A Belgium artist, Dries Depoorter, has devised a new level of surveillance with his new project of using artificial intelligence to pin point Instagram users’ locations.
The work titled "The Follower", which launched on September 12, takes Orwellian surveillance to a whole new level as Depoorter uses open cameras all over the world to track down users on the social media platform.
On his website, he described that all he does is record a selection of open cameras for weeks at a time, scrape all Instagram photos tagged with the location and then uses software to compare the pictures with the recorded footage.
🔥NEW PROJECT!🔥
— Dries Depoorter (@driesdepoorter) September 12, 2022
'The Follower' is software searching how an Instagram photo was taken with the help of AI and open cameras.
Project page: https://t.co/Djzlu3rf39
YouTube video: https://t.co/WpD3gdkPIu
Support my work: https://t.co/lP6wVXSkJ3
🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/MEQ9kwz8mY
The creator also uploaded a video on YouTube, going into detail about how he created the project, but it was removed due to a copyright claim by EarthCam, a webcam network.
“This is incredibly creepy, invasive, and should not have been released. People have a right to privacy. 24/7 surveillance is not fun and cute,” commented a Twitter user under Depoorter’s post.
Another suggested that could be the point of The Follower to showcase how much ordinary people are watched on an everyday basis.
“Have you thought about maybe this art piece wants to highlight exactly that? Make people think about the attention/surveillance economy? He did not release any tool, just a video making a point, yours to be precise.”
In the mixed bag of comments, a woman said this is a very dangerous tool that could lead to harm being caused to individuals, especially females.
“Speaking as someone who was once stalked and harassed by someone who worked out my address from the outline of the buildings in a photo I took of my garden - this is REALLY dangerous, and you are endangering women,” she said.
On the other hand, "tech heads" are praising Depoorter for his work, saying it is innovative and cutting-edge. With his story viral, a TikTok user said he must have spent a lot of time and resources on the project.
Can’t imaging celebrating this level of surveillance. This is terrifying. pic.twitter.com/rMgeYevh3w
— petty mayonnaise (@NuuYawkerr) September 14, 2022
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