Surveillance Capitalism: Analysis of Its Impact on Society and Markets

This essay delves into the concept of surveillance capitalism, defining it as the monetization of data obtained from monitoring online activities to inform business decisions. It explores how companies like Google and Facebook collect and utilize user data, often without explicit consent, to predict and influence consumer behavior. The essay contrasts surveillance capitalism with traditional market capitalism, highlighting the shift from fair competition to the manipulation of user data for profit. It discusses the impact of this model on democracy, individual privacy, and consumer autonomy, emphasizing the need for public awareness, governmental regulations, and a collective rejection of the practices that undermine democratic norms. The essay concludes by reiterating the challenges surveillance capitalism poses to democratic values and individual rights, urging action to protect consumer interests and promote a more equitable digital future. The essay also discusses the ways surveillance capitalism has managed to get away with it and what can be done to stop this.

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Surveillance capitalism
Introduction
Surveillance capitalism can be explained as the monetisation of data obtained from
monitoring people’s activities online to help make business-related decisions (Dan 2014, p.
14). The data collected is analysed by organisations and used in making predictions of human
behaviour now, soon and the days to come. Schiller (2014) argues that, the most common
type of surveillance capitalism is consumer surveillance where the data obtained is used in
advertising and target marketing. Marketers make use of the data collected online combined
with demographic information of individuals to make marketing decision (Mayer-
Schönberger 2019, p. 92).
According to Zuboff (2015), surveillance capitalism ""challenges democratic norms
and departs in key ways from the centuries-long evolution of market capitalism.". Zuboff
(2015) argues that, Google which pioneered the idea of surveillance capitalism have for long
ignored consumer’s rights to privacy by using data obtained without user’s data and using the
data to help in making production . These technology companies such as Facebook and
Google are changing the traditional known rules of market capitalism and working towards
dictating human consumption behaviour. Market capitalism has been as a free market where
businesses compete fairly for customers (Novak 2015, p. 35). Businesses operating in a
capitalist market only keeps customers by offering quality products and highly reliable
services (Anon 2017, p. 35). According to Tepper & Hearn (2019), market capitalism is made
up of some characteristics which make it unique. Some of the distinctive features of the
market are: no price control, private ownership, motivated by profits and minimal restriction.
However, this has changed since the rise of the platform economy. Companies such as

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Google and Facebook have changed the fair competition and democracy of consumer as they
take advantage of unknowing users of the platforms to get data and share it with third parties
which is then used to predict consumer’s behaviours and thus help in producing goods of
control, monetisation and commodification. According to Zuboff (2019), surveillance
capitalism aims at predicting and modifying human behaviour to assist in market control and
revenue generation as it conceals itself with technology (p. 106).
Surveillance capitalism which started with Google between 2001 and 2004 has been
adopted and continue to be adopted in the whole of Silicon Valley. “Free applications” being
developed are designed to trap potential user’s data as a source of revenue generation while
disregarding the fact that the data being used is obtained without the consent of the owners.
The data is used to make predictions on our health behaviour, driving, purchasing,
movement, activities, people we are likely to meet among other things we are expected to do
in the future (Mosco 2016, p. 93). With the development of smartphones, new car models,
walking through the streets and working in offices surrounded with all sorts of gadgets “to
make our living comfortable”, surveillance capitalism has taken captive every aspect of our
life and it is thus hard for us to own our future proudly. Arora (2919) argues that, we live in a
world where everyone is possessed with being offered smart service or own a smart gadget
which is the primary source of behavioural data (p.58). According to Ford’s chief executive,
the company is working towards developing intelligent cars, smart parking, intelligent
transportation systems and smart roads. Despite the fact that this sounds good to the
consumers of the Ford products, MR Hackett confessed that the intelligent cars will enable
them to have more information about their clients such as the speed of the vehicle at any
given time, exact time at which the owner of the car gets home, Names of all family members
and the number of times the owner of the car has married. This is against principles of
democracy and capitalist market as the data obtained is not intended to be used for the benefit

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of the car owners. Rather, the data obtained can be used against the owner of the car by an
insurance to slow or stop the car in case the speed limit is exceeded or more fail to
compensate the owner in case of an accident citing reckless driving. It is due to such
probability that Zuboff (2015) argues that, democracy has slept, while surveillance capitalists
amassed unprecedented concentrations of knowledge and power against the owners of the
data.
According to Haque (2015), more organisations are working towards having more
data in the future from the products they are offering to their users which is crucial in making
production decisions. Chun (2017) says that the most predictive behavioural data come from
economies of action. The systems are thus being designed to modify the behaviour of
consumers and shape it towards the companies'' desired financial outcomes. Since time
immemorial, capitalism has involved converting things which never existed in the market
dynamic to market commodities for sale and generation of revenue (Tepper & Hearn 2019, p.
172). Surveillance capitalism, on the other hand, is making use of the private human data and
experience as a raw material that is fashioned and computed to make predictions which help
organisations to make decisions. Lyon (2018), argues that surveillance capitalism has spread
across all kind of products, economic sectors and services such as insurance, healthcare,
finance, education, entertainment and retail creating a new generation of producers, suppliers,
market makers, customers and many more . Service providers are no longer interested in
making goods and provide services from the experience of the consumers or automating
information to flow about their clients but are working towards automating the consumers
without raising the possibility of self-determination. The power to shape the behaviour of the
consumers for power and profits has no foundation in moral or democratic legitimacy as it
hinders decision making and erodes the process of self-realisation which is essential in a
democratic society (Ball & Webster 2019, p. 76).

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It is evident that many people in the world are using the so-called ""free"" social media
platforms and app without being conscious of the amount of personal data they are giving out
freely. This has made surveillance capitalism to take advantage of the innocence and use the
site users as a free source of raw materials that are used to make production and consumption
predictions. According to several surveys conducted between 2009 and 2015, it is evident
that many people do not support the idea of their data being taken without their knowledge.
Despite the fact many people are convinced to believe that the data obtained is used to
facilitate service improvement, it is evident that the companies have a surplus of information
that is fed in advanced manufacturing processes (machine intelligence) and used to predict
the consumption behaviour in the future. Many people have expressed their dissatisfaction as
they no longer have their freedom to make their consumption decisions and are looking
forward to a digital future that will fulfil their need without compromising their privacy
(McChesney 2014).
The surveillance capitalism competition among different organisations has led to the
production of more advanced behaviour prediction products. This has led to the intervention
of human behaviour thus shifting the focus from monitoring to actuating the behaviours.
Surveillance capitalism, therefore, can tune and condition human behaviour towards most
favourable outcomes. Surveillance on clients enables organisations to have all the
information about their clients, but the clients have none bout them. They predict the
consumer’s future for their gain which have an effect of eroding democracy as people are left
with little capacity to make their moral judgement and think critically (Arora 2019, p. 78).
According to Vaidhyanathan (2019), surveillance capitalism is the new business model
that has been boosted by advancement in technology and the internet (p. 128). He argues that
the combination of surveillance capitalist and government surveillance mean that the
technology is separating citizens into two groups. That is the watched and watchers who are

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perceived as unknown, invincible and unaccountable. Citizens are made to become slaves to
the organisations as asymmetry of knowledge translates into asymmetries of power
(McChesney 2014, p. 159).
Like any other forms of capitalism such as mass production which had no regulations
at the begging and took time before rules were set, surveillance capitalism has broken the
democracy norms because it lucks laid out rules and regulations which should control it and
ensure that consumer’s data is protected. Some of the ways organisations benefiting from this
form of capitalism have managed to get away with it are;
1. The methods used to acquire the data are designed to keep the general public ignorant.
This has been achieved by making people understand that surveillance capitalism is
an inevitable consequence of technological advancements and thus must live with it.
This unfortunate as people should understand it is possible to have surveillance
without internet while they can have internet without surveillance.
2. Another reason for surveillance capitalism success has been a dependency on the
internet in almost everything. Whether is conducting our classes or interacting with
our health care providers, nearly everything human being has today leads them to
channels of surveillance capitalism supply channels (Mayer-Schönberger 2019, p.
172).
3. The year 2001 when Google invented surveillance capitalism was around the era of
the superiority of self-regulating markets and companies, and government regulations
were considered as a setback in free enterprise.
4. Methods of surveillance capitalism and operations have impeded the ability of the
public to grasp them and perceive their meaning as well as consequences.

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Despite the illegitimate power and domination of surveillance capitalism, most people
have confessed to finding it hard to withdraw from using devices and platforms which
channels them to surveillance capitalism supply chain. This is because they have been
trapped in an involuntary merger of economic extraction and personal necessity where the
same channels they rely upon for social interaction, healthcare, logistics, communication,
transport and much more are the same that are used to trap data useful in surveillance
capitalism (Mayer-Schönberger & Ramge 2018, p. 251).
It is the responsibility of each of us to ensure that we come together and fight this
dynamic of surveillance capitalisation. To achieve this, the public must be enlightened about
surveillance capitalism to change their opinion. According to McChesney (2014), society has
been made to believe that surveillance capitalism is part of technology advancements and
must learn to live with (p. 145). This is a big lie that must be fought with to change the
perception and bring sanity in using the internet to do marketing and market research as we
work towards democratization of knowledge.
The government and lawmakers should be at the forefront to help in the fight to protect
consumer and internet users. The can be achieved by enforcing already existing consumer
protection laws and development of new ones which are specific and related to surveillance
capitalism. According to Zuboff (2015), surveillance capitalisation can be fought by causing
a disconnection between demand and supply (p.7). This can only be achieved by enlightening
people and informing the public how surveillance capitalisation is manipulating theme and
thus they should together reject backstage practises of surveillance capitalism hence cause
market failure.
Conclusion

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From the discussion above, it is evident that surveillance capitalism “challenges
democratic norms and departs in key ways from the centuries-long evolution of market
capitalism." Surveillance capitalism has ignored the democratic right of innocent internet
users to get their demographic and personal data. The data is then given without their consent
to third parties and it is used to make business related decisions which are behavioural
related. Many victims of surveillance capitalism have been made to believe that surveillance
capitalism is an inevitable consequence of technological advancements and thus must live
with. In reality, surveillance capitalism is an income generating project by companies against
the democratic right of their clients to information. It is evident that many people have since
been informed about the ills of surveillance capitalism and are against the use of their data
without their knowledge. To help restore sanity, each one of use must arise and help to fight
against this exploitation and acquiring democracy to make our own decisions without being
influenced.

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