The data-for-convenience exchange was settled before it was disclosed

Evidence

The Faustian bargain of the digital age—free or cheap digital conveniences in exchange for our data—was only ever explained to us after it was already a done deal. And it represents an enormous and radical shift not only in how we live but also, far more importantly, in what our lives are for. We are all mine sites now, data mine sites, and despite the intimacy and import of what is being mined, the mining process remains utterly obscure and the mine operators wholly unaccountable. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 279

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘mine sites’ metaphor resonates with extractivism language used across the book about bodies and land being mined; ties the digital chapter to the book’s broader extraction critique.