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How to destroy surveillance capitalism, Cory Doctorow

eng

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fiction

How to destroy surveillance capitalism

1245593437

Cory Doctorow

"For years, we've been hearing about the ills of surveillance capitalism -- the business of extracting, collecting, and selling vast reams of user data that exploded with the rise of tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. But what if everything we've been hearing is wrong? What if surveillance capitalism is not a rogue capitalism or a wrong turn taken by some misguided corporations? What if the system is working exactly as intended -- and the only hope of restoring an open web is to take the fight directly to the system itself? How to Destroy Capitalism was first published online by OneZero, Medium's official tech publication, and it was an instant hit. In this timely and crucial work, Cory Doctorow argues that if we want to end surveillance capitalism, we have to end the monopolies behind the commercial web as we know it. Only by breaking apart the tech giants that control our online experiences can we hope to return to an open and free web -- one where predatory data-harvesting is not a founding principle. 'Decades of fighting for digital rights has only left me more worried about the ways in which our networked technologies are being turned to the projects of surveillance and control,' Doctorow says. 'The banal evil of monopolistic tech is horrifying, but we shouldn't give the ordinary mediocrities running Big Tech undue credit. They aren't super-geniuses who've invented an unstoppable high-tech juggernaut. They're just modern robber barons whose dominance depends largely on our belief that they can never be dethroned." -- From back cover

The net of a thousand lies -- Digital rights activism, a quarter-century on -- Tech exceptionalism, then and now -- Don't believe the hype -- What is persuasion? -- If data is the new oil, then surveillance capitalism's engine has a leak -- What is Facebook? -- Monopoly and the right to the future tense -- Search order and the right to the future tense -- Monopolists can afford sleeping pills for watchdogs -- Privacy and monopoly -- Ronald Reagan, pioneer of tech monopolism -- Steering with the windshield wipers -- Surveillance still matters -- Dignity and sanctuary -- Afflicting the afflicted -- Any data you collect and retain will eventually leak -- Critical tech exceptionalism is still tech exceptionalism -- How monopolies, not mind control, drive surveillance capitalism: The Snapchat story -- A monopoly over your friends -- Fake news is an epistemological crisis -- Tech is different -- Ownership of facts -- Persuasion works... slowly -- Paying won't help -- An "ecology" moment for trustbusting -- Make Big Tech small again -- 20 GOTO 10 -- Up and through -- Surveillance capitalism 'n kids