What the Coldplay ‘kiss cam’ scandal says about privacy for us all today
‘There’s no such thing as the private life any more,’ says one expert as the fallout from Coldplay concert saga continues
When the “kiss cam” at a Coldplay concert on July 16 landed on a couple who tried – but failed – to duck out of the spotlight, the internet immediately got to work.
In hours, the clip was just about everywhere. Endless memes, parody videos and photos of the pair’s shocked faces filled social media feeds. Online sleuths rushed to identify who was on camera.
US tech company Astronomer eventually confirmed that its CEO and chief people officer were in fact the couple in the video – and announced the CEO’s resignation that weekend.
The incident’s fallout has generated conversations about business ethics, corporate accountability and the repercussions that conflicts of interest among leadership can cause.
But there are also broader implications at play in our increasingly online world: about the state of potentially being visible everywhere you go, or tracked through “social media surveillance”.
Experts say it is increasingly common for moments that may have been intended to be private, or at least reserved to a single physical venue, to make their way online and even go global today.