Social Implication Topics

        Information privacy in Divergent is prevalent throughout the future dystopian Chicago that the film takes place. Within the community, a primary form of information is the thoughts and reactions of individuals. As individuals come of age, they are required to take an aptitude test that suggests what faction they should join but ultimately the choice is theirs. Individuals lose the privacy of their own minds through the aptitude test, which uses a serum and computers to simulate a situation, and through the analysis of data collected about the scenario from their minds, the system recommends a faction. The aptitude tests require exposing the inner workings of the individual’s brain and thinking strategy. The administrator cannot only see inside the subject's brain but also test results are available to others including those outside the government. Ultimately meaning the test results were not private and that privacy of thought is essentially non-existent. 

       A similar lack of privacy toward the information in an individual's mind is also present in the fear trials that Dauntless members undergo in their training. Once again information that people would generally be able to choose to keep private is put on display and analyzed to fit into the Dauntless faction. Specifically, within Four’s fear simulation information about his home life is revealed that otherwise may not have been. 

       The advancement of technology to allow access and distribution of information is prevalent in reality. It is a common practice for businesses to use collected information on consumers to identify trends in what they like and dislike as a group as well as establish profiles to create personalized experiences [1]. The data collected from apps and businesses can be used to influence people’s decisions and emotions. A study published by PNAS investigated how posts could affect the emotions of viewers. The study found that when positive posts were reduced from a user's feed the percentage of positive words in statuses decreased by 0.1% compared with the control whereas the percentage of words that were negative increased by 0.04% [2].  By promoting posts with chosen connotations the platform influenced the user’s impression. Controlling the content that a person views and the inherent connotations associated with it influences a person’s privacy of thought.

       A surveillance system that includes facial recognition appears when Erudite’s leaders are watching Dauntless nearly kill Abnegation. The presence of facial recognition indicates that information regarding identity and appearance was collected. Information regarding factions is also kept hidden with the use of technology. For example, the Dauntless headquarters is only accessible by train. This creates a level of privacy between factions. 

      Although trackers were not actually placed in the necks of the Dauntless members, their lack of resilience towards them being placed in their necks reveals that trackers are a realistic and acceptable possibility to them. Trackers within their necks would give those in charge a plethora of data regarding their whereabouts that could be used to analyze past movements and predict future ones, violating the privacy of location and action. Smartphones and tracking tags are common in reality which can track the movements and location of individuals, sometimes even without user agreement [3]. Their usage relates back to the film as there is a general understanding of the presence of tracking devices and their inherent data collection in both the film and reality. 

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References: 

1. Isaak, J., & Hanna, M. J. (2018). User Data Privacy: Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and privacy protection. Computer, 51(8), 56–59. https://doi.org/10.1109/mc.2018.3191268 

2. Kramer, A. D. I., Guillory, J. E., & Hancock, J. T. (2014). Correction for Kramer et al., experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(29), 10779–10779. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1412583111 

3. Wagner, D., & Schmalstieg, D. (2009). History and future of tracking for mobile phone augmented reality. 2009 International Symposium on Ubiquitous Virtual Reality. https://doi.org/10.1109/isuvr.2009.11