Internet-era data extraction far exceeds pre-internet social data sources

Evidence

We are not saying that all uses of social caching are bad or misguided. Some uses of social data, perhaps by civic or public institutions, may be responsible, modest, and oriented to organizational self-reflection. At the same time, the normalization of data extraction as the general means to monitor the world reinforces the “desire for numbers” (provided they are machine readable). New forms of professionalism and expertise around data capture are reshaping the world of work under data colonialism. Before the internet, however, as Bruce Schneier notes, data sources about social life were limited to company customer records, responses to direct marketing, credit bureau data, and government public records (and, we might add, insurance company data on their insured). Now, a varied universe of data collectors and services within a complex web of data processing functions extracts data from everyday life at a depth far exceeding that found in earlier forms of social knowledge. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 420

Categorization

• XREF: The pre- vs. post-internet taxonomy of social data sources maps onto the Milgrom institution literature’s interest in how epistemic infrastructure shifts when information costs change. — connects to: Data extraction principles predate social media by decades in globalized capitalism — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 48; Modern logistics anchored data-extraction infrastructure decades before social media — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 49; Connected toys systematically extract children’s personal data and conversations via bundled apps — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 828 (+2 more)