AI-powered wearables will force our privacy norms to change
AI wearables will harvest our most intimate data while we pretend privacy still exists. Cryptography could enable us to keep our privacy.
Opinion by: Evin McMullen, co-founder and CEO of Billions Network and co-founder of Privado ID
Population monitoring has evolved over the years. First, it was from other people; later, it was data harvesting. In 2025, wearable technology is the new frontier for broader public surveillance.
This isn’t necessarily some dystopia, nor is it comfortable — it is a new paradigm in how we engage with each other and our data. While it’s inevitable that people will need to redefine their expectations around privacy as we enter this new era of surveillance, now is the time to seize the opportunity to shape this new normal before technology sidelines us from active participants to passive subjects.