Surveillance Capitalism: Origins, History, Consequences

This article investigates the early history and recent development of what is now termed surveillance capitalism. It argues that an underappreciated aspect of the surveillance of people and intensive data collection is a regularization of behavior that attempts to erase uncertainty. This process has been ongoing for more than a century, but its expansion through increasingly sophisticated digital technology and the widespread adoption of data gathering as a business strategy has the potential to stifle and inhibit the innovative entrepreneurship that is crucial to the capitalist system. How this will play out remains unclear, but history argues that we should look for ways to mitigate the potentially negative consequences of complex technological systems such as these.