surveillance capitalism

This article sheds light on the symbiotic relationship between academics and Google's propagandistic endeavors to normalize the unilateral exploitation of user data. While technology enthusiasts often praise Google's innovations, little attention is given to the company's trajectory from a small start-up to a global behemoth. The authors argue that academia plays a significant role in fostering a sense of gratitude among users for Google's services, despite relinquishing their rights and privacies. Google's substantial financial support for academic conferences and grants to researchers fuels the narrative that its data usage is both legitimate and altruistic. However, this paper reveals instances where Google has exerted pressure on academics to produce favorable articles and penalized those who refused to comply, effectively influencing academic discourse to bolster its image as a benevolent corporation.

Big-tech corporations like Google, Meta, Microsoft etc. extensively utilize customization to collect and analyze user data, a practice integral to their business models. Google leverages user data to personalize services across its platforms, notably in its search engine and YouTube, to enhance user experience and bolster its targeted advertising strategies. Similarly, Meta uses algorithmic content curation on Facebook and Instagram, tailoring user feeds to individual preferences and behaviors, thereby generating detailed user profiles for marketing purposes. Microsoft's approach, particularly with Office 365 and LinkedIn, focuses on productivity enhancements while also gathering user data for feature refinement and targeted advertising. These practices, I argue, while improving user engagement, raise significant privacy concerns. The extensive data collection often occurs without full transparency or user consent, leading to debates about ethical implications, digital surveillance, and societal impacts. In response, there is a growing demand for stricter data governance and privacy regulations, as seen in initiatives like the GDPR and CCPA, aiming to balance the benefits of personalization with the rights and privacy of users.