Do you want to come closer? Snuggle up, snuggle up. The first thing I wanted to ask was for a definition of surveillance capitalism for the uninitiated. I’m probably just gonna hold the recorder close to you because there’s a lot of ambient noise in here. The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length. I recently spoke with Zuboff about her book, what constitutes surveillance capitalism, how it operates, and what sets it apart from other historical changes in the economy. Zuboff, who published her first book in 1989 on the future of technology and data in the workplace, warns in Surveillance Capitalism of a “seventh extinction” that threatens to eradicate “what has been held most precious in human nature.” Given the fragility of the global political and economic order, surveillance capitalism amounts to a “coup from above,” Zuboff argues, an assault on democracy by way of subverting the very idea of what it means to be an individual. Cataloguing a dizzying array of sensors and invasive software, Zuboff sketches a vision of the economic future in which companies race to collect data in pursuit of Facebook- or Google-like profits. First published as an essay in a German publication in 2014, what Zuboff describes amounts to a new economic logic hatched in corporate America that aims to extract staggering value from users’ private lives. This episode is a perfect encapsulation of the digital threat outlined in a new book by tech critic and Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Google claims the microphone “was never intended to be a secret” and “has never been turned on,” but it’s hard to shake the feeling that hidden mics are a natural step for Silicon Valley giants intent on collecting as much data as possible, no matter the cost to user privacy. There was a catch, however: No one knew that the Nest Secure actually had a microphone inside it. It should not only be read and discussed by a broad audience we can only hope that scholars across disciplines engage with her argument, finetune and improve it.On February 4, Google proudly announced that its Nest Secure home anti-intrusion device would now support its voice-activated Google Assistant service. It should not only be read and discussed by a broad audience we can only hope that scholars across disciplines engage with her argument, finetune and improve it.ĪB - The age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff deserves a productive public and academic debate. N2 - The age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff deserves a productive public and academic debate. Title: The age of surveillance capitalism

In the age of surveillance capitalism