Welcome to Saturday Hashtag, a weekly place for broader context.
|
Listen To This Story
 |
Major tech firms are quietly embedding brain sensors into everyday wearables — earbuds, smartwatches, VR headsets — turning them into real-time windows into your cognitive state. This isn’t a future scenario. It’s already happening.
Marketed as tools for wellness and productivity — “fatigue detection,” “focus enhancement,” “mood adaptation” — these devices often obscure the fact that they’re harvesting neural signals: attention, emotional states, and cognitive load.
Unlike heart-rate trackers, these sensors extract data from the brain — and users rarely know it.
Mental Surveillance Masked As Enhanced Service
A 2023 patent from Apple (US11755685B2) details “head-mounted devices configured to detect bio-signals,” including EEG. Meta’s 2021 acquisition of CTRL-Labs — which developed wristbands for decoding neural impulses — reinforces its intent. Meanwhile, Snap filed US11660002B2 for “emotion detection” via headwear.
This is neurotechnology in stealth mode according to a former neurotech engineer. Companies are bundling brain sensors into audio or health features — but what they’re really doing is mental surveillance for profit.
No Clear Consent, No Laws
There’s almost no regulation. In the US, no federal law protects neural data as a special category. That means with companies’ opt-in presets they can legally collect, analyze, and sell cognitive data — including emotional reactions and psychological traits — without your knowledge or explicit consent.
Montana, California, Colorado are the only states addressing the typical lack of federal oversight on this serious issue.
Neurocapitalism in Action
This is neurocapitalism: turning thought patterns into monetizable signals. Corporations see a trillion-dollar opportunity — not in improving well-being, but in psychological profiling.
The implications of the government using this data are also very troubling, especially considering University of New Haven professor of national security studies (and CIA employee) Dr. Charles Morgan’s (time mark 32:05) proposed uses for the aptly named DREADDs tech (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs).
On a simple commercial level, just imagine the intrusion of ads that react to your subconscious, or AI systems that predict your decisions before you make them. This is the commodification of cognition; privacy research shows that you’re not just being watched — your mind is being mapped.
Prototypes from companies like OpenBCI and NextMind (acquired by Snap) already allow users to control interfaces with mental commands. That’s marketed as empowerment — but it normalizes the brain as an input device and a source of free data for corporations. And once the brain becomes an interface, privacy will never be the same.
Auto Opt-In Deception
The most dangerous part? Consumers are opting in — unknowingly through default opt-in settings. The marketing says “focus mode,” not “neural extraction.” And the silence from regulators ensures this continues unchecked.
The public was never asked whether their inner lives should become data. The decision was made — and the rollout has happened.
What You Can Do
- Demand Transparency: Require clear labels on devices with brain sensors — no hidden features.
- Support Regulation: Back laws like Montana’s SB 163 (Genetic Information Privacy Act). Contact lawmakers to protect neural data.
- Opt Out and Educate: Turn off brain-tracking features. Choose privacy-first products. Inform others.
- Support Advocacy Groups: Follow and fund organizations like NeuroRights Foundation and EFF.
- Push for a Neural Bill of Rights: Call for laws protecting mental privacy and cognitive freedom.
Can AI Read Your Mind? The Battle for Your Brain With Nita Farahany
From TheTED AI Show: “This is The TED AI Show where we figure out how to live and thrive in a world where AI is changing everything. Today we’re gonna dive into AI enhanced Neurotechnology with ethicist and legal scholar Nita Farahany. Nita is the author of The Battle for Your Brain: Defending The Right to Think Freely in The Age of Neurotechnology. … It’s about how neurotechnology without regulation has the power to infringe upon our last bastion of privacy, our privacy of thought, but is this kind of technology inevitable?”
Wearable Brain Devices Will Challenge Our Mental Privacy
The author writes, “A last bastion of privacy, our brains have remained inviolate, even as sensors now record our heartbeats, breaths, steps and sleep. All that is about to change. An avalanche of brain-tracking devices — earbuds, headphones, headbands, watches and even wearable tattoos— will soon enter the market, promising to transform our lives. And threatening to breach the refuge of our minds.”
Modified Virtual Reality Tech Can Measure Brain Activity
From the University of Texas at Austin: “Researchers have modified a commercial virtual reality headset, giving it the ability to measure brain activity and examine how we react to hints, stressors and other outside forces. The research team at The University of Texas at Austin created a noninvasive electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor that they installed in a Meta VR headset that can be worn comfortably for long periods. The EEG measures the brain’s electrical activity during the immersive VR interactions. The device could be used in many ways, from helping people with anxiety, to measuring the attention or mental stress of aviators using a flight simulator, to giving a human the chance to see through the eyes of a robot.”
‘Like a Fitbit for Your Brain’: These Game-Changing Headphones Could Stop You Burning Out
The author writes, “Mind-reading headphones sound like an invention straight out of a science-fiction film, and a far-fetched one at that. But that’s exactly what Boston-based startup Neurable has spent the last nine years creating. … The headphones, called the MW75 Neuro, contain the same sensors as a bulky electroencephalogram — known as an EEG — which is used to measure electrical activity in the brain. Embedded with artificial intelligence (AI), the headphones translate this activity into usable information for the wearer, shared via an app.”
Snap Buys Mind-Controlled Headband Maker, Nextmind
The author writes, “Snap [in 2022] acquired NextMind for an undisclosed sum. The Paris-based startup is best known for its self-titled controller, which utilizes brain signals to move images on a PC interface.”
How to Take Control of Your Data on Facebook and Google: A Step-By-Step Guide
The author writes, “Have you reviewed our privacy policy and do you accept our terms and conditions? Mhmm sure… This question is among the most ignored questions in the history of questions. And, honestly, I’m not here to tell you to read through these thousand page documents. After all, they are subject to change at a moment’s notice. What I am recommending is that you read this article and press a few buttons to make your data more private.”
