Big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization¶
“‘big data’ is above all the foundational component in a deeply intentional and highly consequential new logic of accumulation that I call surveillance capitalism.” (Zuboff, 2015, p. 75)
“This new form of information capitalism aims to predict and modify human behavior as a means to produce revenue and market control.” (Zuboff, 2015, p. 75)
Based on some Google guy named Varian, Zuboff perceived how 'computer-mediated economic transactions' made the "invisible hand of the market" actually visible. And now, one of the reasons why guys like Hayek argued that it was necessary to have radical freedom from state intervention or regulation falls short.
The informating of the economy, as he observes, is constituted by a pervasive and continuous recording of the details of each transaction. In this vision, computer mediation renders an economy transparent and knowable in new ways. This is a sharp contrast to the classic neoliberal ideal of ‘the market’ as intrinsically ineffable and unknowable. Hayek’s conception of the market was as an incomprehensible ‘extended order’ to which mere individuals must subjugate their wills (Hayek, 1988: 14–15). It was precisely the unknowability of the universe of market transactions that anchored Hayek’s claims for the necessity of radical freedom from state intervention or regulation.
This new knowable market gives birth to new 'uses' that follow computer-mediated transactions: ‘data extraction and analysis,’ ‘new contractual forms due to better monitoring,’ ‘personalization and customization,’ and ‘continuous experiments’.
Data, extraction, analysis¶
'Data extraction and analysis is what everyone is talking about when they talk about big data'.
Each of these words conveys insights into the new logic of accumulation.
Data¶
The data from computer-mediated economic transactions is a significant dimension of ‘big data´, but there are others, the emerging growth of the 'Internet of Everything' and these apparent frenzy to smartify everything is expected to generate trillions of dollars worth of new associated value. There is also institutional, corporate and government databases, including banks, credit rating agencies, airlines tax and census records, health care, credit card, insurance, pharmaceutical, telecom companies, etc.
Many of these data, along with the data flows of commercial transactions, are purchased, aggregated, analyzed, packaged, and sold by data brokers who operate, in the US at least, in secrecy - outside of statutory consumer protections and without consumer's knowledge, consent, or rights of privacy and due process.
“These non-market activities are a fifth principal source of ‘big data’ and the origin of what Constantiou and Kallinikos (2014) refer to as its ‘everydayness.’ ‘Big data’ are constituted by capturing small data from individuals’ computer-mediated actions and utterances in their pursuit of effective life. Nothing is too trivial or ephemeral for this harvesting: Facebook ‘likes,’ Google searches, emails, texts, photos, songs, and videos, location, communication patterns, networks, purchases, movements, every click, misspelled word, page view, and more. Such data are acquired, datafied, abstracted, aggregated, analyzed, packaged, sold, further analyzed and sold again. These data flows have been labeled by technologists as ‘data exhaust.’ Presumably, once the data are redefined as waste material, their extraction and eventual monetization are less likely to be contested.” (Zuboff, 2015, p. 79)
“Google is ‘formally indifferent’ to what its users say or do, as long as they say it and do it in ways that Google can capture and convert into data.” (Zuboff, 2015, p. 79)
Extraction¶
Extraction sheds light on the social relations implied by these 'formal indifference'. First and most obvious, extraction is a one-way process, not a relationship. The extractive processes that make big data possible typically occur in the absence of dialogue or consent, despite the fact that they signal both facts and subjectivities of individual lives.
The fact is that we don't know exactly how or where Google is poking to extract increasingly volumes of data. Most of what we know about Google's practices erupted from the conflicts it produced (like the Snowden NSA case and many others).
“‘Extraction’ summarizes the absence of structural reciprocities between the firm and its populations” (Zuboff, 2015, p. 80)
“The firm, Ford realized, had to value the worker-consumer as a fundamental unity and the essential component of a new mass production capitalism.” (Zuboff, 2015, p. 80)
“It was these reciprocities that helped constitute a broad middle class with steady income growth and a rising standard of living.” (Zuboff, 2015, p. 80)
“Google and the ‘big data’ project represent a break with this past” (Zuboff, 2015, p. 80)
“This structural independence of the firm from its populations is a matter of exceptional importance in light of the historical relationship between market capitalism and democracy.” (Zuboff, 2015, p. 80)
“In an open letter to Europe, Google Chairperson Eric Schmidt recently expressed his frustration with the prospect of public oversight, characterizing it as ‘heavy-handed regulation’ and threatening that it would create ‘serious economic dangers’ for Europe” (Zuboff, 2015, p. 80)