Can you ever expect privacy in public? Coldplay kiss camera saga tells us a lot about the answer

FILE - Chris Martin of Coldplay performs during the band's Music Of The Spheres World Tour at D. Y. Patil Sports Stadium in Navi Mumbai, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. Photo by Rajanish Kakade /AP

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NEW YORK (AP) — When the “KissCam” at a Coldplay concert landed on a couple who tried (but failed) to duck out of the spotlight, the internet immediately got to work.

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In hours, the clip was just about everywhere. Endless memes, parody videos and photos of the pair’s shocked faces filled social media feeds. Online sleuths rushed to identify who was on camera. Artificial intelligence and software company Astronomer eventually confirmed that its CEO and chief people officer were in fact the couple in the video — and announced the CEO’s resignation over the weekend.

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The incident’s fallout has, of course, generated conversations about business ethics, corporate accountability and the repercussions that conflicts of interest among leadership can cause. But there are also broader implications at play in our increasingly online world — about the state of potentially being visible everywhere you go or tracked through “social media surveillance.” Experts say it’s more and more common for moments that may have been intended to be private, or at least reserved to a single physical venue, to make their way online and even go global today.

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So in the era of lightning-fast social sharing and when cameras are practically inescapable, does being in public hold any expectation of privacy anymore? Is every experience simply fodder for the world to see?

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Cameras are everywhere

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It’s no secret that cameras are filming much of our lives these days.

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From CCTV security systems to Ring doorbells, businesses, schools and neighborhoods use ample video surveillance around the clock. Sporting and concert venues have also filmed fans for years, often projecting playful bits of audience participation to the rest of the crowd. In short, the on-scene viewer becomes part of the product — and the center of attention.

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And of course, consumers can record just about anything if they have a smartphone in their pocket — and, if it’s enticing to other social media users, that footage can quickly spread through cyberspace.

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Ellis Cashmore, author of the book “Celebrity Culture,” proposes that the rapid fame of last week’s KissCam moment probably answers a question many have been asking for years: “Is the private life still what it was? And the answer is, of course, there’s no such thing as the private life anymore,” he notes. “Certainly not in the traditional sense of the term.”

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“I’m not sure that we can assume privacy at a concert with hundreds of other people,” adds Mary Angela Bock, an associate professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media. “We can’t assume privacy on the street anymore.”

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Some version of the KissCam has long been a staple at big events — from timeouts during sports games to romantic songs played by artists at their concerts. It’s easy to miss, but most venues have signs to inform the audience that they could be filmed during the event. What’s been different in more recent years, experts note, is how quickly those moments can travel beyond the physical space where they actually unfold.