Security, Suspicion, and Surveillance? There’s an App for That

Abstract

Despite the recent rise in popularity of mobile safety applications (apps), social scientists have yet to examine them in any considerable depth. In this paper, we undertake the case studies of bSafe, Citizen, and Nextdoor—analyzing promotional materials and blog posts—in order to further theorize digital security consumption and the potential concomitant social harms. We find these companies encourage and facilitate lateral surveillance as well as frame crime and risk in ways that obscure the structural elements that precede crime. Drawing from 3,461 user reviews, we consider how these apps might shape understandings, feelings, and experiences of risk, crime, and victimization. Some users suggest that these safety apps provide them with the promise of security and knowledge that facilitates responsible risk management. We contend it is essential to look beyond this neoliberal rhetoric of empowerment and self-reliance through digital security consumption and advocate for increased focus on the ways these technologies—which are used on a mass scale—enable structural violence, most notably subjecting racialized populations to increased monitoring and regulation.