The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

Zuboff structures her second chapter around three events in 2011: the Apple team’s presentation of new, exciting digital solutions; a fatal police shooting that caused riots in London; and an EU court case involving Spanish citizens suing Google to protect the rights for their data to be forgotten online.

Beginning with Apple, Zuboff analyzes the company and its rise to popularity as a case study that illustrates how many technology firms had promising, ethical starts before the onset of surveillance capitalism. Apple appeared to cater to contemporary consumers’ desires for individualized consumption, giving people the ability to freely engage with information technology and represent their conceptions of a unique “self” through customizable products. However, instead of following through on such promises, Apple took advantage of consumer desires for highly customizable technology and exploited them, inventing technology that infringed on user privacy and data. 

Exploitative strategies like those used by Apple, alongside the rise of neoliberalism, marked the birth of surveillance capitalism in our society. Neoliberalism is an economic philosophy associated with free-market capitalism that arose in the late 20th century in response to the ideological battle of Cold War. Combating notions of collectivism, neoliberalism pushed for self-regulation and sought to eradicate state oversight of private enterprise.