Surveillance capitalism constitutes a coup against the people disguised as personalization

Evidence

Surveillance capitalism’s antidemocratic and antiegalitarian juggernaut is best described as a market-driven coup from above. It is not a coup d’état in the classic sense but rather a coup de gens: an overthrow of the people concealed as the technological Trojan horse that is Big Other. On the strength of its annexation of human experience, this coup achieves exclusive concentrations of knowledge and power that sustain privileged influence over the division of learning in society: the privatization of the central principle of social ordering in the twenty-first century. … In a surreal paradox, this coup is celebrated as “personalization,” although it defiles, ignores, overrides, and displaces everything about you and me that is personal. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1627

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘coup de gens’ as the chapter’s defining term for surveillance capitalism’s antidemocratic structure.
• SEED: An article angle on how ‘personalization’ functions as a cover for power concentration—the concept could unpack platform rhetoric as coup language.
• XREF: connects to: Surveillance is repackaged in the language of personal freedom to gain acceptance — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 80; Corporations will use personal data against individual interests unless checked — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 497; Personalization rhetoric makes surveillance attractive, and its critics get cast as irrational. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 97 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Surveillance capitalism functions as a profoundly antidemocratic social force #corroborates (0.92) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1643
• Surveillance capitalism threatens human sovereignty over life and authorship of experience #corroborates (0.88) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1650
• Surveillance capitalism’s design aim is the extinction of autonomous selfhood #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1512