Cloud computing converts data producers into renters dispossessed of their data

Evidence

If data in the cloud is stored in data centers and not in personal computers, this brings up the very important question of who owns it. Whereas earlier models of the internet allowed for distributed ownership of resources that could be used collectively, the cloud centralizes ownership and establishes very specific parameters for how data is shared. Instead of data being stored at each individual computer and each individual node deciding what data to share or not share, the cloud represents a model in which data is stored in “banks” that are owned by private corporations. … Once data generated by individuals is stored in the cloud, it is the corporations that decide what data other users are allowed to “borrow” from the bank, without those users being able to permanently store it in a way that would let them freely reproduce or transform it. That is why streaming-or downloading content in a format intended for short-term storage and access-is the norm instead of storing content locally and permanently. In this model, users are no longer the proprietors of any data they produce or acquire, and they don’t get to decide what is collected or shared or for what purposes. From producers and owners, they pass into being renters of data, laborers who generate data to be sent back to the servers or, as earlier discussed, who are the source of life streams from which such data can be automatically extracted. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 183

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to rentier-capitalism critiques and to the reader’s surveillance-school literature on platform data extraction as accumulation. — connects to: Renting cloud infrastructure yields data extraction alongside rental income — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 60; Cloud capital shatters individuals into manipulable fragments of data — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 660; Streaming norms exist because cloud ownership reduces users to data renters. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 184 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies the authors’ data-colonialism move: the bank metaphor reframes cloud storage as enclosure of collectively-used resources.

Broader Connections

• Cloud capital shatters individuals into manipulable fragments of data #expands (0.82) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 660
• Renting cloud infrastructure yields data extraction alongside rental income #expands (0.80) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 60
• Streaming norms exist because cloud ownership reduces users to data renters. #corroborates (0.78) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 184
• The cloud centralizes data ownership in corporations that earlier internet models distributed. #expands (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 183
• Digital platforms hijack life into data whose insights are sold back to us #expands (0.72)