Data colonialism extracts ever more layers of human life as raw material

Evidence

The discovery of new forms of raw material is what makes the current moment distinctively colonial. If historical colonialism expanded by appropriating for exploitation geographical territory and the resources that territorial conquest could bring, data colonialism expands by appropriating for exploitation ever more layers of human life itself. … When we refer to data practices as colonizing human life, we refer to the appropriation of data, potentially for profit, in any and all of these areas. But we also intend the term human life to refer to the as-yet-still-open horizon of exploitation over which data colonialism claims future rights: as ever more of our activities and even inner thoughts occur in contexts in which they automatically are made ready for appropriation as data, there is, in principle, no limit to how much of human life can be appropriated and exploited. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 66

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharp definition of the data-colonialism shift: the raw material has changed from territory to life itself, with an open-ended horizon.
• XREF: Maps directly onto the attention/surveillance school debates this reader is comparing against; the ‘no limit’ claim is the crux of divergence. — connects to: Data colonialism annexes human life itself to capital — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 28; 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 extraction is historically unprecedented yet clarifies through colonial-capitalist continuity. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 33 (+9 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that Marx’s expansionary insight is ‘actualized in circumstances Marx could not anticipate’ reframes capitalist extraction as vertical invasiveness into life rather than horizontal territorial reach.

Broader Connections

• Data colonialism expands capitalism by absorbing previously uncommodified life streams #expands (0.90) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 68
• Data colonialism replaces cheap resources with cheap social data as its raw material #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 579
• Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value #expands (0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 365