The Age of Surveillance Capitalism : The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power: Barack Obama's Books of 2019
(Author) Professor Shoshana ZuboffTHE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Shortlisted for the FT Business Book of the Year Award 2019 'Easily the most important book to be published this century. I find it hard to take any young activist seriously who hasn't at least familarised themselves with Zuboff's central ideas.' - Zadie Smith, The GuardianThe challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control us.The heady optimism of the Internet's early days is gone. Technologies that were meant to liberate us have deepened inequality and stoked divisions. Tech companies gather our information online and sell it to the highest bidder, whether government or retailer. Profits now depend not only on predicting our behaviour but modifying it too. How will this fusion of capitalism and the digital shape our values and define our future?Shoshana Zuboff shows that we are at a crossroads. We still have the power to decide what kind of world we want to live in, and what we decide now will shape the rest of the century. Our choices: allow technology to enrich the few and impoverish the many, or harness it and distribute its benefits. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a deeply-reasoned examination of the threat of unprecedented power free from democratic oversight. As it explores this new capitalism's impact on society, politics, business, and technology, it exposes the struggles that will decide both the next chapter of capitalism and the meaning of information civilization. Most critically, it shows how we can protect ourselves and our communities and ensure we are the masters of the digital rather than its slaves.
Professor Shoshana Zuboff
Professor Shoshana Zuboff is a renowned scholar and author known for her groundbreaking work on the impact of technology on society. She is a professor emerita at Harvard Business School and has written extensively on the effects of surveillance capitalism and the digital economy. Her most notable work, "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power," explores how technology companies exploit personal data for profit and control. Zuboff's writing is characterized by thorough research, clear analysis, and a call to action for safeguarding individual autonomy in the digital age. Her work has had a profound impact on the field of technology ethics and has inspired widespread discussion and debate on the implications of data collection and surveillance.