Just about any social need is now met with an opportunity to "connect"
through digital means. But this convenience is not free-it is purchased
with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy
backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit. The Costs of
Connection uncovers this process, this "data colonialism," and its
designs for controlling our lives-our ways of knowing; our means of
production; our political participation.
Colonialism might seem like a thing of the past, but this book shows
that the historic appropriation of land, bodies, and natural resources
is mirrored today in this new era of pervasive datafication. Apps,
platforms, and smart objects capture and translate our lives into data,
and then extract information that is fed into capitalist enterprises and
sold back to us. The authors argue that this development foreshadows the
creation of a new social order emerging globally-and it must be
challenged. Confronting the alarming degree of surveillance already
tolerated, they offer a stirring call to decolonize the internet and
emancipate our desire for connection.