Tribune. Digital technologies are fundamentally transforming our societies. One of the most spectacular developments is the rise of digital giants, which, by using big data and artificial intelligence, are taking dominant positions in the major areas of consumption, culture, media, finance …
In Western and liberal countries, the business model of these oligopolies is based on the use of our personal data. As Internet users, we have become the providers – often unwittingly – of the free commodity of behavioral data used by digital businesses to make predictions about our lives.
Based on this observation, Shoshana Zuboff, professor at Harvard, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (Zulma, 2020), warns us against this shift towards a “Surveillance capitalism”. His thesis is that, by appropriating our personal data, the digital giants manipulate us and modify our behavior, attack our free will and threaten our freedoms and our personal sovereignty.
Warn of a real threat
This digital capitalism threatens not only our democracy but also our economy. Because the US digital giants, the famous Gafam (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft), are also crushing European companies and publishers. These oligopolies hamper competition and slow down innovation. The media are increasingly losing their ad revenue share to Google and Facebook, and quality journalism is being stripped of its financial base.
This thesis of surveillance capitalism has the merit of warning us against a real threat. However, does it describe a fatality? We must not confuse surveillance capitalism with digital technologies which are only its instrument. It is possible to imagine and build a society with the Internet without this logic of surveillance.
Because the use and linking of data also offers great possibilities to improve our lives in many areas, from health to leisure to industry. However, it is crucial to know how our data is used and who has control over it. As users, we are not completely powerless, and politics can set the rules we need – even if it has done so inappropriately in the past.
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