Every online action could be tracked and weaponized through surveillance capitalism

Evidence

Morozov was also an early critic of Big Tech’s invasive use of personal data for targeted advertising. In 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the extent to which American intelligence agencies accessed private user data through sprawling surveillance programs that relied on secret partnerships with Big Tech. What once sounded paranoid—the idea that every online action could be tracked and weaponized—suddenly became undeniable. By 2018, Shoshana Zuboff coined the term surveillance capitalism to describe these practices, framing targeted advertising as an “assault on human autonomy” and a “coup from above.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 493

Categorization

• XREF: Surveillance capitalism as the data-collection engine undergirding the targeted-advertising economy that powers Marx’s monoculture thesis — connects mechanisms across the four-period structure.