What’s your name?

The Starbucks drive thru greeted me with a slyly smiled woman plastered on an obnoxiously large high definition screen who promptly, almost in a robotic, somewhat childlike manner, began the transaction. My name is Heather. What’s your name? The grin didn’t leave her face. This isn’t a new question, and I am fully aware of the notoriety that Starbucks has when it comes to the offering of one’s alias, but I Did Not Like the way I was being approached in (what I thought) would be a simple exchange of money for goods. As its clear target, the camera was aimed at my soul so “Heather” could see me in my natural habitat, my safe zone, my car, my place where I dictate what devices are pointed where and who is recording what, my space. I am also privy to the fact that cameras are absolutely everywhere now, so it’s not like this whole drive thru thing is shocking, but it’s pretty frustrating due to its core functionality. What is the point of having your employee see the customer during a drive thru interaction, and then showing the customer what the employee is seeing? Well, that’s not the point. The naïve, unexplored answer is mostly because we have the capability to, so why not? and it meets success because of the FaceTime inspired, customer luring layout. In a more diabolical approach, however, Starbucks has battered a gold mine of data by having a camera front and center in what would normally be a less in-your-face interaction.

I also find it helpful to mention that I am aware that there have been video cameras installed at businesses for a long time with at least one or two being pointed at the drive thru and at least three or four being pointed at the employees. One fast food chain in particular has plenty of footage of me- way more than I would like to know. I have accepted this video culture due to complacency and acceptance that in order to do basic things, such as grocery shop, I will be caught on camera. I just did not realize that a camera would be pointed at my face when I am not expecting a camera to be pointed in my face. Maybe I’m the naïve one.

This may not be a big deal to many! Westerners are used to cameras being everywhere, and many of us absolutely embrace them. Plenty of folks will not bat an eye at the futuristic Starbucks drive thru where…oh wow! I get to see the employee before the window?…lacking an awareness of the utter power that the corporation has unlocked by implementing this process of ordering.

What’s your name?

I slithered my sunglasses onto my face and slid back into the seat. Heather. My name is Heather too. The pain was over immediately and I drove forward to collect. My data-concerned mind was trying to comprehend what Starbucks had just extracted from that fifteen second recorded interaction of which I provided no consent. But consent to accessing one’s data doesn’t matter in the virtual world.

Cameras directly pointed at the customer in a drive thru interaction is not limited to this corporation and is a practice that has increased rapidly over the past few years- I am aware. I am the most paranoid being I know in Hinblick auf surveillance cameras and am way too privy the fact that they are everywhere, absolutely everywhere now, so I can promise that my eyes narrow in on most cameras that I am in the presence of when in public spaces these days. But holy shit. A camera right in my face, showing Heather’s view of me while showing my view of Heather as I fanaticize about looking her dead in the eyes but instead shield myself from further facial analyzation as possible is a step too far. Is this a step too far, or is this step simply highlighting how it is already way passed being a step too far? Ten years ago cameras were more strategically hidden; now they are right in our faces. We love the camera, and the camera really loves us too.

So yeah. It’s a step too far for sure, but we already have cameras everywhere, whether they are hidden away or in our pockets through the handy cellular device or though the watchful eye in our cars. The sheer blatancy is repealing, and has been a capstone personal scowl of mine. I find it troublesome to desire coffee but to have to shed a bit of data to receive it. Yes, data is also collected from using a bank card, I know, I know, I know. Data is everywhere. Data is EVERYWHERE! I’m just sick and tired of unwillingly providing it to corporations that make an astronomical amount of money off of my recorded presence. I didn’t mean to comply to this world; the trickery is apparent with the manipulation of the folks growing up within the internet boom, which resulted in social media and the further discovery of digital information and the money making potential behind it, which further resulted in a shadow society that continues its process of breaking down when the careless implementation of unlawful, unethical tech takes over the culture. Okay?? I know I’ve been tricked into being complacent- we all have. What will the wake up call be? Will there be a wake up call? I fear an adjustment is lackadaisical when competing with the alluring taste of the virtual world. Why should humans fall back instead of advancing forward and embracing all technology with open arms? Everything in the digital realm is valuable, yet we do not yet understand many ethical variations that must come with this brand new type of human behavior. We cannot become complacent to something we do not fully understand the implications, but we cannot act in such regard without experiencing the implications. I don’t want my data exposed. But I know it is exposed, it has been exposed, and it will continue to be exposed because of the extraordinarily loose grip that we have when it comes to realizing the power of the internet and the lawless land that it has become. These records will haunt us. These records are haunting us, but the ignorance and careless nature assigned when utilizing tech shine through and overpower the natural sense of self. The natural sense of remaining offline. The natural sense of physicality. The natural sense of being.

What’s your name?