VPRO International's interview of Shoshona Zubroff on surveillance capitalism.
In this documentary, Zuboff takes the lid off Google and Facebook and reveals a merciless form of capitalism in which no natural resources, but citizens themselves, serve as a raw material.
It is 2000, and the dot.com crisis has caused deep wounds. How will startup Google survive the bursting of the Internet bubble? Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin don't know anymore how to turn the tide. By chance, Google discovers that the "residual data" that people leave behind in their searches on the Internet are very precious and tradable.
These residual data can be used to predict the behavior of the Internet user. Internet advertisements can, therefore, be used in a very targeted and effective way. A completely new business model is born: "surveillance capitalism."
Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff wrote a monumental book about the new economic order that is alarming. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power reveals how the biggest tech companies deal with our data. How can we regain control of our data? What is surveillance capitalism?
Related reading:
World of Books: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
