The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: 8 key ideas
The core ideas of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, each in under a minute, written in our own words. Want the full depth? Get the book.
- IDEA 1 OF 8
A new capitalism has emerged
Zuboff argues that companies like Google and Facebook pioneered surveillance capitalism, a new economic system.
It turns people's online and offline behaviour into data that can be sold to others who want to predict and influence what people will do.
- IDEA 2 OF 8
Extra data became a raw material
Zuboff explains behavioural surplus: data collected beyond what is needed to improve a service.
Google discovered that this surplus could be used to target advertising, turning users' experiences into raw material for profit.
- IDEA 3 OF 8
Predictions are the real product
The main products of surveillance capitalism, Zuboff argues, are predictions of human behaviour.
These prediction products are sold in markets to businesses that want to know what people will buy or do next.
- IDEA 4 OF 8
Companies want to shape behaviour
Zuboff argues that surveillance capitalists move from predicting behaviour to shaping it, which she calls economies of action.
Notifications, rewards and design choices nudge people towards outcomes that benefit companies.
- IDEA 5 OF 8
Games can steer real-world behaviour
Zuboff describes the game Pokémon Go, which led players to visit particular places, including businesses that paid to attract them.
She uses it as an example of steering behaviour in the physical world.
- IDEA 6 OF 8
A new power is growing
Zuboff calls this power instrumentarian: it seeks to know and steer behaviour rather than control minds through fear.
She describes the network of devices and data that enables it as Big Other.
- IDEA 7 OF 8
Privacy and autonomy are at risk
Zuboff argues that surveillance capitalism threatens people's right to decide their own futures.
When companies know and influence our behaviour, she says, human freedom and democracy are weakened. Choice itself is under pressure.
- IDEA 8 OF 8
People need a right to sanctuary
Zuboff calls for laws and public pressure to limit surveillance capitalism.
She argues that people need a right to sanctuary, spaces free from constant tracking and manipulation. Democracy, she argues, must act.
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