WIRED
Jul 13, 2023 - 7 min
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Surveillance systems will always exist to serve power. In 1966, Marie Van Brittain Brown, a black woman from New York invented the home security system to keep herself and her family safe. However, five decades later, there’s a boom in home security products like the Amazon suite and Google’s security cameras that turn our homes and neighbourhoods into a different kind of fortress. Chris Gilliard explores how surveillance technology performs a carceral function by attempting to capture and control marginalised populations, questioning the prevailing assumptions about what keeps communities safe.