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A review by carstenreadsalot
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff
5.0
When I finished TAOSC last night, I knew that I just had finished an important book. The accumulation of data by Google, Facebook, Twitter and other internet giants has changed, and will further change, society from the ground-up. The question is: how much control will we have over the data and how it is used? Who has the power? As Zuboff asks: Who knows? Who decides? Who decides who decides?
The book is divided in three parts. The first part (The Foundation of Surveillance Capitalism) traces the origins of SC (the stories of Google and Facebook are told here). The second part (The Advance of Surveillance Capitalism) describes how the internet giants (again Google, Facebook in particular) invaded every part of our lives and how it dealt with criticism. The last part (Instrumentarian Power for a Third Modernity) is rather theoretical but I felt that it is an essential part of TAOSC: How will SC affect democracy? How will a future society look like if SC is left unchecked? Chapter 16, in which Zuboff describes how we can witness life in a SC society (she calls it the "hive") by watching our children growing up, left me deeply worried that many politicians are too slow (unwillingly but possibly also willingly) in understanding the impact of unchecked SC on society.
I have given the book 5 stars because I feel this is an important book and should be widely read. But it is a long book, possibly too long. The points made in this book can be written down in a book half that length. I found reading it hard work, but I can recommend TAOSC highly. If you are looking for a similar but shorter book on this topic, I recommend Jamie Bartlett's book "The People vs Tech" , but Zuboff goes much deeper.
The book is divided in three parts. The first part (The Foundation of Surveillance Capitalism) traces the origins of SC (the stories of Google and Facebook are told here). The second part (The Advance of Surveillance Capitalism) describes how the internet giants (again Google, Facebook in particular) invaded every part of our lives and how it dealt with criticism. The last part (Instrumentarian Power for a Third Modernity) is rather theoretical but I felt that it is an essential part of TAOSC: How will SC affect democracy? How will a future society look like if SC is left unchecked? Chapter 16, in which Zuboff describes how we can witness life in a SC society (she calls it the "hive") by watching our children growing up, left me deeply worried that many politicians are too slow (unwillingly but possibly also willingly) in understanding the impact of unchecked SC on society.
I have given the book 5 stars because I feel this is an important book and should be widely read. But it is a long book, possibly too long. The points made in this book can be written down in a book half that length. I found reading it hard work, but I can recommend TAOSC highly. If you are looking for a similar but shorter book on this topic, I recommend Jamie Bartlett's book "The People vs Tech" , but Zuboff goes much deeper.