21 November 2024

Centre for Digital Rights

Non-profit
Online Talk
17 June 2020

Beyond Surveillance Capitalism

Harvard scholar Shoshana Zuboff in conversation with Centre for Digital Rights founder Jim Balsillie.

Media Partner

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Harvard Business School professor emerita Shoshana Zuboff defines surveillance capitalism as a new economic logic where the unilateral claiming of human experience as free raw material is translated into behavioural data. Google spearheaded the capture of surplus behavioural data, but now the practice has spread to Facebook and virtually every other economic sector, from health to education and financial services. Even Pokemon Go and “smart” cities.

 

Centre for Digital Rights founder Jim Balsillie has argued that surveillance-driven business models undermine personal autonomy, and as such pose serious threats to markets, democracy and election integrity.

 

In this talk, they discuss the evolution of capitalism, the problems of the current business model, data as a public good, and how to avoid a data-driven society that is post-political.

 

SHOSHANA ZUBOFF – Charles Edward Wilson Professor Emerita, Harvard Business School, and author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Follow @shoshanazuboff.

 

JIM BALSILLIE – Entrepreneur and philanthropist, Founder of the Centre for Digital Rights.