Resisting the Surveillance State

In this episode of The Small Print, Bronwyn speaks to investigative journalist Heidi Swart about the rise of surveillance initiatives in South Africa. They discuss the increase in security cameras on South African streets and suburbs, the overreach of private security companies, and why more surveillance could mean less — not more — safety. They also explore issues around big tech and data, why privacy matters, and what citizens can do to better protect themselves.

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Bronwyn Williams is a futurist, economist, trend analyst and host of The Small Print. Her day job as a partner at Flux Trends involves helping business leaders to use foresight to design the future they want to live and work in. You may have seen her talking about Transhumanism or Tikok on Carte Blanche, or heard her talking about trends on 702 or CNBC Africa where she is a regular expert commentator. When she's not talking to brands and businesses about the future, you will probably find her curled up somewhere with a (preferably paperback) book. She tweets at @bronwynwilliams.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bronwynwilliams

Flux Trends: https://www.fluxtrends.com/future-flux/futurist-in-residence/

Website: https://whatthefuturenow.com/

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Heidi Swart is a South African investigative journalist who writes about espionage, security, surveillance and data privacy issues in both the public and private spheres. She's written extensively about illegal government surveillance, interception technologies, cyberspying and cybersecurity, risks to critical communications infrastructure, social media monitoring, data mining for surveillance purposes, public space surveillance, video analytics (including facial recognition, automatic licence plate recognition systems, etc.), the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on surveillance practices, and biometric surveillance. 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Heidi_Swart

Daily Maverick: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/heidiswart/

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