Pervasive data sensing is built into basic computing architecture, not merely added by platforms.

Evidence

Much of this data gathering requires no subterfuge, because it is a basic mode of operation in corporate intranets, networks of environmental sensors, and scientific data collection—that is, “new types of sensors are constantly becoming available.” Elsewhere the possibility of generating value through data by tracking users became a taken-for-granted feature of an online world whose resources were generally “free” but accessible only within a space in which sensing is built-in: the world of connected computers. The embedding of sensing into everyday life is not something that users can control, however. Rather, since those tracking capacities are grounded in the basic software through which computers run, they introduce an internal form of order that is projected outward onto everyday life. The parallels with political and social order are not accidental. As Wendy Chun puts it, computer “code is executable because it embodies the power of … enforcement that has traditionally been the provenance of government.” — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 115

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the mechanism by which data capture becomes infrastructural rather than incidental: sensing embedded in the world of connected computers.
• XREF: connects to: Data are a physical raw material requiring sensing, storage, and cleaning infrastructure. — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 43; Google aims to weave sensing capability directly into everyday materials — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 769; IoT sensors can modify human behavior as easily as device behavior — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 917 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Google aims to weave sensing capability directly into everyday materials #exemplifies (0.90) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 769
• Data are a physical raw material requiring sensing, storage, and cleaning infrastructure. #expands (0.85) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 43
• Physical space is being redesigned as browse-able environments of sensor data #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 647
• Georgia Tech’s 2000 Aware Home prototype embedded context-aware sensors in a house. #exemplifies (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 28
• IoT sensors can modify human behavior as easily as device behavior #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 917
• IoT engineers describe actuation as the critical turning point in ubiquitous computing #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 915