The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Outline

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019) explains how technology companies collect and analyse huge amounts of personal data to predict and influence human behaviour. Shoshana Zuboff argues that this business model, pioneered by companies like Google and Facebook, represents a new form of economic power that threatens privacy, freedom, and democracy. The book calls on society to set limits on how personal data is used.

• Technology companies collect huge amounts of personal data and analyse it to predict and influence how people behave.
• Zuboff argues this business model, pioneered by companies like Google and Facebook, is a new form of economic power.
• She sees this power as a threat to privacy, freedom, and democracy.
• The book calls on society to set limits on how personal data is used.

Shoshana Zuboff is an American scholar, author, and professor emerita at Harvard Business School who has studied the relationship between technology, work, and society for decades. Her early book In the Age of the Smart Machine was a pioneering study of computers at work. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism became an international bestseller.