Remember when businesses had to make something and sell it to turn a profit? Find a way to produce it cheaper, decrease costs, increase revenue, and investors lined up at the front door. That’s how corporate America worked since the Industrial Revolution. When companies were fraudulent or corrupt, customers stopped buying their products, Wall Street stopped investing, and the business filed for bankruptcy. Survival of the fittest was Capitalism in the good old days. 

Survival of the Creepiest

Today, it seems as if consumers reward companies for misbehaving. Take Facebook, for example. They’ve been accused of everything from stealing our privacy and data to our focus and attention. Instagram, which was purchased by Facebook in 2012, rewards users with satisfying hearts, a psychological technique taught at Stanford University that utilizes immediate reinforcements to keep users hooked.¹ At quarterly earnings calls, Meta investors are more concerned with new users and screen time than ad revenue. And, over the past 5 years, their stock price has skyrocketed almost 200%. 

I was a Junior at Syracuse University when Google launched Gmail. Free email? Yes please! Many college students entering the workforce, like me, created accounts and sent invitations to 5 unsuspecting friends to join in. (Event today, people marvel at the fact that I was able to secure myfullname@gmail.com.) It was brilliant until it turned evil, when we discovered Google offered free email in order to scan our private communications. Using our data, they setup user persona profiles filled with personal information. (Hari, 2023, pg. 125) Targeted advertising didn’t pop up in our inboxes until we were too indebted to make a change.

Amazon, on the other hand, ventured into consumer products quite early. The Kindle launched in 2007, and their first speaker, the Echo, followed in 2014. Make no mistake, both devices were designed in the service of their data-collecting business. They aren’t looking to make a profit, in the traditional sense. The Echo Pop, for example, sells for less than $30 — far less than it costs to produce. (Hari, 2023, pg. 127) Deceivingly, the Echo collects personal data so that Alexa can continue to recommend the products that shoppers are most likely to purchase. For digital natives, Alexa has become a household name.

Is Surveillance Capitalism Here to Stay?

Big businesses rely on our personal information to make a profit because it’s legal, and we allow them to steal it. But, if 2020 taught us anything, it’s that people and businesses that don’t hold up to our cultural and societal values can be canceled. In Stolen Focus, Aza Raskin suggests that passing legislation to prohibit social listening may be the only solution to getting our collective focus back.² Recall slavery, women’s rights, and segregation — When the cause is worthy, precedence exists to collectively fight for positive change. Is our attention worth taking back? If the answer is yes, perhaps it’s time to cancel Surveillance Capitalism.