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A Reality Not Far From Our Own. Part 3.

Or Is It A Bad Thing?

Surveillance has always been a tricky topic of discussion for some. There are many who argue its need in today’s society for security, and others who argue that it’s a breach of privacy. As we stem from Dave Eggers’ novel, The Circle, we look into the technology that the fictional company The Circle creates, such as SeeChange, and how they utilize it. Surveillance being the gray issue at hand, we will now explore the more black opinions.

A common concern with surveillance is the possibility of an individual or group spying on the unsuspecting citizens that are under said surveillance. As we read Dustin Volz’s article titled “Edward Snowden: Supreme Court Will Strike Down NSA Spying Programs,” we see that in modern day it’s not unheard of to be spied on. Edward Snowden, a fugitive leaker that’s arguing the NSA’s usage of surveillance programs is unconstitutional, stated "We have had serial abuse from NSA agents spying on exes, lovers never prosecuted. That's a felony" (Volz). Clearly there has been some wrong doing within the usage of surveillance.

Not all companies are out to spy on you though. There have been many internet companies that have actually made it harder for anyone to spy on your surveillance. For example, companies like Google, Reddit, Mozilla, Twitter, and Yahoo have signed onto Reset the Net's pledge to protect user data. That being said, Google took it a step further by offering end-to-end encryption for Gmail accounts (Roller). For a huge company like Google to go through such steps to help protect its users’ privacy, it can be easily assumed that privacy was indeed an issue in the first place.

Even though most concerns with privacy nowadays are related to the internet, the same concerns can be applied towards surveillance cameras. The reason that may be, is that The Circle’s SeeChange cameras worked extensively through the internet (Eggers 62). This being said, a surveillance system working through the internet, has infinitely more concern towards being hacked or spied on, which in turn is indeed a breach of privacy.

To wrap up, we’ve looked into the possibilities of a surveillance system leading to concerns towards an issue of privacy. With Dave Eggers’ fictional company, The Circle, as portrayed in The Circle, we see that their SeeChange initiative leaves room for debate on whether or not it is good or bad. As we’ve discussed the white in A Reality Not Far From Our Own Part 2, we likewise discussed the black. Overall, it can be seen that no matter how you turn it, surveillance will always be a gray subject.

Works Cited

“A Reality Not Far From Our Own. Part 2.” Tumblr. Tumblr, 4 May. 2015. Web. 4. May 2015

Eggers, Dave. The Circle. New York: Vintage Books, 2014. Print.

Roller, Emma. "Google Is Making It Harder for the Government to Spy on Your Emails." Nationaljournal.com 5 June 2014. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 4 May 2015.

Volz, Dustin. "Edward Snowden: Supreme Court Will Strike Down NSA Spying Programs." Nationaljournal.com 11 Oct. 2014. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 4 May 2015.

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A Reality Not Far From Our Own. Part 2.

Is It A Good Thing?

Technology is an ever growing aspect of modern day humankind. The devices we have at our demand today were that of fiction 50 years ago. Dave Eggers’ novel, The Circle, portrays a company that has brought an unprecedented amount of growth to the world of technology. As the story progresses, we are forced to think about whether those advances are right or wrong. Arguments can be made for either side, but whether there’s a black or white opinion, the subject is covered in gray.

As we’ve discussed in A Reality Not Far From Our Own Part 1, Eggers’ fictional company, The Circle, was a company that had its hands in several technological fields. Of which in particular was surveillance. The Circle’s program called SeeChange, was a project that involved tiny high definition cameras being placed in nearly every corner of the world and constantly recording and storing everything they see. The project was first introduced as a clever way to see weather conditions of a particular area, or to capture the beauty of a city or foreign land that you want to see but never had the means to. Overall the concept brought awe to the people within the story. Shortly after introducing the lighter side of SeeChange, it was quickly demonstrated to see troubling conflicts in other parts of the world; such as a live street scene in Cairo, Egypt where a revolution was taking place. It was stated that this would have huge implications for human rights around the world. There would be instant accountability for anyone that violated any human rights law (62-8).

The implications of such a service are seemingly endless. Today we utilize a service for mobile phones called Snapchat. Snapchat is a mobile app that allows users to take photos or videos and send them to other Snapchat users. The sent media will only be viewable by the receiving party for 3-10 seconds, depending on what the sender’s settings allow, and will then disappear, becoming un-viewable by both the receiving and sending parties. Since its origin, Snapchat has implemented a feature within the app, named Our Story. Our Story allows the users that are within a participating event or area, to upload their snaps (photos or videos) to a collective tab that becomes viewable by all the users of Snapchat, and not just their friends (Snapchat).

When we look at Snapchat, we can see where having cameras all over the world could have a more appealing ideal. In Eggers’ novel, The Circle, we see Mae, the central character of the story, use the SeeChange cameras to view feeds from beaches in Sri Lanka and Brazil to help her feel more calm and warm during a stressing time of her life (336). Snapchat allows its users to do the very same with the Our Story feature. For example, I have viewed different cities and cultures through Our Story, such as Oslo, Norway, Hong Kong, China, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the very same reasons. That being said, to be able to witness different areas and cultures from around the world without the need to spend large amounts of money on traveling, is indeed a finer point towards looking at The Circle’s SeeChange initiative in a positive light.

These city wide surveillance cameras can also hold a great deal of security value. Dubai, United Arab Emirates is a perfect example of a city embracing the idea as such. In an article titled “Axis praises mandatory video surveillance in Dubai," we see Dubai introduced that there will be mandatory security surveillance for all buildings in the city. Marwan Khoury, marketing manager for Axis Communications, a global network surveillance company, goes on to say, “growing numbers of studies have shown the effectiveness of video surveillance in reducing crime, allowing emergency situations to be responded to faster and more effectively, and providing additional levels of access control, especially in residential buildings.” We can see here that there is a clear benefit towards having such a surveillance system in place.

After exploring these particular areas, we can now understand the good in the concept of The Circle’s SeeChange initiative that is portrayed within Eggers’ novel, The Circle. We see through applications such as Snapchat, that there is entertainment and enjoyment to be had within viewing the cameras of faraway lands. As well as the heightened security blanket to help citizens feel safe from potential crimes or dire emergencies. In conclusion, there is indeed white to be seen within the gray subject matter of total surveillance.

Works Cited

“A Reality Not Far From Our Own. Part 1.” Tumblr. Tumblr, 4 May. 2015. Web. 4. May 2015

"Axis praises mandatory video surveillance in Dubai." Construction Week 2 Oct. 2014. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 4 May 2015.

Eggers, Dave. The Circle. New York: Vintage Books, 2014. Print.

Snapchat. Snapchat, 2 April. 2015. Web. 4 May. 2015.

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A Reality Not Far From Our Own. Part 1.

Is It A Coincidence?

While going through our everyday lives of an average person, it can be easy to miss the details of what’s going on with large companies. Through Dave Eggers’ international bestselling novel, The Circle, we can clearly see many similarities between his fictional company, The Circle, and companies of our modern day reality. These companies include mainly, but are not limited to, Google and Facebook. The Circle can be seen by most as a clear warning towards the possibilities of our future, if we leave companies of that caliber to grow unquestioned.

First, let us explore what The Circle, as a company, was. The Circle in whole, was a rapidly growing company that would stop at nothing in the ever pursuit of gaining all knowledge. In the beginning, The Circle started as an invention called “TruYou,” which comprised of everything the internet needed in one place; one account, one identity, one password, one payment system, per person. That alone, made The Circle grow increasingly popular within a year. Financially speaking, The Circle made the majority of its income through advertisement (Eggers 21-3). With growth, came power. It made up 90 percent of the search market, 88 percent of the free-mail market, and 92 percent of text servicing (Eggers 174). With that kind of control over the flow of information, it made it an easy endeavor to further its grasp on the world’s knowledge. The Circle was also host to many programs that greatly impacted the daily lives of its users and those around them, such as, SeeChange, TruYouth, and CHAD (Eggers 67, 344, 359). Each of which were monumental advancements in technology within their respected fields of surveillance, security, and healthcare.

Now, let us look at The Circle’s uncanny resemblances to our beloved Google and Facebook. As stated earlier, The Circle made the majority of its revenue from advertisement, exactly what percentage is unknown to us, as Eggers did not elaborate further in his novel, The Circle. According to Meghan Kelly, a web journalist, informed readers on Venturebeat.com that Google, in 2011, made 96 percent worth of its revenue through advertising. To this day, Google, although not 96 percent, still makes a hefty portion of its revenue from advertisement (Google). Likewise, Facebook, as of 2015, brings in 73 percent of its revenue through advertisement (Popper).

As Eggers shows us in The Circle, The Circle holds a gathering called an Aspirant session in which the leaders of the company listen to start-up business founders and then decide on whether or not they will purchase their ideas and make them a reality (420). As it turns out, Google funds a program with very similar qualities, called Google Ventures. Google Ventures is a venture capital fund that receives $300 million each year to invest in start-up founders. To date, Google Ventures has invested in more than 280 companies, working on problems like cancer treatment, urban transportation, and energy use (Gv).

To add on to The Circle’s growing habits, we look at a particular scene within Eggers’ novel, The Circle. The scene shows a shark that was introduced into a lively and peaceful aquarium. Everyone hoped that the shark would coexist with the other aquatic inhabitants of the tank, but instead the shark viciously, and almost terrifyingly, devoured every single defenseless creature. It was shortly after in which Ty, the original creator of The Circle, stated his fear of the company and what it was becoming, “The fucking shark that eats the world” (479-84). Now Google may not be as vicious or aggressive with its growth, but it has certainly extended its reach throughout many aspects of the world. Back in 2001, Google, in their first public acquisition, obtained Deja.com, an archive of 500 million Usenet discussions. It was later re-launched as Google Groups. In 2003 Google acquires Pyra Labs, the creators of Blogger, a blog-publishing service. 2003 was an eventful year in which they announce Google AdSense, a content-targeted advertising service. In the following month, Google acquires Applied Semantics, whose service was named AdSense. Google obtained Youtube in 2006, an enormous website in which users upload videos of any length. In 2014 Google acquired Nest, a company that innovatively reinvents simple household items such as thermostats and smoke alarms (Google). The list goes on, as there have been many companies, large and small, that have been consumed by the growing giant that is Google.

To further explore our comparisons, let us look at The Circle as a search engine and social media front. We’ve looked at The Circle’s substantial lead in the global search market, but what about our Google? According to global statistics, as of January 2015, Google holds 88.1 percent of the world’s search market share (Statista). In Eggers’ novel, The Circle, it was stated that The Circle had subsumed Facebook and several other social media companies, leaving the readers to assume it had control over nearly, if not, 100 percent of all social media interaction. Facebook on the other hand “only” consists of 61 percent of all social logins, as of the last quarter in 2014 (Lardinois).

Separately, this information seems harmless. It is through Dave Eggers’ novel, The Circle, that we’re forced to connect the dots; the overwhelming similarities between current companies such as Google and Facebook, with Eggers’ fictional company, The Circle. Google alone has the impressive power to become part of anything they desire, much like The Circle, and to imagine if the two giants, Google and Facebook, merged together. The possibilities would be seemingly endless.

Works Cited

Eggers, Dave. The Circle. New York: Vintage Books, 2014. Print.

Google. Google, 2015. Web. 3 May. 2015.

Gv. Google Ventures, 2015. Web. 3 May. 2015.

Kelly, Meghan. “96 percent of Google’s revenue is advertising, who buys it?”

VentureBeat. VentureBeat, 29 Jan. 2012. Web. 3 May. 2015.

Lardinois, Frederic. “Facebook Continues To Dominate Social Logins, Expands Lead To 61% Market Share.” TechCrunch. AOL, 27 Jan. 2015. Web. 3 May. 2015.

Popper, Ben. “More than 70 percent of Facebook's $3.54 billion revenue is now mobile.” TheVerge. Vox Media, 22 April. 2015. Web. 3 May. 2015.

Statista. Statista, 2015. Web. 3 May. 2015.

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