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Identity Affordances k In August 2011 the Japanese company Manuscript was forced to amend the settings of its new software application, Karelog (Boyfriend Log), in response to consumer complaints. Drawing on GPS technology, the service allowed users to log in from a computer to track another person’s phone. In the program’s first release, these surveillance capacities also stretched to include accessing the mobile’s call history and remaining battery life. Promotional material for the product targeted anxious girlfriends wanting to know the whereabouts of partners . But within days of the public launch, the antivirus software giant McAfee labeled the app a “Potentially Unwanted Program,” because users had no way of knowing the technology had been installed or what information was being logged and sent. The problem was not so much the capacity of the application—GPS tracking is already used for other caring purposes, such as parents staying in touch with children. The crime was that women were encouraged to install the app without their partners’ permission. The language of Internet security literalized the threat that the program posed as an example of everyday spyware. Facing the media, Yoshinori Miura, the president of the fledgling software firm, admitted the product’s publicity involved some cynicism: “We were still a largely unknown company, so I thought that we could grab attention by focusing on anti-cheating programs, but we went too far. I didn’t think we [would] get so much criticism” (MSN 2011). The official apology also addressed the gender discrimination inherent to the application design. Press reports acknowledged that there was nothing about the technology that stopped it from being used by 99 Adultery Technologies k M e l i s s a G r e g g For some of us—perhaps the fortunate, or at least, the affluent—monogamy is the only serious philosophical question. —Adam Phillips, Monogamy Life is short. Have an affair. ashleymadison.com both genders; nonetheless the aesthetics of design showed clear allegiance to the established traits of Japanese kawaii, or “cute” (Hjorth 2009; McLelland 2009).1 While Boyfriend Log made headlines in Japanese- and English-language media, gendered assumptions have also affected the release of similar surveillance programs in the United States. For example, iTrust is an iPhone app that reveals whether a significant other has been tampering with one’s text. In contrast to the Boyfriend Log, iTrust turns the tables to allow phone owners to maintain privacy. A fake home screen locks the mobile in the user’s absence at the same time as it records the traces of interfering fingers. In the demo video for the program , a female voice-over describes a failed attempt to read her boyfriend’s messages in a moment of boredom. Like the men offended by Karelog’s marketing, this casting decision did not escape the notice of commenters responding to the story on industry stalwart news website Mashable.2 Karelog and iTrust are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the booming market for online intimacy surveillance. The most heavily promoted spouse surveillance packages deploy familiar tropes, including “007 Spy,” “stealth software ” and “spy agent” alongside a host of popular detective imagery (hats and overcoats, magnifying glasses, zoom lenses) to reinforce the secrecy and strength of the service. High-ranking search results point to such websites as Catch Cheaters, E-Spy, Spouse Spy, and Spy Tech, all of which portray glamorous conniving couples with telltale signs of suspicious activity. These signs and symbols reinforce the software’s capacity to encode the identity of “cheater” and “cheated” with great efficiency. Vague statistics on the prevalence of affairs promote the basis for these identities and the broader industry of infidelity.3 In these depictions, marital disloyalty often appears as a subcategory or niche demographic for a product also marketed to employers to ensure workers’ appropriate behavior. Here the shop-floor discipline of the factory finds its equivalence in the domestic surveillance adultery technologies evoke and police (Kipnis 2003). Dubious promotional testimonies highlight the ease with which monitoring equipment can be deployed. These YouTube-style confessionals collected from ostensibly aggrieved and at times hostile and aggressive partners draw on authenticating “user-generated” aesthetics to reinforce product credentials. The willingness of these alleged customers to reveal themselves as users, with or without providing “real” names, raises important questions of legality, literacy, and class in contemporary friendship networks. The very need for adultery technologies is symptomatic of a moment in which some individuals see...

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