Shoshana Zuboff’s ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ is just an excellent resource if you’re trying to understand exactly what it is that is at stake with the overreaching and attractively-packaged business models of products from companies like Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon.

It is chilling and frankly, the tone of the book can come across as apocalyptic but it’s thoroughly researched and strongly argued.

”In this new regime, objectification is the moral milieu in which our lives unfold. Although Big Other can mimic intimacy through the tireless devotion of the One Voice — Amazon Alexa’s chirpy service, Google Assistant’s reminders and endless information — do not mistake these soothing sounds for anything other than the exploitation of your needs. I think of elephants, the most majestic of all mammals: Big Other poaches our behaviour for surplus and leaves behind all the meaning lodged in our bodies, our brains, and our beating hearts, not unlike the monstrous slaughter of elephants for ivory. Forget the cliche that if it’s free, “You are the product.” You are not the product; you are the abandoned carcass. The “product” derives from the surplus that is ripped from your lives.” (P 377)

…

”When I speak to my children of or an audience of young people, I try to alert them to the historically contingent nature of “the thing that has us” by calling attention to ordinary values and expectations before surveillance capitalism began its campaign of psychic numbing. “It is not OK to have to hide in your own life; it is not normal,” I tell them. “It is not OK to spend your lunchtime conversations comparing software that will camouflage you and protect you from continuous unwanted invasion.”” (P 521)

I cannot recommend the book enough - there have been some great books on Big Tech these last few years but Zuboff’s tome is just alarmist enough for people to panic.

(On a related note, during my recent trip to India and Sri Lanka, I found it quite unnerving how people have have become nonchalant so quickly about having their faces captured on phones or are willing to provide copies of their national identity cards to pretty much anyone who can get you a good deal on mobile phone SIM cards.)