirchofer).The system has a total of 36 cameras and the system takes pictures of the people in the area and compares their face to 30,000 mugshots of criminals, runaways and others. The only way that this plan would actually be successful would be to place the cameras everywhere around the world. When a certain city or cities implement these cameras, the criminals will all migrate away from this area, “while innocent residents are left to endure a state-sponsored invasion of privacy” (Kirchofer).

After Mae was caught trespassing to go kayaking, Bailey volunteered her to be the first Circle employee to go completely transparent. For Mae to be able to do this she needs to wear a camera around her neck that she turns on when she wakes up, and turns off at 10p.m. Dave Eggers incorporates this in the book to show the company going overboard with the cameras. As if the cameras everywhere was not enough, there will now be cameras on everyone’s neck. This takes away all of the privacy that this person once had. Mae learns the hard way about the transparency project when she walked in on her mom giving her dad oral sex, and the camera around her neck caught the action. After she ran out of there, she immediately called the Circle to see if that video could be deleted. When she got on the phone with Bailey he explained to her that he cannot and will not delete it, because “when everything is known, everything acceptable will be accepted” (Eggers 372). Bailey makes his point throughout the book that the world needs to be under constant surveillance and that everyone should be allowed the resources to know everything. At the same time though, Bailey comes across as a cold human being who only cares for the progression of his company.

When people have the opportunity to be able to learn everything, many other people will be embarrassed and upset along the way. The reader can see this happen multiple times throughout the book. When Annie was offered to be the first person to get results from PastPerfect, a Circle technology that allows people to look into and learn more about their own and their family past. As soon as Annie got her results, they were posted on the web, and Annie did not want those facts about her family to be known by all before she could even process the information. Annie’s ancestors were “blackhearted people,” because “they raided Ireland, brought back slaves, and sold them all over the world” (Eggers 432). When the information was released to the population the messages Annie was receiving were horribly mean. Followers began calling her “Massa Annie.” Although Annie had nothing to do with what her ancestors chose to do, she was still getting the brunt of it all. The public should be allowed to have access to more information, but that should have to come at the expense of hurting another human. Ancestry.com offers a technology in the world today that allows for people to send in their DNA to learn more about their ancestors and where they came from. Ancestry first started in 1983 to inform people of their possible ancestors. The company then developed a technology that allowed people to develop their family tree. The most recent technology offered by Ancestry is the DNA test that determines your ethnicity down to the percentages, and offers information on your heritage (Ancestry.com). I believe that this technology is the beginning of a more in-depth technology like the one in the Circle that will allow for people to learn about specific things that their ancestors did. At this point the Ancestry Company is helping people learn more about themselves, but what will their new technology be and how far will it go?

Dave Eggers pushes all of the boundaries by making all of the new technology in the book over the top. He went to the extremes to make his point throughout the book that 0% privacy will not lead to 100% safety. People will still get hurt by the information that is being let out. Everyone does not need to know everything. Sometimes not knowing information will keep you safer than if you did. Dave Eggers writes an addictive book while also teaching his readers about the consequences of giving up all privacy.