SRC - Surveillance Capitalism
Folder: 05 - SOURCE MATERIAL Supporting: Surveillance Capitalism
Primary Source
Zuboff, S. — The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (2019) PublicAffairs. New York. 700 pages. Extensively footnoted. Harvard Business School faculty page: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=56791 The foundational academic text. All core concepts confirmed here.
Zuboff, S. — “A Digital Declaration: Big Data as Surveillance Capitalism” (2014) FAZ. Original essay coining the term. Characterised it as “radically disembedded and extractive variant of information capitalism.”
Zuboff, S. — “Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization” (2015) Journal of Information Technology 30(1):75–89 First peer reviewed publication of the framework.
Academic Extensions 2024-2025
Emergent Mind — Comprehensive Review “Surveillance Capitalism: Data Behavior & Power” https://www.emergentmind.com/topics/surveillance-capitalism Synthesizes research through November 2025. Extension beyond advertising into insurance employment finance law enforcement health confirmed. Instrumentarian power framework documented. Targeting efficacy limitations confirmed. Honest counterpoint documented.
Computing Within Limits — June 2025 “An Empirical Inquiry into Surveillance Capitalism: Web Tracking” arxiv.org/html/2508.07454v1 GAFAM tracking data May 2017 to March 2025 confirmed. Google Privacy Sandbox shift May 2024 documented. Evolving opacity of tracking confirmed. verified
Springer Nature Link — 2024-2025 “Surveillance Capitalism” chapter. AI-fuelled surveillance capitalism confirmed. “Ruling by data” framework confirmed. Apple Amazon Alphabet Meta Netflix Tesla as primary beneficiaries confirmed. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-17040-9_4
Health Impacts
Emergent Mind — November 2025 citations: Surveillance capitalism over-capture associated with increased anxiety depression ADHD symptoms sleep disruption and child development harms. Multiple peer reviewed sources cited including Belgroun et al. 8 September 2025.
Cambridge Analytica
Cambridge Analytica Case Studies — October 2025 https://cambridgeanalytica.org/case-studies/the-birth-of-surveillance-capitalism-how-cambridge-analytica-exposed-the-business-of-human-data-3583/ Personality prediction from Facebook likes confirmed. Data weaponised for psychological manipulation confirmed. Political power from behavioural prediction confirmed.
Kosinski et al. (2013) “Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior” PNAS 110(15):5802–5805 Original Cambridge study confirming personality prediction from Facebook likes — more accurate than spouse. verified
Wikipedia Sources
Wikipedia — Surveillance Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism Updated 3 weeks ago. Complete framework documented. All Zuboff concepts confirmed. Google origin confirmed. Sandberg Facebook transfer confirmed.
Wikipedia — The Age of Surveillance Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Surveillance_Capitalism Updated 2 days ago. Behavioural futures markets confirmed. Big Other concept confirmed. The Social Dilemma appearance 2020 confirmed.
Systemic Risk
Curran, D. (2023) “Surveillance capitalism and systemic digital risk” SAGE Journals — Big Data & Society https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517231177621 Collect and connect imperatives confirmed. Systemic fragility documented. Risk of breakdown documented. Important honest counterpoint to omnipotence narrative.
Still To Source
- Sheryl Sandberg “Typhoid Mary” characterisation — primary Zuboff source page citation needed
- Behavioural futures markets — specific documented examples of what is sold and to whom beyond advertising investigate
- Insurance behavioural pricing — specific documented programmes in US and UK investigate
- Employer behavioural monitoring — specific documented algorithmic hiring and firing systems investigate
- Political governance behavioural microtargeting — specific documented 2024-2025 cases beyond Cambridge Analytica #investigate