Computer-mediated transactions make previously unobservable behavior contractible

Evidence

As Varian writes, “Because transactions are now computer-mediated we can observe behavior that was previously unobservable and write contracts on it. This enables transactions that were simply not feasible before.” Varian’s “we” refers to those with privileged access to the shadow text into which behavioral data flow. Our behavior, once unobservable, is declared as free for the taking, theirs to own, and theirs to decide how to use and how to profit from. This includes the production of “new contractual forms” that compel us in ways that would not have been possible but for surveillance capitalism’s original declarations of dispossession. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 680

Categorization

• DEFINE: Provides the core mechanism definition: computer mediation renders behavior observable and therefore contractible, the basis of prediction markets.
• XREF: The ‘shadow text’ and ‘declarations of dispossession’ connect to the earlier chapters’ account of surveillance capitalism’s origin and the ownership of behavioral data. — connects to: Data relations originate in specific transactions that motivate capturing someone’s life traces. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 135; Economies of action get institutionalized into automated algorithms that modify behavior — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 939; Click-wrap contracts function as a unilateral private seizure of user rights — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 151
• QUESTION: Worth tracing whether any legal or policy challenge has yet disputed this ‘free for the taking’ declaration of behavioral data ownership.

Broader Connections

• Economies of action get institutionalized into automated algorithms that modify behavior #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 939