From the calls to ‘defund the police’ that rang across the US in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, to the community groups that mobilised to defend homes and businesses in the midst of the July riots that ripped through South Africa, citizens are taking a closer interest in the viability and necessity of privatising safety and security as they feel they can no longer rely on state institutions to adequately protect them.

Of course, private security solutions are hardly a new feature of life in South Africa, which has a long history of community watch groups, boomed-off suburbs, street surveillance cameras, and armed response services. What is new, however, is how new technology companies are repackaging and gamifying ‘Safety as a Service’ into an antisocial team sport that encourages neighbours to watch each other and report on suspicious persons and activities, often without fully informed consent of all participants, and with some potentially serious side effects.