Shoshana Zuboff coined the term “surveillance capitalism” to describe the new way companies claim private human experience as products. Shoshana joins Azeem Azhar to discuss the emergence of surveillance capitalism, its pernicious and beneficial aspects, and the future for human autonomy and agency.

Shoshana and Azeem also discuss:

• The evolution of the first surveillance capitalist.
• The economics of scale, scope, and action as forms of harm.
• How we can safeguard the beneficial aspects of technology, while preventing its covert use by surveillance capitalists.

Further reading:

• “The Secrets of Surveillance Capitalism” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 2016)
• “Beyond Surveillance Capitalism: Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty” (Decode, October 2018)
• “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks” (PNAS, June 2014)

Shoshana Zuboff @shoshanazuboff