The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

The concept of “ubiquitous computing” dominates Chapter 7. Zuboff argues that surveillance capitalism grew so competitive that it forced firms to ramp up their efforts in the amounts of data they culled and the quality of their predictive products. Surveillance capitalism thus evolved to adopt a second economic imperative: the prediction imperative. If the extraction imperative involved economies of scale, focusing merely on the amount of data collected, the second imperative sought to incorporate economies of scope, with deeper, more varied methods of data extraction.

However, Zuboff is quick to point out that even this evolution into economies of scope proved insufficient for surveillance capitalism. Firms needed surefire ways to secure profit, and there was still too much risk—or, put another way, human agency—involved with economies of scale and scope. Surveillance capitalists thus turned to economies of action, which aim to actively intervene in one’s life and suggest the direction of one’s choices. This evolution transforms surveillance capitalism into an economic form that relies on a means of behavioral modification, not a means of production.

Zuboff also introduces the concept of the “uncontract.” The uncontract is surveillance capitalism’s image of the future, an alternative mode of contractual agreements and regulations that rely not on human relationships, but automation.