Problems with surveillance capitalism and possible alternatives for IT infrastructure

Over the past two decades, the business model of surveillance capitalism has emerged in the IT industry. This model has turned out to be highly profitable, but, if left unchecked, will very likely undermine the foundations of liberal democracies and quality of life on this planet. It involves custom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInformation, communication & society Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 70 - 85
Main Authors Landwehr, Marvin, Borning, Alan, Wulf, Volker
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2023
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Advertising
Capitalism
Civil society
Companies
Consumerism
Costs
Cross correlation
digital infrastructure
economics
Ecosystems
Encryption
Indirect costs
Informed consent
Infrastructure
Interoperability
IT business models
Manipulation
Nonprofit organizations
Organizations
Ownership
Personal information
political manipulation
Privacy
Quality of life
Surveillance
Surveillance capitalism
Technology
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Summary:Over the past two decades, the business model of surveillance capitalism has emerged in the IT industry. This model has turned out to be highly profitable, but, if left unchecked, will very likely undermine the foundations of liberal democracies and quality of life on this planet. It involves customized advertising and behavior manipulation, powered by intensive gathering and cross-correlation of personal information. There are significant indirect costs of this model, including loss of privacy, supporting surveillance by both the state and corporations, undermining the democratic process, other kinds of automated attempts of behavior manipulation, and excessive consumerism with its attendant environmental costs. Turning to what could be done, we propose a co-development of regulation and technology, as well as the key roles that can be played by citizens and civil society organizations. The regulatory measures are intended to safeguard privacy, require true informed consent, and to foster interoperability (even among rival firms, nonprofit organizations, and others). We also identify key enabling technologies, including open source, APIs to support interoperability and portability, encryption, and peer-to-peer systems. Finally, we discuss the crucial role of ownership structures for these IT services and argue for an ecosystem approach as a counter narrative to surveillance capitalism.
ISSN:1369-118X
1468-4462
DOI:10.1080/1369118X.2021.2014548