View source for Surveillance capitalism

{{short description|Concept in political economics}}

'''Surveillance capitalism''' is a concept in [[Finance:Political economy|political economics]] which denotes the widespread collection and commodification of [[Personal data|personal data]] by corporations. This phenomenon is distinct from government surveillance, though the two can reinforce each other. The concept of surveillance capitalism, as described by [[Biography:Shoshana Zuboff|Shoshana Zuboff]], is driven by a [[Finance:Profit (economics)|profit-making]] incentive, and arose as advertising companies, led by Google's AdWords, saw the possibilities of using personal data to target consumers more precisely.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Zuboff|first=Shoshana|s2cid=159380755|date=January 2019|title=Surveillance Capitalism and the Challenge of Collective Action|journal=New Labor Forum|volume=28|issue=1|pages=10–29|doi=10.1177/1095796018819461|issn=1095-7960|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Increased data collection may have various advantages for individuals and society such as [[Self-optimization|self-optimization]] (Quantified Self),<ref name="theconversation1" /> societal optimizations (such as by smart cities) and optimized services (including various [[Web application|web application]]s). However, as [[Philosophy:Capitalism|capitalism]] has become focused on expanding the proportion of social life that is open to [[Data collection|data collection]] and [[Data processing|data processing]],<ref name="theconversation1" /> these may come with significant implications for vulnerability and control of society as well as for [[Privacy|privacy]].

Economic pressures of capitalism are driving the intensification of connection and monitoring online with spaces of social life becoming open to saturation by corporate actors, directed at the making of profit and/or the regulation of action. Therefore, personal data points increased in value after the possibilities of [[Finance:Targeted advertising|targeted advertising]] were known.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|last=John Wiley & Sons, Inc.|title=Data analytics and big data: chapter 5: Data analytics process:there's great work behind the scenes|date=1 June 2018|pages=77–99|doi=10.1002/9781119528043.ch5|isbn=978-1-119-52804-3|s2cid=243896249}}</ref> Consequently, the increasing price of data has limited accessibility to the purchase of personal data points to the richest in society.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=The Great Hack|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/20/the-great-hack-cambridge-analytica-scandal-facebook-netflix|last=Cadwalladr|first=Carole|date=20 June 2019|website=The Guardian|access-date=6 February 2020|archive-date=4 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204002839/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/20/the-great-hack-cambridge-analytica-scandal-facebook-netflix|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Background ==
Shoshana Zuboff writes that "analysing massive data sets began as a way to reduce uncertainty by discovering the probabilities of future patterns in the behavior of people and systems".<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Zuboff|first1=Shoshana|last2=Möllers|first2=Norma|last3=Murakami Wood|first3=David|last4=Lyon|first4=David|date=31 March 2019|title=Surveillance Capitalism: An Interview with Shoshana Zuboff|journal=Surveillance & Society|volume=17|issue=1/2|pages=257–266|doi=10.24908/ss.v17i1/2.13238|issn=1477-7487|doi-access=free}}</ref> In 2014 Vincent Mosco referred to the marketing of information about customers and subscribers to advertisers as ''surveillance capitalism'' and makes note of the surveillance state alongside it.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mosco|first1=Vincent|title=To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317250388|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwbvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA10|access-date=9 February 2017|language=en|date=17 November 2015|archive-date=19 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019072423/https://books.google.com/books?id=YwbvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA10|url-status=live}}</ref> Christian Fuchs found that the surveillance state fuses with surveillance capitalism.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fuchs|first1=Christian|title=Social Media: A Critical Introduction|publisher=SAGE|isbn=9781473987494|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3oEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA204|access-date=9 February 2017|language=en|date=20 February 2017|archive-date=19 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019072425/https://books.google.com/books?id=m3oEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA204|url-status=live}}</ref> Similarly, Zuboff informs that the issue is further complicated by highly invisible collaborative arrangements with state security apparatuses. According to Trebor Scholz, companies recruit people as informants for this type of capitalism.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Scholz|first1=Trebor|title=Uberworked and Underpaid: How Workers Are Disrupting the Digital Economy|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781509508181|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LiDNDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT128|access-date=9 February 2017|language=en|date=27 December 2016|archive-date=19 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019072423/https://books.google.com/books?id=LiDNDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT128|url-status=live}}</ref> Zuboff contrasts [[Finance:Mass production|mass production]] of industrial capitalism with surveillance capitalism with the former being interdependent with its populations who were its consumers and employees and the latter preying on dependent populations who are neither its consumers nor its employees and largely ignorant of its procedures.<ref name="faz1" /> Their research is demonstrating that the capitalist addition to analysing massive data sets has given its beginning purpose an unexpected turn.<ref name=":3"/> Surveillance has been changing power structures in the information economy, potentially shifting the balance of power further from nation-states and towards large corporations employing the surveillance capitalist logic<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Galič|first1=Maša|last2=Timan|first2=Tjerk|last3=Koops|first3=Bert-Jaap|date=13 May 2016|title=Bentham, Deleuze and Beyond: An Overview of Surveillance Theories from the Panopticon to Participation|journal=Philosophy & Technology|volume=30|pages=9–37|doi=10.1007/s13347-016-0219-1|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Zuboff notes that surveillance capitalism reaches beyond the conventional institutional terrain of the private firm and accumulates not only surveillance assets and capital, but also rights and operates without meaningful mechanisms of consent.<ref name="faz1" /> In other words, analysing massive data sets was at some point not only executed by the state apparatuses but also companies. In Zuboff's research she claims that the two companies; [[Company:Google|Google]] and [[Company:Facebook|Facebook]] invented and transferred surveillance capitalism into "a new logic of accumulation".<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Zuboff|first=Shoshana|title=Shoshana Zuboff: A Digital Declaration|language=de|work=FAZ.NET|url=https://www.faz.net/1.3152525|access-date=18 May 2020|issn=0174-4909|archive-date=22 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622051329/https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshan-zuboff-on-big-data-as-surveillance-capitalism-13152525.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Shoshana Zuboff On surveillance capitalism|url=https://www.contagious.com/news-and-views/shoshana-zuboff-on-the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism|website=Contagious|language=en|access-date=18 May 2020|archive-date=6 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200206195205/https://www.contagious.com/news-and-views/shoshana-zuboff-on-the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism|url-status=live}}</ref> This mutation entailed both companies gathering very large numbers of data points about their users, with the core purpose of making profit. By selling these data points to external users (particularly advertisers) it has become an economic mechanism. The combination of the analysis of massive data sets and using those data sets as a market mechanism, has shaped the concept of surveillance capitalism. Surveillance capitalism has been heralded the successor to [[Social:Neoliberalism|neoliberalism]].<ref>Zuboff, Shoshana (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. p. 504-505, 519.</ref><ref name=SC_1>{{cite web| title=Surveillance capitalism in the context of futurology : an inquiry to the implications of surveillance capitalism on the future of humanity| author=Sandberg, Roy| url=https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/dbbc4b84-eadd-41f1-9d3c-570eeed3a3d9/content| publisher=Helsinki University Library| pages=33,39,87| date=May 2020| access-date=29 December 2023| url-status=live| archive-date=1 July 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701174024/https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/316996/Sandberg_Roy_Master's%20Thesis_2020.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y}}</ref>

Oliver Stone, creator of the film ''Snowden'', pointed to the [[Earth:Location-based game|location-based game]] ''[[Software:Pokémon Go|Pokémon Go]]'' as the "latest sign of the emerging phenomenon and demonstration of surveillance capitalism". Stone criticised the game on the grounds that the location of its users was used not only for game purposes, but also to retrieve more information about its players. By tracking users' locations, the game collected far more information than just users' names and locations: "it can access the contents of your USB storage, your accounts, photographs, network connections, and phone activities, and can even activate your phone, when it is in standby mode". This data can then be analysed and commodified by companies such as Google (who significantly invested in the game's development) to improve the effectiveness of [[Finance:Targeted advertising|targeted advertisement]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Comic-Con 2016: Marvel turns focus away from the Avengers, 'Game of Thrones' cosplay proposals, and more|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-hc-comic-con-updates-oliver-stone-calls-pokemon-go-1469130980-htmlstory.html|work=Los Angeles Times|date=24 July 2016 |access-date=9 February 2017|archive-date=11 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211081254/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-hc-comic-con-updates-oliver-stone-calls-pokemon-go-1469130980-htmlstory.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Oliver Stone Calls Pokémon Go "Totalitarian"|url=http://fortune.com/2016/07/23/oliver-stone-calls-pokemon-go-totalitarian/|publisher=Fortune|date=23 July 2016|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-date=14 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200214154450/https://fortune.com/2016/07/23/oliver-stone-calls-pokemon-go-totalitarian/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Another aspect of surveillance capitalism relates to the influence it has had on political campaigning. Personal data retrieved by [[Data mining|data miners]] can enable various companies (most notoriously, [[Company:Cambridge Analytica|Cambridge Analytica]]) to improve the targeting of ''political'' advertising, a step beyond the commercial ends of previous surveillance capitalist operations. In this way, it is possible that political parties will be able to produce far more finely targeted political advertising, to maximise its impact on the electorate. However, Cory Doctorow writes that misuse of these data sets "will lead us towards totalitarianism".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Unchecked Surveillance Technology Is Leading Us Towards Totalitarianism {{!}} Opinion|url=https://www.ibtimes.com/unchecked-surveillance-technology-leading-us-towards-totalitarianism-opinion-2535230|last=Doctorow|first=Cory|date=5 May 2017|website=International Business Times|access-date=19 May 2020|archive-date=1 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701204824/https://www.ibtimes.com/unchecked-surveillance-technology-leading-us-towards-totalitarianism-opinion-2535230|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Opinion site shouldn't be used; pick a book of his.|date=November 2022}} This may resemble a [[Social:Corporatocracy|corporatocracy]], and Joseph Turow writes that "centrality of [[Finance:Corporate capitalism|corporate power]] is a direct reality at the very heart of the digital age".<ref name="theconversation1" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Turow|first1=Joseph|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m9_DyhPGhEMC&pg=PA17|title=The Daily You: How the New Advertising Industry Is Defining Your Identity and Your Worth|date=10 January 2012|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0300165012|pages=256|language=en|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-date=19 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019072428/https://books.google.com/books?id=m9_DyhPGhEMC&pg=PA17|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|17}}

== Theory ==

=== Shoshana Zuboff ===
{{main|Biography:Shoshana Zuboff}}
The terminology "surveillance capitalism" was popularized by Harvard Professor Shoshana Zuboff.<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last=Roach |first=Stephen |url= |title=Accidental Conflict: America, China, and the Clash of False Narratives |date=2022 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-26901-7 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv2z0vv2v |jstor=j.ctv2z0vv2v |s2cid=252800309}}</ref>{{Rp|page=107}} In Zuboff's theory, surveillance capitalism is a novel market form and a specific logic of [[Philosophy:Capitalism|capitalist]] accumulation. In her 2014 essay ''A Digital Declaration: Big Data as Surveillance Capitalism'', she characterized it as a "radically disembedded and extractive variant of information capitalism" based on the commodification of "reality" and its transformation into behavioral data for analysis and sales.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.faz.net/1.3152525|title=A Digital Declaration: Big Data as Surveillance Capitalism|last=Zuboff|first=Shoshana|date=15 September 2014|work=FAZ.NET|access-date=28 August 2018|language=de|issn=0174-4909|archive-date=22 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622051329/https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshan-zuboff-on-big-data-as-surveillance-capitalism-13152525.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Powles|first1=Julia|title=Google and Microsoft have made a pact to protect surveillance capitalism|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/02/google-microsoft-pact-antitrust-surveillance-capitalism|work=The Guardian|access-date=9 February 2017|date=2 May 2016|archive-date=30 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200530230908/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/02/google-microsoft-pact-antitrust-surveillance-capitalism|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Sterling|first1=Bruce|title=Shoshanna Zuboff condemning Google "surveillance capitalism"|url=https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2016/03/shoshanna-zuboff-condemning-google-surveillance-capitalism/|magazine=WIRED|date=March 2016|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-date=14 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190114164101/https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2016/03/shoshanna-zuboff-condemning-google-surveillance-capitalism/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/magazine/facebook-google-privacy-data.html|title=The Unlikely Activists Who Took On Silicon Valley — and Won|date=14 August 2018|work=New York Times|access-date=28 August 2018|language=en|archive-date=7 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607082311/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/magazine/facebook-google-privacy-data.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a subsequent 2015 article, Zuboff analyzed the societal implications of this [[Finance:Creative destruction|mutation]] of capitalism. She differentiated "surveillance assets", "surveillance capital", and "surveillance capitalism" and their dependence on a global architecture of computer mediation that she calls "Big Other", a distributed and largely uncontested new expression of power which constitutes hidden mechanisms of extraction, commodification, and control that threatens core values such as [[Philosophy:Free will|freedom]], [[Social:Democracy|democracy]], and [[Privacy|privacy]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zuboff|first=Shoshana|s2cid=15329793|date=4 April 2015|title=Big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization|journal=Journal of Information Technology|language=en|volume=30|issue=1|pages=75–89|doi=10.1057/jit.2015.5|issn=0268-3962|ssrn=2594754|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="theconversation1">{{cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/the-price-of-connection-surveillance-capitalism-64124|title=The price of connection: 'surveillance capitalism'|last1=Couldry|first1=Nick|date=23 September 2016|publisher=The Conversation|language=en|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-date=20 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200520101025/https://theconversation.com/the-price-of-connection-surveillance-capitalism-64124|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to Zuboff, surveillance capitalism was pioneered at Google and later Facebook, in much the same way that mass-production and managerial capitalism were pioneered at [[Company:Ford Motor Company|Ford]] and [[Company:General Motors|General Motors]] a century earlier, and has now become the dominant form of information capitalism.<ref name="faz1">{{cite news|url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshana-zuboff-secrets-of-surveillance-capitalism-14103616.html?printPagedArticle=true|title=Google as a Fortune Teller: The Secrets of Surveillance Capitalism|last1=Zuboff|first1=Shoshana|date=5 March 2016|publisher=Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung|access-date=9 February 2017|newspaper=Faz.net|archive-date=11 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211075033/http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshana-zuboff-secrets-of-surveillance-capitalism-14103616.html?printPagedArticle=true|url-status=live}}</ref> Zuboff emphasizes that artificial intelligence-enabled behavioral modifications have become aligned with the financial objectives of American internet businesses such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon.<ref name=":04" />{{Rp|page=107}}

In her [[Organization:University of Oxford|Oxford University]] lecture published in 2016, Zuboff identified surveillance capitalism's mechanisms and practices, including the manufacture of "prediction products" for sale in new "behavioral futures markets." She introduced the concept "dispossession by surveillance" and argued that it challenges the psychological and political bases of [[Philosophy:Self-determination theory|self-determination]] as it concentrates rights in the surveillance regime. This is described as a "coup from above."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.faz.net/1.4103616|title=Google as a Fortune Teller: The Secrets of Surveillance Capitalism|last=Zuboff|first=Shoshana|date=5 March 2016|work=FAZ.NET|access-date=28 August 2018|language=de|issn=0174-4909}}</ref>

==== Key features ====
Zuboff's book ''The Age of Surveillance Capitalism''<ref name=ZuboffBook>{{cite book |last1=Zuboff |first1=Shoshana |title=The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power |publisher=PublicAffairs |year=2019 |isbn=9781610395694 |location=New York |oclc=1049577294 }}</ref>  is a detailed examination of the unprecedented power of surveillance capitalism and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control human behavior.<ref name=ZuboffBook /> Zuboff identifies four key features in the logic of surveillance capitalism and explicitly follows the four key features identified by Google's chief economist, Hal Varian:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Varian |first1=Hal |title=Computer Mediated Transactions |journal=American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings |volume=100 |date=May 2010 |issue=2 |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1257/aer.100.2.1 |citeseerx=10.1.1.216.691 }}</ref>
<!--https://philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.de/2015/06/the-logic-of-surveillance-capitalism.html-->
# The drive toward more and more data extraction and analysis.
# The development of new contractual forms using computer-monitoring and automation.
# The desire to personalize and customize the services offered to users of digital platforms.
# The use of the technological infrastructure to carry out continual experiments on its users and consumers.

==== Analysis ====
Zuboff compares demanding privacy from surveillance capitalists or lobbying for an end to commercial surveillance on the Internet to asking Henry Ford to make each Model T by hand and states that such demands are existential threats that violate the basic mechanisms of the entity's survival.<ref name=faz1/>

Zuboff warns that principles of self-determination might be forfeited due to "ignorance, learned helplessness, inattention, inconvenience, habituation, or drift" and states that "we tend to rely on mental models, vocabularies, and tools distilled from past catastrophes," referring to the twentieth century's totalitarian nightmares or the monopolistic predations of [[Finance:Gilded Age|Gilded Age]] capitalism, with countermeasures that have been developed to fight those earlier threats not being sufficient or even appropriate to meet the novel challenges.<ref name=faz1/>

She also poses the question: "will we be the masters of information, or will we be its slaves?" and states that "if the digital future is to be our home, then it is we who must make it so".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Zuboff|first1=Shoshana|title=Shoshana Zuboff: A Digital Declaration|url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshan-zuboff-on-big-data-as-surveillance-capitalism-13152525.html|publisher=Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung|access-date=9 February 2017|date=15 September 2014|newspaper=Faz.net|archive-date=21 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141221170008/https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshan-zuboff-on-big-data-as-surveillance-capitalism-13152525.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In her book, Zuboff discusses the differences between industrial capitalism and surveillance capitalism. Zuboff writes that as industrial capitalism exploited nature, surveillance capitalism exploits human nature.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.contagious.com/news-and-views/shoshana-zuboff-on-the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism|title=Shoshana Zuboff On surveillance capitalism|website=Contagious|language=en|access-date=6 February 2020|archive-date=6 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200206195205/https://www.contagious.com/news-and-views/shoshana-zuboff-on-the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney ===
The term "surveillance capitalism" has also been used by political economists [[Biography:John Bellamy Foster|John Bellamy Foster]] and Robert W. McChesney, although with a different meaning. In an article published in ''Monthly Review'' in 2014, they apply it to describe the manifestation of the "insatiable need for data" of [[Finance:Financialization|financialization]], which they explain is "the long-term growth speculation on financial assets relative to GDP" introduced in the United States by industry and government in the 1980s that evolved out of the military-industrial complex and the advertising industry.<ref name=foster>{{Cite news|url=https://monthlyreview.org/2014/07/01/surveillance-capitalism/|title=Surveillance Capitalism {{!}} John Bellamy Foster {{!}} Monthly Review|date=1 July 2014|work=Monthly Review|access-date=12 February 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=30 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200430234430/http://monthlyreview.org/2014/07/01/surveillance-capitalism/|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Response ==
Numerous organizations have been struggling for free speech and privacy rights in the new surveillance capitalism<ref>{{cite web|last1=Foster|first1=John Bellamy|last2=McChesney|first2=Robert W.|title=Surveillance Capitalism by John Bellamy Foster|url=https://monthlyreview.org/2014/07/01/surveillance-capitalism/|publisher=Monthly Review|access-date=9 February 2017|date=1 July 2014|archive-date=30 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200430234430/http://monthlyreview.org/2014/07/01/surveillance-capitalism/|url-status=live}}</ref> and various national governments have enacted privacy laws. It is also conceivable that new capabilities and uses for mass-surveillance require structural changes towards a new system to prevent misuse.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cofone |first1=Ignacio |title=The Privacy Fallacy: Harm and Power in the Information Economy|url = https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/privacy-fallacy/547578F2A1AE0C40963105CE066B412E |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2023 |isbn=9781108995443 |location=New York }}</ref> Government attention towards the dangers of surveillance capitalism especially increased after the exposure of the [[Software:Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal|Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal]] that occurred in early 2018.<ref name=":2"/> In response to the misuse of mass-surveillance multiple states have taken preventive measures. The [[Social:European Union|European Union]], for example, has reacted to these events and restricted its rules and regulations on misusing big data.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last1=Marelli|first1=Luca|last2=Testa|first2=Giuseppe|s2cid=19118004|date=3 May 2018|title=Scrutinizing the EU General Data Protection Regulation|journal=Science|volume=360|issue=6388|pages=496–498|doi=10.1126/science.aar5419|pmid=29724945|bibcode=2018Sci...360..496M|issn=0036-8075|hdl=2434/590000|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Surveillance-Capitalism has become a lot harder under these rules, known as the [[General Data Protection Regulation]]s.<ref name=":02" /> However, implementing preventative measures against misuse of mass-surveillance is hard for many countries as it requires structural change of the system.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Cadwalladr|first=Carole|date=31 March 2018|title=AggregateIQ: the obscure Canadian tech firm and the Brexit data riddle|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/31/aggregateiq-canadian-tech-brexit-data-riddle-cambridge-analytica|access-date=18 May 2020|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=28 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200528001516/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/31/aggregateiq-canadian-tech-brexit-data-riddle-cambridge-analytica|url-status=live}}</ref>

Bruce Sterling's 2014 lecture at [[Organization:Strelka Institute|Strelka Institute]] "The epic struggle of the [[Internet of things|internet of things]]"<ref name=sterling /> explained how consumer products could become surveillance objects that track people's everyday life. In his talk, Sterling highlights the alliances between multinational corporations who develop Internet of Things-based surveillance systems which feeds surveillance capitalism.<ref name=sterling>{{cite AV media|publisher=Strelka Institute/Институт Стрелка|author=Bruce Sterling. |title=Lecture "The epic struggle of the internet of things"|date=29 October 2018|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2QcsPi1uX4|access-date=13 March 2019}} (on Youtube)</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://boingboing.net/2014/09/13/bruce-sterlings-the-epic-s.html|title=Bruce Sterling's "The Epic Struggle of the Internet of Things"|website=Boing Boing|language=en-US|access-date=19 March 2019|date=14 September 2014|archive-date=31 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331080916/https://boingboing.net/2014/09/13/bruce-sterlings-the-epic-s.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Paul-Choudhury | first=Sumit | title=How the apocalypse could be a good thing | website=BBC | date=18 March 2019 | url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190318-how-the-apocalypse-could-be-a-good-thing | access-date=31 March 2019 | archive-date=31 March 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331101248/http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190318-how-the-apocalypse-could-be-a-good-thing | url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2015, Tega Brain and Surya Mattu's satirical artwork ''Unfit Bits'' encourages users to subvert fitness data collected by [[Company:Fitbit|Fitbit]]s. They suggested ways to fake datasets by attaching the device, for example to a metronome or on a bicycle wheel.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unfitbits.com/|title=Unfit Bits|last=Mattu|first=Tega Brain and Surya|website=www.unfitbits.com|language=en|access-date=13 March 2019|archive-date=24 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190124020158/http://www.unfitbits.com/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last1=Werner | first1=Joel | last2=Osborne | first2=Tegan | title=Unfit Bits: How to hack your fitness data | website=ABC News | date=9 April 2016 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2016-04-09/unfitbit-hacking-your-fitness-data/7307832 | access-date=31 March 2019 | archive-date=6 October 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006111118/http://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2016-04-09/unfitbit-hacking-your-fitness-data/7307832 | url-status=live }}</ref> In 2018, Brain created a project with Sam Lavigne called ''New Organs'' which collect people's stories of being monitored online and offline.<ref>{{cite web | last=Schwartz | first=Oscar | title=Digital ads are starting to feel psychic | website=The Outline | date=13 July 2018 | url=https://theoutline.com/post/5380/targeted-ad-creepy-surveillance-facebook-instagram-google-listening-not-alone | access-date=31 March 2019 | archive-date=19 December 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219124912/https://theoutline.com/post/5380/targeted-ad-creepy-surveillance-facebook-instagram-google-listening-not-alone | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Brainwashing your wife to want sex? Here is adtech at its worst | website=The Drum | date=23 July 2018 | url=https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2018/07/23/brainwashing-your-wife-want-sex-here-adtech-its-worst | access-date=31 March 2019 | archive-date=31 March 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331092644/https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2018/07/23/brainwashing-your-wife-want-sex-here-adtech-its-worst | url-status=live }}</ref>

The 2019 documentary film ''The Great Hack'' tells the story of how a company named Cambridge Analytica used Facebook to manipulate the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Extensive profiling of users and news feeds that are ordered by black box algorithms were presented as the main source of the problem, which is also mentioned in Zuboff's book.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/20/the-great-hack-cambridge-analytica-scandal-facebook-netflix|title=The Great Hack: the film that goes behind the scenes of the Facebook data scandal|last=Cadwalladr|first=Carole|date=20 July 2019|work=The Observer|access-date=6 February 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0029-7712|archive-date=4 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204002839/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/20/the-great-hack-cambridge-analytica-scandal-facebook-netflix|url-status=live}}</ref>  The usage of personal data to subject individuals to categorization and potentially politically influence individuals highlights how individuals can become voiceless in the face of data misusage. This highlights the crucial role surveillance capitalism can have on social injustice as it can affect all aspects of life.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cinnamon |first=Jonathan |date=2017-12-05 |title=Social Injustice in Surveillance Capitalism |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.24908/ss.v15i5.6433 |journal=Surveillance & Society |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=609–625 |doi=10.24908/ss.v15i5.6433 |issn=1477-7487|hdl=10871/30595 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> 

== See also ==
* {{annotated link|Finance:Commercialization of the Internet}}
* {{annotated link|Philosophy:Criticism of capitalism}}
* {{annotated link|Data mining}}
* {{annotated link|Social:Digital integrity}}
* {{annotated link|Free and open-source software}}
* {{sectionlink|Surveillance|Corporate}}
* {{annotated link|Finance:Targeted advertising}}
* {{annotated link|Personalized marketing}}
* {{annotated link|Social:Platform capitalism}}
* {{annotated link|Privacy concerns with social networking services}}
* {{annotated link|Social:Social profiling}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}
<!--https://opengeography.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/surveillance-capitalism/-->
<!--https://books.google.de/books?id=TFznDAAAQBAJ-->

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|last1=Zuboff|first1=Shoshana|title=Das Zeitalter des Überwachungskapitalismus|isbn=9783593509303|publisher=Campus Verlag|year=2018|location=Berlin}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QwPHinDdOc Shoshana Zuboff Keynote: Reality is the Next Big Thing], YouTube, Elevate Festival, 2014
* [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2594754 Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization], Shoshana Zuboff
* [https://thebaffler.com/latest/capitalisms-new-clothes-morozov Capitalism's New Clothes], Evgeny Morozov, ''The Baffler'' (4 February 2019)

[[Category:Big data]]
[[Category:Market research]]

{{Sourceattribution|Surveillance capitalism}}