Robert M. Pallitto. Bargaining with the Machine: Technology, Surveillance, and the Social Contract. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2020. 168 pp. $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-7006-2985-5.
Reviewed by Lizao Wang (University of Notre Dame)
Published on H-Sci-Med-Tech (June, 2022)
Commissioned by Penelope K. Hardy (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse)
As the examples and existing literature Robert M. Pallitto references in Bargaining with the Machine show, the current world is based on a surveillance economy, where data and privacy is the price paid for ease, convenience, and efficiency. Pallitto contributes not only by taking up this important topic but also by offering a new framework to view users as consumers and the process of surveillance as a business bargain. Pallitto is clear that when looking at the bargaining power of the surveilled and the surveillant, the imbalance is so huge that many times, alternatives to agreeing to surveillance seem almost impossible. This is especially true when the concept of the social contract is involved, making “going against collective judgments … difficult, and even traumatic” (p. 9). At the same time, Pallitto’s framework also gives hope for improving future bargains. By breaking the illusion of consumer choices being “intentional and voluntary” and deconstructing the “conditioned [and] structured” bargain, he critiques the lack of personal freedom as well as provides possible alternatives (p. 18).
The limitations of personal freedom in the age of surveillance take various forms; Pallitto draws, organizes, and analyzes examples with valuable insights on their different characteristics. In chapter 2, Pallitto further develops Jeffery Jonas’s point that a surveillance society is not only inevitable but also irresistible by blaming not only the consumers but also the providers of goods and services for failing at their responsibility to resist. Supporting such social construction of surveillance society’s irresistibility, Politto introduces Vance Packard’s analysis of advertising’s influence on consumers as well as Cass Sunstein’s choice architecture theory to explain how providers hide their persuasions under the veil of free choice. He then gives examples such as the US Transportation Security Administration's prescreening program and various customer loyalty programs to demonstrate providers’ promotion of efficiency and convenience to make surveillance irresistible.
In chapter 3, Pallitto further suggests that the bargain between individuals and surveillance is far from fair by pointing out that the system of surveillance technology is ubiquitous, making consent a default, as he notes that Jathan Sadowski and Frank Pasquale have suggested before. Pallitto also argues that in addition to being ubiquitous, surveillance technologies are obscure, especially when individuals have no idea how their harvested data are going to be used, or what harm that use might bring. Pallitto offers readers a great imaginary scenario of smart cities in chapter 4 to think about what the unfair bargain might mean if it is left to develop unchecked. He shows that the hypothetical scenario is also closer to reality than one might think, as the internet of things is increasingly the standard of daily life, and he provides examples of smart cities, such as New Songdo in Korea, that already exist. In these cases, the main problem Pallitto notes is the divergent interest between the public and the government, revealing that optimization of smart cities might most likely mean sacrifices of individual freedom. Pallitto also introduces historical parallels, for example, city infrastructures like Robert Moses’s bridges, designed to benefit some while harming others, to further show the tradeoff for having the efficiency and convenience in a smart city. Bargaining with the machine is much more difficult, if not completely impossible, in a smart-city scenario.
If the previous chapters serve as a cautionary tale against the surveillance society, chapter 5 might be viewed as a manual for trying to gain more bargaining power. Just as the examples Pattillo uses throughout this book, his suggestions in chapter 5 are very close to real life. Namely, he mentions using cameras and phones to record incidents and perform countersurveillance, as well as using encryption services and cryptocurrency, and supporting artforms that warn about surveillance as viable methods to gain more bargaining power.
As the concept threading the book together is bargaining, Pattillo’s analysis does portray individual users and the surveillance system as two separate and opposing groups. One slight criticism I have for this approach is that it seems to oversimplify the reality, as the question remains as to who constitutes the machine. Who are the providers of services that are luring individuals to give up data and privacy? Individuals’ journeys to navigate free choice and structural constraints might be more complex than what the book portrays—when at work, for example, they themselves might be part of the opposing group, making up the surveillance machine. Methodologically, the focus on individual experiences in the system also lets Pattillo include personal experiences as evidence. For example, in chapter 2, a major piece of evidence is Pattillo’s own experience of signing up for the TSA prescreen program. Such anecdotal evidence helps readers better understand the forces pulling and pushing an individual trying to make privacy-related choices but could have been more convincing if combined more with analytical evidence. These minor critiques, however, are far from being able to overshadow the strength and meaning of the book.
In the concluding chapter, Pattillo incorporates political science theories to further analyze the meaning of surveillance to individuals, our society, and the state. The skillful combination of theory and real-life examples abundant throughout the book shines through again. Overall, this book captures the increasingly relevant and urgent problem in day-to-day life in the current techno society and offers a great framework with which one can examine the machine and one’s inevitable bargains with it. The book extends observations of the surveillance machine, providing a dissection of it to show its characteristics and construction. The book also asks valuable questions and gives practical advice, letting individuals understand their situations and responsibilities better. Scholars studying the surveillance economy would benefit from the rich theories the author incorporates in his book and his novel additions to them. More importantly, this book would greatly benefit anyone needing to make decisions on things as small as applying for a supermarket membership card. As Pattillo states at the end, people need to take decision-making in their contemporary social life more seriously, and this book would be the perfect start for them to realize this and to practice responsible bargaining with the machine. Only with conscious bargains can we avoid inviting unintended surveillance into our present and future.
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Citation:
Lizao Wang. Review of Pallitto, Robert M., Bargaining with the Machine: Technology, Surveillance, and the Social Contract.
H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews.
June, 2022.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=57695
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