Episode 84: Little Moments I Love: Data Mining From Possessor

Possessor's data mining scene is big tech at its most intrusive.

Credit: "Music: www.purple-planet.com"

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Scott's Self-Indulgent Movie Podcast · Episode 84: Little Moments I Love: Data Mining from Possessor

About once a month I see people on my social streams balking at an ad that landed on their timeline. Half the time it's people who don't understand how tracking cookies work and wonder how Facebook knew that they were looking at curtains on Home Depot. Long story short if you accept tracking cookies on any website their content will...kinda follow you around. The other times it's people who are surprised at the internet's ability to read their mind (i.e. how on earth did they know I was thinking about this without me going onto any websites?) or shock at what's been suggested (see a giant "Cat Daddy" sleeping bag for someone who doesn't even own a cat). But Possessor offers a more terrifying proposition...as background information.

The Scene

In the scene our assassin, Tasya Vos, has inhabited the body of Colin Tate, the fiancée of a tech magnate's daughter, who has a low level position at the company. To avoid suspicion before she completes her assignment, Tasya as Colin goes to her job and takes a spot in a data mining farm. While it's never said out loud, the kind of data Colin is gathering is terrifying. It's video footage from laptop cameras.

There's a lot of reasons I like this scene. Namely because it's a creepy concept outside of the film's creepy conceit. Possessor, true to its title, is about an assassin who uses a new technology to possess the bodies of other people. She then uses the person to carry out assassinations and ensures that said "host" ends up dead at the end of the incident. It is a blatant violation of personal autonomy and a terrifying imagining of how things like VR could be used. It is terrifying all by itself.

But as this scene indicates, current technology isn't much better. Most web savvy people understand how much information social media companies pull from their users. As the saying goes "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product." Meaning all of your personal preferences can and will be bought and sold to the highest bidder or companies interested in your money/attention. It's terrifying if you've ever seen how far down ad targeting on social sites can drill. Still, it's a devil's bargain a lot of people have accepted.

This is something different. Even at a low-level data mining job, Colin has access to a seemingly limitless supply of computer cameras. Oddly enough, Tasya in Colin's body, seems shocked by this. Because this is, by all appearances, what everyone else around Colin is doing and does every workday. It's routine. It's normal. It's been accepted by the company and workforce.

What already feels ridiculously intrusive spikes even higher as we watch Tasya scan through people getting dressed or couples having sex. Everyone in this room is a casual voyeur to countless lives.

All of which begs the question, what's the purpose behind this? Are we trying to find someone's biggest hang-up to offer them the thing they really want in that moment? Are we trying to sway an election?  Are we trying to send messages to people? Nope. Colin was tasked with cataloging...curtains. 

That's it. That's the whole purpose behind this massive invasion of privacy. A little bit of data to help sell more curtains. As awful as it is to imagine big tech firms manipulating the world to their whims, there's something deeply unsettling about wielding this level of power for something so small. It's like they're doing it, simply because they can. Because maybe it'll make them and their customers a little more money. It's a perfect critique of late-capitalism in a single scene. Eventually we will watch you dress, cry, and make love to sell curtains.