"We risk the establishment of a permanent surveillance"

In her book "Technopolitics", political analyst Asma Mhalla warns against the rise of a widespread surveillance based on new digital technologies, including artificial intelligence.

An extract of the cover of “Technopolitics”, published by Seuil (source)

A few days ago, I finished reading a captivating book by Asma Mhalla, doctor in political studies, researcher at the Laboratory of Political Anthropology of Ehess, in France, and political analyst with an expertise in technology and artificial intelligence. Titled “Technopolitics”, her essay published in February 2024 analyzes the current state of the world with a focus on technologies and the way they are transforming politics, geopolitics, wars and surveillance.

Artificial intelligence is a theme I’m very interested in and it seems important - and urgent - to address it not as a consumer, but as a citizen. Because besides its civil uses (chatbots and image or video generation, for example), AI plays an ever more fundamental role in the mass surveillance which is quietly spreading through our societies. Democracy, which is already very fragile or almost non-existent in many countries, is even more under threat.

AI, a dual technology

“Artificial intelligence is dual, it can serve both civil and military interests and usages,” explains Asma Mhalla in her book. She adds that the most advanced actors in terms of AI research and development are the big technology companies in the United States, such as Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft, as well as leading-edge startups.

These “BigTech” invest colossal amounts of money to build data centers and train their AI systems. To make these expenses profitable, they can thus deploy their technologies in two markets, civil and military.

Most of these big companies have already took the step between these two markets and are now active in the war industry. Asma Mhalla gives examples: Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Starlink, Palantir and Clearview have all played a role in the war in Ukraine, including in the fields of facial recognition, cybersecurity, cloud, satellite data and communications systems. Their support amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Before the war in Ukraine, Google had already entered the military market of facial recognition in 2018 with Project Maven, before it had to cancel it due to a wave of protests.

Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Oracle were granted a $9 billion multi-cloud project from the Pentagon in December 2022. Microsoft also won the $22 billion HoloLens extended reality headsets project for the US Army in 2021, before the control of this program was transferred to Anduril at the beginning of 2025. Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads, is now part of the project. As for Palantir, it collaborates with the NSA and has signed a contract with the Pentagon in 2022 to participate in an interarmies interoperability project.

Also read: OpenAI signs a $200 million contract with the Pentagon

According to the website BigTech Sells War, the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security have spent more than $44 billion between 2004 and 2021 on Silicon Valley’s big technology companies.

BigTech therefore sign very lucrative contracts with the United States governement. But their appetite for profits doesn’t stop there. According to Asma Mhalla, “the monetization of these [artificial intelligence] technologies could also perfectly take place on the domestic market of technosurveillance, a possible extension of the war domain.”

Technosurveillance

Technological surveillance has been increasing for two dozen years, explains the researcher: “Since September 11, 2001, an unprecedented legal arsenal seeks to institutionalize a structure of widespread surveillance in western liberal democracies based on new digital technologies.”

Technosafety usages have indeed increased at an exponential rate within a few years thanks to new sources of data: “Personal data collection through social medias, profilings of biometric data and sensitive personal data like health data, facial recognition softwares, drones, satellites or predictive policing programs join the legal and police arsenal,” details the political analyst.

Surveillance capitalism, which is based on the recording of private data for commercial use, became hybrid. It now feeds not only marketing targeting, but also police targeting, emphasizes Asma Mhalla.

According to her, this hybridation became possible by the generalization of digital uses and the desire to self-expose. Social medias do indeed allow tech companies to collect massive amounts of personal data on their users, data that can then be transferred to certain governments.

Her observation is clear: “The profound intrication between intelligence agencies, law enforcement, armies and technological services providers weaves a web of private and public actors who feed and record every data produced.”

A normalized surveillance

Asma Mhalla denounces the fact that technosafety usages are often preceded by individual and commercial uses, thus facilitating their normalization with the citizens.

“The duality of these technologies raises an important ethical question,” states the political analyst. “Facial recognition for example was first incorporated in intelligent home automation, on social medias or to unlock smartphones. These fluid experiences, seemingly harmless, open the door to a strong acceptability by creating an habituation to technologies which are dual in nature and serve both personal comfort and safety uses. The normalization of these invisible softwares can quickly become invasive as soon as the national legislative framework allows it.”