An elite demoted to luxury working class

The year is 1976. My routine is absolutely trivial. After having breakfast I go to play in the street with my friends. Some time later I come home to watch my favorite TV series, have lunch and go to school. When I return from it, I play ball in the street with my friends. If we were at war against the kids of the other street, some of us would patrol the alley, provoke our opponents and if they dared to pass half of the “no man's land” we would fight with them until one of the groups gave up and considered themselves defeated.

The only thing that was left of my childhood were the memories and the habit of watching TV. So I was really surprised to find that people today can be and some are actually spied on when they watch the news, enjoy their favorite series or simply forget about the connected device.

In the 1970s, televisions were made of tube. The overwhelming majority of people had black and white devices. Color TVs were an object of desire in Brazil in that time. Flat TVs only existed in films and science fiction series. Nowadays almost everyone can buy a sophisticated flat TV. I confess that, like almost everyone, I didn't know what they are capable of.

"... Business forecasts predict strong growth in the market for internet-enable appliances, and Samsung is among a small group of market leaders. Its appliances use the Android operating system platform, and early on the firm established alliances with both Alphabet/Google subsidiary Nest and with Cisco. ‘Our first mission is to gring your home to your connected life’, a top executive explained in 2014. In 2015 privacy advocates discovered that the corporation’s smart TVs were actually too smart, recording everything said in the vicinity of the TV – please pass the salt; we’re out of laoundry deterfent; I’m pregnant; let’s buy a new car; we’re going to the movies now; I have a rare disease; she wants a divorce; he needs a new lunch box; do you love me? – and sending all hat talk to be transcribed by another market leader in voice-recognition systems, Nuance Communications.

The TV’s ‘surveillance policy’ – yes even TV has surveillance policy now – reveals the layers of surveillance effort and commercial interest thar operate outside of awereness in our homes, Samsung acknowledges that the voice commands aimed at triggering the TV’s voice-recognition capabilities are sent to a third party and adds, ‘Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice-Recognition’. Samsung disclains responsability for the policies of third-party firmsm as nearly all surveillance policies do, including the one that actually collects and translates the talk of its unsuspecting customers. Samsung advises that ‘You should exercise caution and review the privacy statements applicable to the third-party websites and services you use’. The intrepid consumer determined to study tese documents will find no succor in Nuance’s privacy policy, only the same catechism foud in Samsung’s and that of nearly every company. It also encourages you to read the privacy policies of the companies to whom it’s selling your conversations, and so it goes: a forced march toward madness or surender.” (The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff, PublicAffairs, New York, 2019, p. 264)

In her book Shoshana Zuboff makes a long inventory of all electronic systems and innovative devices introduced in the market that, like Samsung Smart TVs, employ voice recognition feature. Microsoft Cortana, Google Now, Facebook “M”, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Google Home and the Cayla and Barbie Doll dolls can also be and are used to transform their words into information that will be expropriated and used for other purposes by surveillance capitalists. All of these products can be purchased in Brazil.

I have two Samsung Smart TVs. None of them ever recorded anything I said. Fortunately I didn't read the manual. Even if I had read it, I probably wouldn't have activated the speech recognition feature. One of them is in my room and is only used to watch DVDs (and Corinthians games). The other is connected to a computer and is used to watch documentaries on the internet and watch programs from the BBC, DW and other European TV networks.

I am an internet user, but I have never used any of the speech recognition features of Google, Microsoft or Facebook on my Smartphone or notebook. Despite being able, I never even considered buying any of the modern equipment mentioned by Shoshana Zuboff. Fortunately my voice is not being recorded on my TV. Can you say the same?

“In this commercial dreamscape, words that were once conceived of as ‘behind closed doors’ are eagerly rendered as surplus. These new supply operations convert your talk into behavior for surplus in two ways. The first derives from what you say, the second from how you say it. Smart-home devices such Amazon’s Echo or Google Home render rivers of casual talk from which sophisticated content analyses produce enhanced predictions that ‘ antecipate’ your needs. Google used its 2016 developers conference to introduce its conversational reimagining of Google Now, rechristened ‘Assistant’ and integrated across the company’s devices, services, tools, and applications. ‘We want users to have an ongoing, two-way dialogue with Google.” (The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff, PublicAffairs, New York, 2019, p. 261)

At the end of the last text of this https://link.medium.com/eCJmIyOHN6, I commented on the terrifying political possibilities of surveillance capitalism being put at the service of a totalitarian political project. When reading the chapter of Shoshana Zuboff's book on the expropriation of conversation through ‘intelligent’ systems and devices, another interesting question occurred.

For centuries, the Brazilian elite has distinguished itself from the rest of the population by the consumption of products and services developed in the USA, Europe and Asia. In the 19th century, for example, Emperor D. Pedro II and his family used imported toothbrushes and toothpaste at a time when Brazil was populated by a majority of toothless people who did not even dream that these products existed. Now everything that is most modern in a rich Chinese, European or American house can be found in the mansions and luxurious apartments of Brazilians of the upper class and upper middle class.

Technological resources despised or simply ignored by Brazilians who are able to buy Smart TVs, Smartphones or notebooks are generally used by members of the Brazilian elite. They feel proud precisely because they are able to differentiate themselves from the rest of the native population. In the era of surveillance capitalism, it can be a big problem to behave like an American or European who disdains privacy.

Brazilians who are in a position to develop innovative projects and/or to manufacture products and services linked to the third and fourth industrial revolutions should be terrified. After all, all the secrets they keep under lock and key can be known to their competitors before their new products reach the market.

As I read Shoshana Zuboff's book, I realized that surveillance capitalism may be creating a new and luxurious working class. Because of their obsession with distinguishing themselves from the general population by consuming modern technology products and services, the Brazilian elite may have been spied on by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Samsung, etc….

Surveillance capitalism has no country, nor does it respect borders. Because of the asymmetry, surveillance capitalists will never behave as if they are equal to members of the Brazilian elite. They are not only in a position to expropriate behavioral surplus for free from the homes of wealthy Brazilians. In fact, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Samsung, etc ... can very well make phenomenal profits by selling industrial secrets, innovative ideas, sensitive and sensitive information and, eventually, patenting and manufacturing processes and products developed by their radiant Brazilian luxury workers.