Data is a social by-product, not a natural substance, captured by distant third parties

Evidence

Like oil, data needs to be processed. But unlike oil, data is not a substance found in nature at all. It is the by-product of social interactions that are mediated by digital technologies, a by-product that is captured and processed by a third party that is not intimately involved with the people in the interaction and indeed can operate at many removes from them through the market for selling data. The first use of the metaphor of data as the “new oil” is attributed to Clive Humby, the conceptual grandfather of the loyalty shopping-club card, who in 2006 said, “Data is the new oil. It’s valuable, but if unrefined it cannot really be used. It has to be changed into gas, plastic, chemicals, et cetera to create a valuable entity that drives profitable activity; so must data be broken down, analyzed for it to have value.” Data must thus be presented as an ownerless resource that can be exploited only by certain parties (what Julie Cohen calls data refineries). — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 287

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precisely pinpoints what distinguishes data from oil, a core definitional move for the whole data-colonialism frame.
• XREF: Connects to Julie Cohen’s ‘data refineries’ concept, complementary to the raw/unrefined oil metaphor, and to the reader’s platform-studies track. — connects to: Data acquires extractability only through socially constructed relations, not as a natural given — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 133; Under surveillance capitalism the product is behavioral data, not the goods themselves — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 418; Privately controlled data extraction produces social classifications that entrench inequality — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 443 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Under surveillance capitalism the product is behavioral data, not the goods themselves #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 418
• Social media free products are extraction lures, and users are raw-material sources, not products #exemplifies (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 43
• Privately controlled data extraction produces social classifications that entrench inequality #expands (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 443
• Data exploitation resembles capitalism’s free ride on uncommodified life, not factory labor #qualifies (0.70) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 326