Fixating on specific firms obscures the underlying patterns of surveillance capitalism

Evidence

In this pursuit, we are necessarily involved in citing specific actors, products, and techniques, knowing that the details of persons and companies are constantly churning. Firms will be bought and sold, fail or succeed; people will come and go. Specific technologies, products, and techniques will be abandoned, refined, and surpassed. When they fall, new ones will take their place, as long as surveillance capitalism is allowed to flourish. Velocity and churn have been critical to surveillance capitalism’s success, and we cannot allow the constant movement to inhibit our determination to grasp the “laws of motion” that command this roiling landscape. It is the pattern and its purpose that we want to grasp. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 757

Categorization

• XREF: The idea that we should grasp the ‘laws of motion’ beneath churning surface phenomena parallels Marx’s method of abstracting from empirical flux to structural dynamics — ties to the Marxist critique literature. — connects to: Surveillance firms adapt tactics to whatever resistance incursions meet — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 438; Surveillance capitalism’s dangers exceed privacy and monopoly concerns — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 546; Surveillance capital firms cycle through incursion, habituation, retreat, and recamouflaged pursuit. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1081 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Surveillance capitalism’s dangers exceed privacy and monopoly concerns #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 546