Going Full Transparent: Tech Culture & Surveillance in The Circle (2017)
Welcome back to our latest edition of Celluloid Circuits, In our last post we discussed privacy and transparency in regards to technology with the Film Anon, today, we’re continuing with those themes as we take a look at the film, The Circle, the 2017 film directed by James Ponsoldt and based on the novel by Dave Eggers. This movie paints a dystopian vision of tech culture, social media, and the pursuit of transparency at all costs. But let’s get real, how far off is this from where we are today? Are we already living in a world where privacy is a relic of the past? Let’s go Circlers.
Ugh that hurts and after working for a corporate tech giant with its own corporate Kool aid, it never becomes OK, just ask the People temple movement. OK dark humor aside.
The main protagonist of the film is Mae Holland, played by Emma Watson, who lands a seemingly dream job at a tech behemoth called The Circle, which has a circular campus like the New apple HQ, and of course is located on the west coast. It’s a sleek, all-powerful company that feels like a mix of Google, Meta, and Apple, offering users an interconnected digital existence. It really is what Apple wishes it could be a hardware creator, search engine and social media platform all in one. At first, it seems Utopian, everything in one seamless ecosystem but soon, the darker side of total transparency comes to light. Mae becomes the face of The Circle’s ‘SeeChange’ initiative, an internet influencer type program, pioneering an always-on recording her every waking moment, raising the question: when everything is seen, do we truly have free will? Similar to Anon this film tackles the idea of what it means to be fully transparent. However I feel like this is the infancy of films like Anon, in the end Mae fully wants the world to be transparent, so there are no lies and nothing can be kept secret, sounds very similar to the mind's eye technology in the Film Anon. I went into this movie totally blind, and was not expecting that ending and it made me mad. After everything Mae saw she chose to go transparent, regardless of the implications. Even after seeing what happened to her friend Mercer.
Okay let's take a minute to regroup, strategize and we will circle back to Mae's decision later, curse you corpo speak.
But really let us take a look at the tech showcased in the film, first pulling out some of the creepy themes that go along with this tech.
I want to start of with the core belief of the company in the film the Circle, This belief is what becomes twisted, in this corporations search for more money and power. That belief is “Secrets are lies, sharing is caring, privacy is theft” there is a line in the film where Tom Hanks, yes he is in this as well and plays the Steve Jobs/Tim Cook stand in of the circle tells Watson who is she to keep those experiences to herself and shouldn't those not as fortunate as her be allowed to experience that as well. The heads of the company played but Tom Hanks and Patton Oswald, guilt her into becoming the face of SeeChange, and going totally transparent. Tom Hanks' character even pulls one right out of the apple playbook and connects technology with emotion, talking about his son with cerebral palsy that is confined to a wheelchair is not able to experience most things. And that he uses recorded videos to experience these things, calling people who share those experiences generous. With the altruistic response being knowledge is a basic human right I agree, the next line is Access to all available human experiences is a human right, sure if done properly and does not invade privacy. Paying someone to capture POV of an experience…cool, some one wishes to share what they recorded… cool. Forcing people to be transparent, for others not so cool. If you don't think that transparency is bad, Mae is only allowed 3 minutes in the bathroom to be alone by herself. I am sure even personas like Mr. Beast do not want to be on 24/7.
The Circle’s core mantra—“Secrets are lies, sharing is caring, privacy is theft” makes us think : is privacy still a right or an outdated concept? In our ever connected world do we really expect to have privacy? I for one still do. Even if it is becoming that much harder everyday:
Governments and corporations today already track our locations, purchases, and even bio-metric data. How far are we truly from The Circle’s total surveillance. We already have things such as Surveillance Cameras with built in AI facial recognition software. Police cars with front mounted cameras to scan license plates. While it may seem like a good thing to catch stolen cars and such, but now my car has been tagged at that location, why does it matter where my car is? I know where it is. This is why I recommend a VPN to everyone, I do not need my ISP seeing what sites I visit. Am I doing anything nefarious, no but why do they need to know? And for those that thought I must be hiding something, to the wall of shame for you. This is exactly the bias people use to implement these surveillance tactics. If you have nothing to hide, why do you need to hide? Because I can and have the right to choose what I want to share and with who.
For those that say "There is no right to privacy" The US supreme court has confirmed it in the Griswold v. Connecticut 1965 case and there are various international statues that countries hold them selves to in regards to privacy.
Another messed up theme pulled from the film is Social Media & Conformity:
The scene where the 2 employees approach Mae to help her set up the work social account, makes me cringe. They talk about things done after hours and how she left on Friday and did not return till Monday missing out on activities that are not mandatory but working at The Circle is all about community, ugh more corpo speak. Mae says she's been so busy she has not had time to set up her social account calling it extra curricular but takes it back when the other employee is disturbed by this. Saying this is how other employees can learn about her and communicating is not extracurricular. She even states that she was at home caring for her father, played by the late and great Bill Paxton. In response they say the father with MS, you know we have so many MS support groups. After all “Sharing is caring and privacy is theft” The work social account as well as Mae going full transparent is used in the film to critique the pressure to be constantly visible and engaged and what that does to one's individuality.
We see similar trends today with algorithm-driven platforms that reward constant sharing and penalize disengagement. Ever wonder why all the YouTube videos look the same, the algorithm rewards what works so others disregard their creative input and make what works, as that is needed if one wishes to stay relevant and most importantly get paid for their work to continue their creative outlet.
The technology that put The Circle on the map was TruYou, it allowed people to have one account for everything they did. Most importantly it was verified against a credit card. You could have one account for all the different services you use as Mae puts it before TrueYou, you needed a different car to run all your different errands. Think Single sign on identity provider everywhere, not far off most websites already have a sign on with Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. But you need to verify your Social Security Number and Date of Birth as well as other PII (Personal Identifiable Information) with this identity provider. Now imagine that one account is able to be used on any site. The infrastructure and coding needed for this would be extraordinary, hence placing the company on the map. But this removed any chance of being anonymous on the web. No more random throwaway email accounts used to sign up for sites where you know you will get spam. What about things like proton mail, what if I want to report something privately for fear of backlash or reprisal, well kiss that goodbye as your name would be tied to everything. Sure identity theft would hopefully be lower as there are not multiple accounts that could be hacked. And in terms of convenience this tech is the epitome of convenience vs privacy. But what rights, freewill or privacy are we giving up for convenience. This software is so ingrained in the world that the company is thinking of using it to automatically enroll people to vote, with the creation of a circle account. Since the information that states need to register someone to vote is already in their circle account. Companies like Google, Apple and Meta are already attempting to centralize user experiences, using the term 'Ecosystem'.
Are we heading toward a TruYou like singular identity system?
Even the creator of TruYou hates what has become of his work, when Mae tells him he should be proud, His response in the film is, “Proud? Proud of what? The disregard for privacy,the use of personal data for the accumulation of wealth and control?” He understands the issues at stake here and hates the monster his project has become, this character played by John Boyega, what is with this film hiring English actors to play characters with an american accent. Anyway,
Breaking Down The Circle’s Tech:
Starting off with the SeeChange cameras, small cameras with built in battery and transmission devices. We already have similar technology today. Blink cameras, Ring doorbells, google Nest Cameras etc. Most of these provide a similar function that the see change cameras do however are not as small, and need a wireless connection to connect to while the see change cameras do not. The cameras are able to transmit globally, while the tech is not fleshed out in the film let's make some educated guesses. The cameras do not need an external power source so maybe they run on solar. They are also able to transmit data in as close to real time as possible, maybe some type of built in cellular connection, as long as the infrastructure is in place a built in 5g connection would work for this use case. But in areas with no cellular, a satellite connection or maybe even a peer to peer connection to a device that has a 5g connection is needed. The one issue I have with this is there is no way to opt out, your image is recorded anywhere these cameras are placed by any individual. The second privacy issue is they are so easy to hide, tom hanks character says this will provide transparency and accountability on a scale never seen before.
Soul Search
A crowdsourced tracking system that finds anyone within minutes. This echoes real-world AI-powered facial recognition and open-source intelligence (OSINT) tracking used today. This scene in the movie is eerie; they first use it to find a criminal on the run. But even then they people hound this individual. It is almost like the amber alerts we get on our phone now but taken to another level as the people are so rapid as a base wanting to impress upon how great this technology is. The second individual they hunt down is Mercer, Maes childhood friend, the mob eventually runs him off a bridge ala paparazzi style. How would this tech work? Well it would be 2 fold the first is the software side collating all of the target's data from the circle. Then that metadata is shared with other users to find that individual. Sharing could be done as a device notification or a social media post. This data could also feed real time location information on an individual as the cameras have facial recognition, so if the target passes a seachange camera users would be notified of the last known sighting. Again great if looking for criminals, but even so this technology creates a mob and makes it so that the technology is scary. The scene where Mercer is fleeing and Mae keeps trying to say he is with friends and he is being chased by drones or people on motorcycles does not feel like he was with friends.
Is The Circle an exaggerated dystopia or a glimpse into our near future? While the film’s execution received mixed reviews, its message is clear unchecked corporate power, mass surveillance, and social conformity threatens the very idea of free will. As tech companies push deeper into our personal lives, The Circle serves as both a cautionary tale and a wake-up call.
As always Stay safe on the web and remember .......
The Future is only a reel away