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The Banality of Surveillance

benn.substack.com

March 7, 2026

12 min read

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47/100

Summary

Enterprise social networks mimic social media platforms like Facebook, shifting personal and professional communication into shared feeds of posts and replies. This design aims to integrate and streamline communication within organizations, reflecting the aesthetics and functionality of popular social media.

Key Takeaways

The enterprise social network product was designed to mimic Facebook, featuring a newsfeed, user profiles, and interaction buttons like "like."
The company recorded extensive user interaction data, including clicks, page views, and device information, which was stored in a large database for potential future use.
Employees could access and analyze this data using complex SQL queries, revealing insights such as profile views, which were considered highly sought after.
The author previously believed that data security relied on cryptography and physical security, but learned that the complexity of accessing data was a significant factor in its protection.

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Community Sentiment

Negative

Positives

The use of advanced speech models like Grok highlights the potential for AI to capture nuanced human communication, which could enhance user interactions in various applications.

Concerns

Concerns about AI's ability to compile personal data for job interviews raise significant ethical questions about privacy and the implications of surveillance on individual freedoms.
The long-term storage of paralinguistic data for training purposes suggests a troubling trend in AI development, where user consent and data ownership may be overlooked.
The expectation that employers will analyze personal purchasing habits through AI illustrates a disturbing shift towards invasive practices that could undermine workplace privacy.