Criminal data theft is integral to the social quantification sector.

Evidence

Given that 2017 saw 1,120 data breaches with more than 171 million records exposed in the United States alone, no one can deny that criminal players are part of the social quantification sector. The role of crime is particularly important when, as noted in chapter 1, the overall insecurity of infrastructures of connection is increasing. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 204

Categorization

• XREF: Situates the extractive data economy as an unstable frontier of insecure infrastructure, feeding the colonialism frame’s point that extraction creates its own disorder and criminal underside. — 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; The social quantification sector is defined by data extraction, not by device type — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 196

Broader Connections

• The social quantification sector is defined by data extraction, not by device type #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 196