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The costs of connection: how data is colonizing human life and appropriating it for capitalism

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublication details: Bloomsbury 2022 New DelhiDescription: xxiii, 323 p. Includes notes, bibliographical references and indexISBN:
  • 9789354358852
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 303.4833 C6C6
Summary: 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. Data colonialism is, in essence, an emerging order for the appropriation of human life so that data can be continuously extracted from it for profit. 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 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. https://www.bloomsbury.com/in/costs-of-connection-9789354358852/
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Item type Current library Item location Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Vikram Sarabhai Library Rack 10-A / Slot 338 (0 Floor, West Wing) Non-fiction General Stacks 303.4833 C6C6 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Checked out 21/10/2025 206848

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.
Data colonialism is, in essence, an emerging order for the appropriation of human life so that data can be continuously extracted from it for profit. 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 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.


https://www.bloomsbury.com/in/costs-of-connection-9789354358852/

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