Capitalism is indifferent to the origin of the data it exploits for value.

Evidence

Capitalism can exploit any number of data sources. Any computer, any device with an embedded computer, or any entity readable by a sensor with computing power can generate data for this purpose. Data sources may be processes, things, or people as well as the interactions between any of these sources. The extraction of value from data is equally indifferent to its origin. Capitalism as the systematic organization of value extraction has only one goal in relation to data—to maximize the production of value through data extraction—and so in principle cares little about the sources and types of data exploited. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 72

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the breadth of ‘data source’ central to the data colonialism frame.
• XREF: Extends the Marxist ‘value in motion’ framing this book shares with classical political economy accounts of extraction. — connects to: Data exploitation resembles capitalism’s free ride on uncommodified life, not factory labor — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 326; The commodity is not the origin from which capitalism truly unfolds back. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1163

Broader Connections

• Data exploitation resembles capitalism’s free ride on uncommodified life, not factory labor #expands (0.78) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 326
• The commodity is not the origin from which capitalism truly unfolds back. #qualifies (0.72) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1163