Data colonialism extends profit extraction to every layer of human experience

Evidence

Let’s look at Sally Rooney’s story again. The simple, daily act that every individual body does of monitoring whether it has drunk enough water has suddenly become something that happens in a competitive social space. The human body has been reworked into something that requires a distant infrastructure, from which, incidentally, profit can be made. In Rooney’s own words, “I have contracted out one of the essential functions of my body to a piece of software.” But this is just one small example of something much bigger: the systematic attempt to turn all human lives and relations into inputs for the generation of profit. Human experience, potentially every layer and aspect of it, is becoming the target of profitable extraction. We call this condition colonization by data, and it is a key dimension of how capitalism itself is evolving today. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 25

Categorization

• QUESTION: The Sally Rooney water-monitoring example is an opening illustration; worth checking whether the actual extractive architecture (who profits, via what mechanism) is pinned down later in the book.
• SEED: The ‘contracted out an essential body function’ framing could anchor an essay on how quantified-self and habit-tracking apps socialize formerly private bodily awareness.
• XREF: connects to: Data colonialism extracts human life as data for profit through data relations. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 32; Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 365; Data colonialism extracts ever more layers of human life as raw material — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 66 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Data colonialism extracts ever more layers of human life as raw material #corroborates (0.95) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 66
• Data colonialism extracts human life as data for profit through data relations. #corroborates (0.92) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 32
• Data extraction extends capitalism’s exploitation to all human life, echoing colonial raw-material logic #corroborates (0.90) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 42
• Data colonialism expands capitalism by absorbing previously uncommodified life streams #expands (0.82) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 68
• Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value #qualifies (0.78) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 365