Acceso usuarios
Harry Parfitt
Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism has done a great deal to conceptualise and raise awareness about the surveillance practices of Facebook, Google and other corporations. However, three of Zuboff’s central claims, at closer inspection, provide only partly adequate groundwork for tackling surveillance capitalist power. The thesis that surveillance capitalists can have “perfect” knowledge of users, firstly, seems to miss the point that the power gained over users by presenting knowledge over them as being “true” is independent of accuracy. Secondly, the claim that surveillance capitalists “author” our futures through purely “behaviouralist” means of control is not supported by an empirical analysis of how the digital corporations seek to establish an emotional connection with users. Thirdly, Zuboff’s suggestions that sanctuary from online social pressure is sufficient for individuals to gain autonomy from surveillance capitalism’s power neglects the fact that dominant social and cultural rationalities influence the way we conceive of ourselves even without direct observation. As a remedy to these shortcomings, this article posits two Foucauldian demands to build on Zuboff’s critique of surveillance capitalism. Firstly, the discursive construction of surveillance capitalists’ knowledge as such must be called into question. This allows us to critique the power-knowledge of surveillance capitalism without being lulled into a sense of security by the inaccuracies of surveillance capitalist knowledge. It notes that the production of “truth” induces effects of power, and, that these power effects can be challenged through questioning the discursive production of truth. Secondly, behaviouralist techniques and panopticon-like social pressure should not be regarded as the only means of power wielded by surveillance capitalists. A Foucauldian perspective highlights that inducing increasing swathes of humanity to “Think With Google” grants surveillance capitalists power over how we construe ourselves and our relations with others.
