LONDON (AP) — A routine moment of crowdwork at a Coldplay concert went viral last week when a couple tried to avoid the spotlight after they were caught hugging on the jumbotron. Internet sleuths quickly figured out that they were the CEO and chief people officer of a little-known tech company called Astronomer.
The snippet of video set the internet alight, fueling a wave of memes and drawing attention to the erosion of privacy in public spaces.
Here are some things to know:
What happened at the concert
During the concert on Wednesday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, lead singer Chris Martin asked the cameras to scan the crowd for his “Jumbotron Song,” when he sings a few lines about the people the camera lands on.
A man wearing a birthday sash was up first. Two people in banana costumes were highlighted.
But in between, something unexpected happened. For several seconds, a couple was shown on the big screen. They were cuddling and smiling, his arms wrapped around her, as she leaned back into him.
When they saw themselves on the big screen, her jaw dropped, her hands flew to her face and she spun away from the camera. He ducked out of the frame, as did she.
“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” Martin joked.
It didn’t end there.
Who was involved
After the video went viral, the internet got to work.
Online sleuths rapidly figured out that the man was Andy Byron, chief executive officer, while she was Kristin Cabot, the chief people officer — in other words, the head of human resources.
Astronomer, based in New York, provides big companies with a platform that helps them organize their data.
The company at first said little about the incident. In response to an initial inquiry from The Associated Press, Astronomer’s spokesman said only that a statement attributed to Byron that circulated online immediately after the incident was a “fake from a clearly labeled parody account.”
The company later confirmed the identities of the couple in a statement to AP.
What happened to the CEO
In the hours after the video went viral, Byron’s name was at one point the most searched term on Google.
Astronomer eventually addressed the situation, announcing in a LinkedIn post late Friday that Byron had been placed on leave and that the board of directors had launched a formal investigation.
The company said a day later that Byron had resigned, and that its cofounder and chief product officer, Pete DeJoy, was tapped as interim CEO while it searches for Byron’s successor.
“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” the company said in its post on LinkedIn.
DeJoy weighed in on Monday how the company was thrust into the spotlight.
“The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies—let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world — ever encounter,” he wrote on Linkedin. “The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name.
Why you should read those warnings about being filmed
It’s easy to miss, but most concert venues have signs informing the audience that they could be filmed during the event. Look for them on the walls when you arrive and around the bar areas or toilets. It’s common practice especially when bands like to use performances for music videos or concert films.
The venue in this case, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, also has a privacy policy online which states: “When you visit our location or attend or participate in an event at our location, we may capture your image, voice and/or likeness, including through the use of CCTV cameras and/or when we film or photograph you in a public location.”
What it says about privacy
In the internet age, such videos — or ones taken on someone’s smartphone — can quickly zip around the world.
This video rocketed around social media, as people speculated about why the couple dodged the camera.
Empathy for the pair and their families was mixed with plenty of snarky commentary and countless memes, with the fake statement from the chief executive generating a lot of additional vitriol. And news reports said that Byron’s LinkedIn account was disabled after it was flooded by a wave of comments.
“It’s a little bit unsettling how easily we can be identified with biometrics, how our faces are online, how social media can track us — and how the internet has gone from being a place of interaction, to a gigantic surveillance system,” said Mary Angela Bock, an associate professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media. “We are being surveilled by our social media. They’re tracking us in exchange for entertaining us.”
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AP Business Writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips contributed to this report from New York.
