‘My fingerprint on Osama’s cup.’ On objectivity and the role of the fictive regarding the acceptance of a biometric technology

In inquiring about the social acceptance of the digital fingerprint during our research, we discovered the crucial role the fictive plays in our interviewees’ experiencing and assessment of control and security technology. Social acceptance is thus a heterogeneous phenomenon, not only because it depends on the situational features of dealing with the technology, but also, notably, because facts and fiction intermingle, sometimes indistinctly, within the discourses on surveillance and security. Mistrust in the technology tends to feed on fictive imageries, while at the same time resting on an unwavering belief in the objectivity of fingerprint data, presumably a clearly decipherable and reliable form of forensic proof. Against this backdrop, the article seeks to investigate the fictive’s critical role in countering security technologies.