The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

Zuboff defines surveillance capitalism as a process whereby companies use technology to observe human behavior; codify it into what is called “behavioral surplus data”; and interpret this data to “educate” machine intelligence products, which are sold to the highest bidder. The author warns that this digital society of today has major ramifications on liberty, democracy, and self-determination. As a result, surveillance capitalism is a dire threat to society’s future.

Surveillance capitalists are in constant competition with each other to create the most accurate, best-selling predictive products. These products are meant to predict what one might do online and actively influence human behavior offline, such as what an individual might buy, eat, or wear. As Zuboff explains, “[A]utomated machine processes not only know our behavior but also shape our behavior at scale. […] it is no longer enough to automate information flows about us; the goal is now to automate us” (15). These products are sold in behavioral futures markets, where companies eager to capitalize on future human behavior buy predictive products in order to know and influence the behavioral patterns of the mass public.

This is a new, unprecedented mode of capitalism in which profit comes from controlling behaviors, not controlling resources or labor as in industrial capitalism.