Security, Suspicion, and Surveillance? There’s an App for That

Abstract

Despite the recent rise in popularity of mobile safety applications, social scientists have yet to examine these applications in any considerable depth. In this paper we undertake the case studies of bSafe, Citizen, and Nextdoor – analyzing promotional materials and blog posts – in order to further theorize digital security consumption and the potential concomitant social harms. We find these app companies frame crime and risk in ways that obscure the structural elements that precede crime and encourage social divisions. Drawing from over 30,000 user reviews, we speculate about the ways these apps might shape understandings, feelings, and experiences of risk, crime, and victimization. A closer examination of these apps is particularly urgent given these digital technologies have been mobilized in similar ways to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.