Surveillance capitalists deliberately conceal how their platforms monetize user behavior

Evidence

Surveillance capitalists work hard to camouflage their purpose as they master the uses of instrumentarian power to shape our behavior while evading our awareness. That is why Google conceals the operations that turn us into the objects of its search and Facebook distracts us from the fact that our beloved connections are essential to the profit and power that flow from its network ubiquity and totalistic knowledge. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1411

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Digital protest platforms covertly harvest signatories’ data for commercial profit — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 911; User-controlled privacy blocking is existential to Google because tracking feeds its profit engine — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 433; Users author a public-facing text while surveillance capitalism captures a hidden second text — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 584 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Behavioral surplus extraction forms the core logic of surveillance capitalism #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 70