You search for a pair of shoes on a search engine, and suddenly, every ad you see is about shoes. You browse a housing site, and before you know it, your phone is buzzing with calls and messages about properties. You search for a nearby restaurant or explore a business idea, and bam! Your screen is overflowing with ads instead of the information you actually wanted. It feels like a hidden camera is always watching, anticipating your every move, doesn’t it? It’s like having a personal assistant—except you never asked for one! And this assistant? It’s so efficient, it even seems to work ahead of your own thoughts. Welcome to the digital world!
This type of constant surveillance is what we call surveillance capitalism. Big tech companies—let’s say the big four—use this model to turn your data into a resource, treating your searches and interests as their products. Whether you’re intentionally seeking information or just satisfying a passing curiosity, the moment you enter your data, it’s no longer just yours. Even if a website says it’s “encrypted,” that data is fuelling the encryption of their own massive datasets, which they use to craft algorithms that steer your next online experience. Search for anything, and in the background, those algorithms are quietly deciding what to show you next.
It’s not just that you’re searching the web—the web is also searching YOU. And while it may seem convenient to have such personalized suggestions, it’s important to realize that this is really about influence. These companies aren’t just catering to your needs; they’re shaping what you’ll do next.
Surveillance capitalism refers to the practice of monetizing data collected by tracking people’s online and real-world behaviors. This type of consumer surveillance is primarily used to tailor marketing and advertising strategies. The term **surveillance capitalism** was first introduced by John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney in a July 2014 article in *Monthly Review*, a socialist magazine based in New York. Their original concept centered on the U.S. military’s surveillance of citizens.
The term surveillance capitalism is more closely associated with the economic theory proposed by Harvard Business School Professor Emerita Shoshana Zuboff in September 2014. It describes the large-scale monetization of individuals’ raw personal data, used to predict and influence their behavior. Surveillance capitalism operates through steps like data collection, prediction, and the creation of behavioral markets. While it’s not tied to any specific tech or business process, it represents a business philosophy driving the massive data economy. Most people don’t realize the extent of this data collection until their privacy is breached, revealing that their confidential information has been commercialized and turned into profits—often to the tune of billions—by other companies.
There are no serious proposals for regulating the data collecting abilities of technology companies. However, Google did pay a large data privacy settlement in November 2022.
In her book, Zuboff predicted that data collection will continue to grow as it becomes increasingly central to the market and as technology becomes more embedded in daily life. She highlighted the rising use of IoT devices, like fitness trackers, which provide new opportunities for sharing user data with marketers and advertisers. Zuboff also referenced a 2016 Microsoft patent for software designed to detect users’ mental states. She warned that this type of technology could lead to a new level of privacy violations, as it would activate sensors to capture voice, speech, videos, images, and movement.
The question now is, can we regain control over our data in this system that’s so deeply ingrained in our digital lives? Or is this just the new normal? It’s something worth thinking about as we continue to navigate this always-connected world.
This is truly going to be a big problem in the coming years as netizens’ data is mined for commercial purpose without their consent. The worst is the ignorance of the people in the Global South as to how they can hold Big Tech companies accountable for intruding their privacy without their consent. The United States “Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability” focuses to counter Chinese Surveillance Technology in fragile states susceptible to Chinese influence in the Global South such as the Pacific Islands Countries. However, the opposite could be quite true as US Big Tech companies become conduit for Surveillance Capitalism.
True songo, It is like every information we are putting can be used in nay way in future, irrespective how much encryption and privacy company talks about.