Aidwashing Surveillance: Critiquing the Corporate Exploitation of Humanitarian Crises

Private sector actors have long been involved in surveillance. This extends to surveillance undertaken crisis contexts and conflict situations, where humanitarian needs commonly arise. Prior research has problematized the surveillance-industrial complex’s involvement aid initiatives interventions, but new dynamics are creating novel dilemmas. contribution a dialogue on contemporary discusses how firms exploiting crises as means aidwash their technologies services. In this context, aidwashing practices involve use of corporate social responsibility forms public-private partnership with burnish firms’ reputations distract public from misbehavior, ethical misdeeds, dubious data practices. piece, I draw two recent cases—a develop advanced analytics for optimization food assistance donation facial recognition services an ongoing armed conflict—to interrogate industry’s relations activities emergencies situations reflect inner workings of—and resistance to—aidwashing.