View source for Welcome to the Age of Surveillance Capitalism

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In 1998, science fiction author David Brin published a remarkably prescient book of nonfiction, titled “The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?” The book predicted that information technology would lead to the death of privacy, and explored some of the potential good and bad effects of the change.

One of Brin’s predictions was that citizens would be able to expose the secrets of the powerful -- a concept called “sousveillance.” That prediction seems to have come true. In just the past few years, mobile phone cameras have captured police brutality and other government misdeeds, social media has exposed famous figures as sexual harassers and so on.

Sousveillance might seem as if it’s leveling the social playing field. But the rich and powerful aren’t the only ones who have valuable secrets. However powerful crowds with cameras might be, big organizations like governments and corporations have at their disposal many more resources, better technology and more invasive, diabolical planning than the average person. And we’re just starting to discover what happens when those mighty forces put citizens and consumers into a panopticon.

First, there’s government surveillance, which by now is known to be fairly ubiquitous. Next, there’s the loss of the ability to have one’s mistakes fade away -- social media preserves every unwise tweet or compromising photo you’ve ever let slip onto the internet. Already, people have begun to fight against these forces, banning government use of facial recognition technology in San Francisco and elsewhere, and enshrining a so-called right to be forgotten in Europe.

But on top of this, there’s a phenomenon that Harvard sociologist Shoshana Zuboff calls “surveillance capitalism.” The ubiquity of mobile phones and social media has made it possible for companies to observe almost everything people do, whether making purchases, going out to eat or talking to or texting friends.

The most obvious application of this is advertising -- companies observe your behavior and use that to tailor ads to you. But people might not care about that so much. Targeted ads may feel creepy, but they aren’t that harmful, and consumers may reason that it’s only an algorithm watching them rather than a human.

A more troubling application is price discrimination. If companies use personal data to predict how much consumers are willing to pay for something, they can charge higher prices to those who are willing or able to pay more. Thus, surveillance capitalism may help companies siphon off more and more of the value that markets deliver to consumers.

Even more concerning might be companies’ ability to deny people essential services based on their past deeds. A prime example is Uber, which is now deactivating the accounts of riders who get low passenger ratings from drivers. On one hand, it makes sense to protect drivers from customers who are abusive or threatening, or who damage the vehicles. Retail establishments have always reserved the right to ban customers who steal or start fights. But there’s the chance that Uber drivers will systematically give lower ratings to riders of races, religions or genders they don’t like. And unlike stores and restaurants, Uber and Lyft are essentially a duopoly in most of the nation, meaning that if you get barred from both services, you’re locked out of using ride-hailing services.

This isn’t the first or most extreme example of companies being able to exclude citizens from essential services. Credit ratings allow banks to make it very hard for some people to borrow, rent an apartment, find a job, get a car or mobile-phone plan, buy insurance or start a business. Even though the credit history will generally be cleared up after seven years, it’s often very hard for people to get back on their feet if they can’t participate in basic economic life. And this relatively low-tech form of surveillance and exclusion could work together with the new version, as apps gather more and more behavioral data that could be used to determine credit ratings.

So surveillance capitalism threatens to cement class distinctions by taking people who make mistakes -- or who suffer from discrimination -- and limiting their access to all sorts of facets of the economy. This could ultimately have the effect of creating a so-called social credit system like the one being piloted in China. Under that system, people who fail to recycle, park in the wrong place, or play loud music can be barred from riding trains, obtaining credit or otherwise participating in other parts of economic life.

If that sounds like totalitarianism, it’s because it is. When the government regulates every behavior of daily life, citizens are not free. So far, U.S. companies haven’t furnished people with ways to inflict permanent punishments on their neighbors for not recycling or for playing loud music. But in principle, ubiquitous smartphones, all-important credit scores and apps with monopoly power mean that this kind of patchwork social-credit system is entirely possible.

Surveillance and control by corporate behemoths requires an even greater leviathan to balance it out. Governments in free countries must place limits on the amount and types of data companies are allowed to collect on citizens, the ways they are allowed to transfer that data, the length of time they are allowed to retain it, and the harshness of the consequences they can impose on people because of it. As in past eras, maintaining individual freedoms will require the strong hand of the government to prevent corporations from taking them away.
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