ABSTRACT
Forecast to become a US$122 billion industry by 2024, the business of sexual wellness is on the rise. However, in an age of surveillance capitalism, where user data are extracted and monetised at scale, there remain real risks for marginalised, stigmatised and criminalised communities. This chapter reviews key concepts from the literature on sex tech, sexual rights and ethical governance to explore how sex tech can be used to enhance rather than hinder access to sexual health, rights and justice. It suggests three fundamental lenses through which to consider the politics of sex tech – design, data and governance. These frameworks allow us to consider how human values influence technologies, how sexual data are valued and whose interests are prioritised in tech deployment. The chapter critiques what I describe as ‘carceral sex tech,’ a form of biopolitical management whereby private and state actors police, restrict, surveil, and control sexual cultures in ways that reinforce systems of oppression. It concludes by calling for counter-surveillance sex tech and asking how the benefits of this billion-dollar industry can be more equitably distributed, how the socio-political environments can be reimagined, and how technologies can be programmed to serve radical sexual justice agendas.
