18-07-2025
It's Never Been Harder to Get Away With Cheating — or Anything
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At a Coldplay concert outside Boston this week, a lighthearted tradition collided with the sobering realities of the digital age. A version of the "kiss cam" — typically a feel-good diversion between songs — turned into a viral spectacle when it landed on two concertgoers who reacted not with a kiss, but with visible panic.
Within minutes of their embarrassed faces being uploaded to TikTok, the pair was identified as Andy Byron, CEO of the tech firm Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company's head of Human Resources.
Instead of playing along, Byron ducked low and Cabot spun away, covering her face. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin drew laughter from the crowd.
"Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy," Martin quipped from the stage. "I hope we didn't do anything wrong."
Yet within hours, the clip became one of the most-searched queries in the United States, outpacing national news stories about Jeffrey Epstein and even President Donald Trump.
'The Coldplay of It All'
What happened at Gillette Stadium — the embrace, the hasty retreat, the viral fallout — has sparked a renewed national discussion not just about workplace ethics but about the increasingly blurred line between public and private lives.
Byron and Cabot, both senior executives, were identified quickly thanks to LinkedIn profiles and company press releases that highlighted their professional achievements. Byron had praised Cabot's hiring last fall as a "perfect fit" for the company. Cabot, in turn, said she was "energized" by her conversations with Byron during her recruitment.
Neither has publicly commented, and Astronomer declined to respond to inquiries. But their identities — and the speculative affair — became fodder for millions online, from memes mocking the encounter to serious debate over HR violations.
A tech entrepreneur has found himself in the limelight, apparently unintended, after appearing on a stadium jumbotron embracing a woman who is not his wife.
A tech entrepreneur has found himself in the limelight, apparently unintended, after appearing on a stadium jumbotron embracing a woman who is not his wife.
Grace Springer via Storyful/Grace Springer via Storyful
"Andy Byron" shot to the top of Google's trending searches as TikTok and X users dissected the footage frame by frame. While it's unclear exactly how the names were confirmed, facial recognition tools combined with old-fashioned familiarity among acquaintances almost certainly played a role.
If a face is displayed to millions of people at once, chances are someone will recognize it.
"The same technologies used to dox and research this CEO are routinely deployed against the partners of private individuals who have had messy breakups, attractive security guards, or people who dance funny in public," wrote Jason Koebler of 404 Media, in a piece warning of the broader implications of what he called "our social media surveillance dystopia"
Indeed, facial recognition software, reverse-image searches, and metadata analysis that can be done with nothing more than an AI prompt are now available to anyone with a smartphone. What once would have remained an embarrassing but fleeting moment confined to a stadium of 60,000 is now a permanent digital scar.
Every Move Is a Clue
The viral Coldplay moment was far from unique. Even the smallest slip can now trigger global exposure — thanks to the cameras in every pocket, location-sharing apps, and AI tools that stitch together a person's digital trail.
Take the case of a Peruvian husband who discovered his wife's affair through Google Maps' Street View feature. While virtually exploring a tourist spot, he recognized her in a blurry photo, stroking another man's hair on a park bench. The image was from 2013 — but unmistakable — and ultimately led to divorce.
And even if you manage to avoid the cameras perched everywhere, your own devices may betray you.
An X5 group representative demonstrates a facial recognition payment system at a self-checkout machine in a Perekrestok supermarket in Moscow on March 9, 2021.
An X5 group representative demonstrates a facial recognition payment system at a self-checkout machine in a Perekrestok supermarket in Moscow on March 9, 2021.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
Apps like Life360 and Apple's Find My Friends — designed to keep families connected — are increasingly used by suspicious partners, or worse, as tools of control. According to Axios, 84 percent of U.S. parents now use some form of digital monitoring — GPS, text surveillance, app tracking — some even receiving alerts when their kids enter a specific classroom or how fast they're driving.
For romantic partners, this technology is a double-edged sword: a safety net for some, a leash for others. In one notorious case, a woman secretly placed an Apple AirTag in her boyfriend's car, tracked him to a bar with another woman, and confronted him so violently she now faces murder charges.
Devices like AirTags, fitness wearables, and even running apps like Strava quietly log movements. Location history embedded in smartphones and Apple Watch activity records have all been cited in divorces and court cases.
"AI technology, and the surveillance it enables, is a warning about how privacy can be stripped away before we even realize it," Kashmir Hill, a tech reporter at The New York Times and the author of Your Face Belongs to Us, told NPR.
The End of Anonymity?
Poland-based PimEyes, an image search engine, has stirred controversy for its ability to find exactly where on the internet a person's face appears. Its technology processes roughly 118,000 searches a day and handles nearly 400 takedown requests daily.
Now PimEyes is preparing to launch a powerful video-search tool that can scan billions of online videos for specific faces — an upgrade experts say could deepen privacy concerns.
John Slattery, Rich Sommer and Jon Hamm are seen filming "Mad Men" on March 05, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. The hit show is remembered for, among other things, the ease at which its main...
John Slattery, Rich Sommer and Jon Hamm are seen filming "Mad Men" on March 05, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. The hit show is remembered for, among other things, the ease at which its main male characters cheated on their wives. More
Photo by GONZALO/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
"We are aware that our tools can be misused, but we also see how they help victims of harassment or revenge porn reclaim their images," PimEyes director Giorgi Gobronidze told Biometric Update. "No platform can guarantee 100 percent protection from misuse — not even governments or multinational tech companies."
Meanwhile, more aggressive facial recognition companies like Clearview AI continue to scrape billions of photos, creating searchable databases now used by police to identify fugitives.
Even if you disguise yourself, advanced systems can track you by gait, clothing, or even the color of your backpack, stitching together a timeline of movements from CCTV, drones, and smartphone videos.
"The terrifying part," Hill, the Times reporter, added, "isn't just that people can find you — it's that they can find you when you don't even know you're being looked for."
