Data appropriation threatens the minimal space of the self

Evidence

As we show in detail in chapter 5, all notions of autonomy, until now, have assumed that individuals have access to a minimal space of the self that is its space of becoming. But the goal of continuous data appropriation intrudes on this space and changes humanity’s relations to external infrastructures decisively, erasing, potentially forever, the boundary between the flow of human experience and the environment of economic power that surrounds it. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 75

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the book’s core claim about autonomy as requiring a minimal ‘space of becoming’ that data extraction erodes.
• DEEPTHINKING: This is the book’s paradigm core: continuous data appropriation as an assault on the constitutive boundary of the self, not just on privacy. Dense enough to sit with.
• XREF: connects to: Data collection itself, not just its uses, harms the self’s integrity — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 473; Data colonialism constitutes an antiecology that disrupts the self’s home space — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 606; Datafication may disrupt autonomy at the level of self-boundedness itself — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 500 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Data collection itself, not just its uses, harms the self’s integrity #corroborates (0.90) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 473
• Data colonialism may attack the very boundaries of the self. #corroborates (0.90) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 463
• Data extraction infrastructures deform the self that autonomy and freedom depend on #corroborates (0.88) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 148
• Datafication may disrupt autonomy at the level of self-boundedness itself #corroborates (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 500
• Quantified-self data systems collapse the reflexive space in which freedom operates #corroborates (0.84) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 520
• Data colonialism constitutes an antiecology that disrupts the self’s home space #expands (0.82) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 606
• The mere possibility of harmful data use, not actual harm, curtails autonomy #qualifies (0.72) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 498