Data relations originate in specific transactions that motivate capturing someone’s life traces.

Evidence

We can expect the varieties of data relations to grow massively as data colonialism itself expands. To get at the core of what we mean by a data relation, imagine yourself entering a spiral. The entry point is that at which, for whatever reason, you enter the ambit of computer monitoring. Computer tracking is now so basic to the social world that it might seem hard to imagine one not already being within that ambit, but, even so, at any moment there is always likely to be at least one specific transaction in which you are engaged that motivates the capture of particular life traces from you. It could be using a search engine, investigating a particular website, searching for a product at a good price, using a platform, or dealing with an institution (say, a school, corporation, or government). — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 135

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the ‘data relation’ concept as the core mechanism through which data colonialism operates, defined by entry into monitoring.
• 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 relations are the social form that makes data extraction seem natural and normal — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 132; Criminal data theft is integral to the social quantification sector. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 204 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Data acquires extractability only through socially constructed relations, not as a natural given #corroborates (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 133
• Data colonialism extracts human life as data for profit through data relations. #expands (0.82) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 32
• Data relations are the social form that makes data extraction seem natural and normal #expands (0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 132
• Micro-level data relations are rendered commonsensical by extractive rationalities #expands (0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 297
• Computer-mediated transactions make previously unobservable behavior contractible #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 680
• Criminal data theft is integral to the social quantification sector. #qualifies (0.72) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 204
• Social transactions require intersecting time-space paths at stations #corroborates (0.72) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1322