Bookworm: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Surveillance capitalism  is changing the fabric of society – and we need to recognise how, writes psychologist Shoshana Zuboff.

What is surveillance capitalism?

‘Surveillance capitalism’ is a process of logic that translates behaviour – all the things we do in a day – into hard data. This data can be used to predict behavioural patterns, known in the trade as ‘prediction products’. These prediction products drive technology. They are the voices that tell technology what to do.

In this book, Shoshana Zuboff – a Harvard professor, social psychologist, philosopher and scholar – delves deeper into this, highlighting some worrying issues.

What kind of behaviour are we talking about?

Back in 2002, data was harvested through monitoring of an individual’s online searches and purchases. This data was used by advertisers to target potential buyers with annoying pop-ups, or, more helpfully, to improve a product or service in response to how people were using it and talking about it.

So, apart from annoying pop-ups, what’s the problem?

Data collection is infinitely more sophisticated now. The Nest home management system, for example, created by Google’s holding company, Alphabet, collects data from connected devices such as beds, security cameras and fitness trackers.

Between that physical data and the emotional and cognitive data that our phones can glean from our conversations, our notes-to-self, our late-night online searches, there is no private space left.

What’s the purpose of this kind of data collection?

In the digital economy, data equals power. And whoever holds the data, holds the power.

But what are they going to do with the data?

While we might wonder why anybody cares what time we go to bed or how many times we’ve rewatched Seinfeld, it is alarmingly easy to see how this sort of data can be used to control our future behaviour. Take car insurance, for example; data collected while we’re driving can predict how likely we are to have an accident, and therefore push our premium up.

That sounds like a tool for good. Can you give me another example?

Sure can. It’s already been observed that data from apps such as Flow, where people can log and track their cycles of menstruation, has been sold to government agencies. In light of recent changes to US law around the legality of the morning-after pill and abortions, one can see how this data could be used to do harm to some very vulnerable people.

This sounds less like business and more like human rights abuse, doesn’t it?

Well, yes. In both examples, it’s obvious how the presence of surveillance capitalism can influence a person’s future behaviour and choices, and not always for the better. It is exactly this kind of power surveillance capitalists are after.

And is it as fundamental to our future as it sounds?

Yes. Surveillance capitalism changes the fabric of society, departing from good old market capitalism in three main ways:

1. Modern life insists, according to Zuboff, “on the privilege of unfettered freedom and knowledge”. Never in history have we had the desire or means to share information or opinions in the way we can now.

2. Custom is no longer the currency of business. A product’s value is not in the price someone paid for it, but rather in the data it can harvest about its user.

3. Unlike in the past, Church and State have almost no power over society compared with the surveillance capitalists. Whether it is to your taste or not, the traditional societal pillars do take a moral position. Surveillance capitalists have an asocial code that puts performance and profit over human rights every time.

Why is this not more spoken about?

It is a very well-hidden force. Its potential is analogous to Totalitarianism, or the concept of ‘Big Brother’, where groups were controlled and violence was incited through a collective sense of fear.

With surveillance capitalism, we are largely unaware of how we are being controlled. What of our behaviour is really us, and what is just the result of influence? For this, Zuboff has coined the phrase “Big Other”.

Short of moving to the Outer Hebrides and throwing my phone in the sea on the way, how can I take myself off grid?

Not easily – standard products are increasingly ‘smart’, and come with privacy policies, terms of service and licensing agreements which run into thousands of pages. Often, not agreeing means risking failure of a product’s functionality.

So, we face a choice between privacy, or reliable heating, security alarms, etc. The system is rigged in favour of big tech. Shout out to Apple, though, as they refrain from most of the activities of a “surveillance capitalist regime”.

What am I most likely to say after reading this book?

“Stop the planet – I want to get off.”

What am I least likely to say after reading this book?

“Accept all cookies.”