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The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior.
The heady optimism of the Internet’s early days has turned dark. Surveillance capitalism has deepened inequality, sown societal chaos, and undermined democracy.
 
The fight for a human future has never been more urgent. Shoshana Zuboff argues that we still have the power to decide what kind of world we want to live in: Will we allow surveillance capitalism to wrap us in its iron cage as it enriches the few and subjugates the many? Or will we demand the rights and laws that place this rogue power under the democratic rule of law? Only democracy can ensure that the vast new capabilities of the digital era are harnessed to the advancement of humanity. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a deeply original, exquisitely reasoned, and spell binding examination of our emerging information civilization and the life and death choices we face.
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    • Kirkus

      November 1, 2018
      An argument that Google and other internet-based firms are creating a new form of capitalism based on the monetizing of human experience."Digital connection is now a means to others' commercial ends," writes Zuboff (Business Administration/Harvard Business School; In The Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, 1988). In a 2014 essay, the author first described the "profoundly undemocratic social force" she calls surveillance capitalism. In this exhaustive, often repetitive elaboration, the author defines the concept as "a new market form that claims human experience as a free source of raw material for hidden commercial practices." Later in the book, she elaborates: "Every casual search, like, and click [becomes] an asset to be tracked, parsed, and monetized by some company." This relentless search for and use of personal data is not happenstance or an inevitable result of digital technology. Rather, it is a "calculated," little-noticed pursuit by commercial interests--acting under the guise of a utopian vision for the internet--to create "prediction products" that "anticipate what you will do now, soon, and later" and are traded in the marketplace. Invented by Google, adopted by Facebook and Microsoft, and with evidence that Amazon engages in it, the "unprecedented" market form is poised to become the "dominant" shape of capitalism, abrogating "the peoples' right to a human future." The shift from "serving users to surveilling them" occurred at a time of diminished government oversight and regulation and the post-9/11 emphasis on security over privacy. Based on research and interviews, the author thoughtfully examines the economic and philosophical implications of surveillance capitalism; warns that our children, in their ceaseless quest for connectivity, are harbingers of what lies ahead; and urges public outrage over the theft of our humanity. Other topics include Pokémon Go and behaviorist B.F. Skinner and his acolytes.A big, sprawling, and alarming case for "the darkening of the digital dream." This will appeal to specialists; general readers will wish it were much shorter.

      COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Kirkus

      November 1, 2018
      An argument that Google and other internet-based firms are creating a new form of capitalism based on the monetizing of human experience."Digital connection is now a means to others' commercial ends," writes Zuboff (Business Administration/Harvard Business School; In The Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, 1988). In a 2014 essay, the author first described the "profoundly undemocratic social force" she calls surveillance capitalism. In this exhaustive, often repetitive elaboration, the author defines the concept as "a new market form that claims human experience as a free source of raw material for hidden commercial practices." Later in the book, she elaborates: "Every casual search, like, and click [becomes] an asset to be tracked, parsed, and monetized by some company." This relentless search for and use of personal data is not happenstance or an inevitable result of digital technology. Rather, it is a "calculated," little-noticed pursuit by commercial interests--acting under the guise of a utopian vision for the internet--to create "prediction products" that "anticipate what you will do now, soon, and later" and are traded in the marketplace. Invented by Google, adopted by Facebook and Microsoft, and with evidence that Amazon engages in it, the "unprecedented" market form is poised to become the "dominant" shape of capitalism, abrogating "the peoples' right to a human future." The shift from "serving users to surveilling them" occurred at a time of diminished government oversight and regulation and the post-9/11 emphasis on security over privacy. Based on research and interviews, the author thoughtfully examines the economic and philosophical implications of surveillance capitalism; warns that our children, in their ceaseless quest for connectivity, are harbingers of what lies ahead; and urges public outrage over the theft of our humanity. Other topics include Pok�mon Go and behaviorist B.F. Skinner and his acolytes.A big, sprawling, and alarming case for "the darkening of the digital dream." This will appeal to specialists; general readers will wish it were much shorter.

      COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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