In the article The Era of Automatic Facial Recognition And Surveillance Is Here, by Bruce Schneier, the idea is introduced that computers will soon be able to download our entire biography just with one glimpse of our face on a video feed or photograph. This technology is soon to be available from store security cameras to passing police officers to Facebook and other social media. “A computer is now as good as a person,” Schneier writes, “and while we humans are pretty much as good at this as we’re ever going to get, computers will continue to improve” (Schneier, pg. 2). This surveillance technology is very similar to Gary Shteyngart’s, Super Sad True Love Story, how credit scores are available just by walking past certain poles on the street (SSTLS pg. 37-39), anyone can be stalked on the internet to the point where their parents’ home address can be found (SSTLS pg. 54-55), and one’s life story is available at the click of a button at a bar in Staten Island (SSTLS pg. 90-92). The idea that surveillance using technology to publicize identity simultaneously eliminates privacy in everyday life is less “facial recognition for all” and more “for those who can either demand of pay for access to the required technologies – most importantly, the tagged photo database” (Schneier, pg. 3). This particularly draws attention to pages 37 to 39 of Super Sad True Love Story, where Lenny uses the internet to find out everything about Eunice Park that there is to know, from her original home in southern California to the size of clothing that Eunice and her sister Sally prefer to wear and the photographs posted on social media sites. Lenny has access to every detail of Eunice’s life on his personal computer and he’s only just met her at this point in the novel. The society depicted in Super Sad True Love Story is exactly the kind of society that is plagued by surveillance that eliminates all privacy with just a flash of one’s face across a security camera feed.

Schneier, Bruce. “The Era Of Automatic Facial Recognition And Surveillance Is Here.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 29 Sept. 2015. Web. 5 Oct. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceschneier/2015/09/29/the-era-of-automatic-facial-recognition-and-surveillance-is-here/>.