Intimate Surveillance by Default? Unravelling the Social Construction of Smart Home Technology

Abstract

This study explores intimate surveillance in the social construction of smart home technology. Intimate surveillance refers to the well intentioned surveillance of children by their parents or legal guardians. Building on Science and Technology Studies and the Critical Political Economy of Communications, we look into the socio-cultural norms on parenthood, childhood and intimate surveillance when developing smart home technologies. This study centres on the case study of AREA, a smart home company in Flanders Belgium and is part of an ongoing longitudinal corporate ethnography in multiple smart home companies. In order to build an understanding of intimate surveillance in the social construction of smart home technology, this study researches (1) the company’s idea of the consumer, (2) the processes of consensus making and (3) the presentation of smart home technology. Our research demonstrates that AREA implicitly promotes intimate surveillance in their promotional material, without focussing on intimate surveillance or family life in the development of smart home technology. Our analysis further exposes AREA’s instrumentalist approach, which results in their absence of accountability over use cases of intimate surveillance.