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665 reviews for:
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
Shoshana Zuboff
3.97 AVERAGE
665 reviews for:
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
Shoshana Zuboff
3.97 AVERAGE
An excellent loom at the technology, companies, and advocates for surveillance capitalism. Detailled and rich, it should stand as a warning to this and future generations much like Arendt did for hers. Perhaps a bit overly long and occasionally repetitive, it is nonetheless an important work.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
As other people have mentioned this book is too long for its own good. It’s actually two books in a trench coat masquerading as one
The research is impeccable and I can mostly follow her thesis, but I feel like she combines some points to the detriment of her whole argument.
Collecting data from people without their knowledge is bad.
Unilaterally deciding what is “good” and “bad” and nudging behavior towards that “good” is a huge issue.
Using that data to sell targeted ads is bad.
The technology itself isn’t.
The research itself isn’t.
Yes, using behavioral surplus for financial gain is bad, but a forever cookie makes sense as a technology.
Yes I don’t want google to read my emails when its mapping cars pass my house, but the technology to weed through emails to find the key words/logic in a batch of text is very good for other uses.
The chapter on the group sociology research was mind blowing. Full understanding of how we interact. That’s amazing to read.
She may believe that human behavior and experience is a unique unquantifiable something (I feel like she doesn’t fully commit on the concept of a soul), but the fact that it HAS been modeled and HAS been able to be quantified proves her wrong.
This is just the same old same old over human history: the tech discovery isn’t bad, the way it’s taken up for monetary/social gain is.
The research is impeccable and I can mostly follow her thesis, but I feel like she combines some points to the detriment of her whole argument.
Collecting data from people without their knowledge is bad.
Unilaterally deciding what is “good” and “bad” and nudging behavior towards that “good” is a huge issue.
Using that data to sell targeted ads is bad.
The technology itself isn’t.
The research itself isn’t.
Yes, using behavioral surplus for financial gain is bad, but a forever cookie makes sense as a technology.
Yes I don’t want google to read my emails when its mapping cars pass my house, but the technology to weed through emails to find the key words/logic in a batch of text is very good for other uses.
The chapter on the group sociology research was mind blowing. Full understanding of how we interact. That’s amazing to read.
She may believe that human behavior and experience is a unique unquantifiable something (I feel like she doesn’t fully commit on the concept of a soul), but the fact that it HAS been modeled and HAS been able to be quantified proves her wrong.
This is just the same old same old over human history: the tech discovery isn’t bad, the way it’s taken up for monetary/social gain is.
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Incredible book, but slow and repetitive.
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
I went into this book expecting a lot: I have strong feelings about data rights and privacy. Frankly, we don't do enough to protect people. however I'm also tech savvy and I don't like books being completely off the rails histrionic presenting such a fun house mirror to reality that I find myself repulsed. Shosana Zuboff's book is off the rails. This feels like one of those chem trails authors or why wifi is bad authors. "The Age" makes connections that are that out there. Which is sad because surveillance technology/capitalism is a real problem. It's something we need to understand and change.
According to Zuboff, everything is terrible, there are no solutions except to fight back (but how? ignore tech? She doesn't really say but there is a strong "get off my lawn vibe"). She talks about ETL, gets caught up that the E in ETL stands for extract, and then spends many words on why that's symbolic of all the evil done by tech. 500 pages of arguments similar to that one are presented. And they are particularly targeted to Google (which isn't completely fair).
Tech has a lot of issues, tech does overreach (a lot - thus why I read this book) but the writing style of this book is beyond sensationalism: this book veers into the yellow journalism scares of the US in the early 20th century. It's not helpful.
If you want to read a book on what to do: Alex Pentland's written several books on data rights. Support data rights and expansions of California's data laws (still too weak) and GDPR. That's one of the ways to get real change. Spending 500+ pages misrepresenting tech, or maybe it's better to say not understanding tech, when writing about such a critical topic, is not the way.
According to Zuboff, everything is terrible, there are no solutions except to fight back (but how? ignore tech? She doesn't really say but there is a strong "get off my lawn vibe"). She talks about ETL, gets caught up that the E in ETL stands for extract, and then spends many words on why that's symbolic of all the evil done by tech. 500 pages of arguments similar to that one are presented. And they are particularly targeted to Google (which isn't completely fair).
Tech has a lot of issues, tech does overreach (a lot - thus why I read this book) but the writing style of this book is beyond sensationalism: this book veers into the yellow journalism scares of the US in the early 20th century. It's not helpful.
If you want to read a book on what to do: Alex Pentland's written several books on data rights. Support data rights and expansions of California's data laws (still too weak) and GDPR. That's one of the ways to get real change. Spending 500+ pages misrepresenting tech, or maybe it's better to say not understanding tech, when writing about such a critical topic, is not the way.
I couldn't finish it. It didn't grip me. Interesting premise though.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Hands down, one of the most important books of our time.
An important message well delivered from a structural standpoint. My drawback with this book is that it is may be too lofty and academic to be widely accessible. Other than that and some unnecessary repetition, it was a fantastic read and as prevalent as ever to our current state of being.