Data extraction principles predate social media by decades in globalized capitalism

Evidence

Although the site of data colonialism that we most often notice is the social quantification sector, and particularly the personal data extraction practiced by social media platforms, the basic extractive principles underlying data colonialism have been gestating in the business methods of modern capitalism for three decades. The original context was industrial capitalism’s progressive globalization in the late twentieth century through trade liberalization and extended supply chains as well as its financialization through an explosive growth of debt (both corporate and personal) and the acceleration of global capital flows. In this general context, the information infrastructures emerged that enabled people and processes to be connected to each other under conditions that facilitate data extraction. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 48

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the attention/surveillance school’s focus on platforms as the origin point — this passage pre-dates platform capitalism analytically, which is a key divergence for the colonial-critique rival frame. — connects to: Data extraction is historically unprecedented yet clarifies through colonial-capitalist continuity. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 33; Internet-era data extraction far exceeds pre-internet social data sources — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 420; Modern logistics anchored data-extraction infrastructure decades before social media — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 49 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern logistics anchored data-extraction infrastructure decades before social media #corroborates (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 49
• Internet-era data extraction far exceeds pre-internet social data sources #qualifies (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 420