SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM, THE COMMODIFICATION OF PERSONAL BEHAVIORAL DATA, AND HOW IT FACTORS INTO OUR RESPONSE

Abstract

Shoshanna Zuboff jumpstarted a conversation about the dangers of surveillance capitalism. In the following years, many scholars have contributed to an expanding body of work, but many have failed to address the commodification of personal behavioral data (PBD). The process of commodification itself harms users, exploiting them and violating their privacy, but the true issue with this phenomenon is that is facilitates a future market where surveillance capitalist firms can trade predictions for future user behavior. This futures market encourages the use of behavioral modification. In order to prevent these outcomes, responses to surveillance capitalism must target commodification, which none do. This paper proposes that effective interventions will have to come from government, who will have to separate the profit-making and data-gathering aspects of surveillance corporations, in the tradition of investment adviser regulation.