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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 12 december 2019
Meet the scholar who diagnosed ‘surveillance capitalism’

By FRANK BAJAK discuss Zuboff or her book.
AP Technology Writer But after more than a year
Until the Cambridge Ana- of tech-related privacy
lytica scandal turned what scandals, malign election-
had been a slowly gestat- interference and online
ing backlash against the platform-fueled extrem-
technology industry’s in- ism, investigations opened
trusive trajectory into a tor- by state attorneys general
rent, people struggled to and the U.S. government’s
articulate what underlay first tentative steps toward
the societal damage it was reining in its technology
exacting. titans, it’s become clear
They did not include that Zuboff helped crys-
Shoshana Zuboff. tallize previously vague
The Harvard business pro- apprehensions about the
fessor emerita had already tech industry.
spent years developed a Zuboff’s indictment is
damning theory. It found straightforward: Tech com-
a big audience with U.S. panies suck up our data
publication in January of trails then use those insights
her 700-page “The Age of to steer us toward com-
Surveillance Capitalism,” mercial interactions, de-
which skewers tech gi- velop their next addictive
ants led by Facebook and apps and predict our fu-
Google. ture behavior — effectively
Zuboff hasn’t stood still In this Wednesday, March 27, 2019 photo, author Shoshana Zuboff speaks to a reporter in her molding individual behav-
since. home in Maine. Zuboff is the author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism,” a book about how ior.Worse, she says, these
tech companies collect and use personal data.
Her unflattering indictment Associated Press invasive business practices
of Big Tech evokes how are spreading. “By now this
they harvest the details of the podcast circuit. ber who spearheaded But Zuboff saw that this is a virus that has infected
our lives and make billions She offered input on sever- child-protection rules limit- data wasn’t just an unex- every economic sector,”
from that data, all the while al pending U.S. privacy bills ing how apps gather data pected byproduct, says Zuboff told a meeting of
glueing our attention more and wrote a 34-page poli- and tempt kids to linger on- Chris Hoofnagle, a Univer- international parliamentar-
firmly to their platforms. cy paper for the House Ju- line. “She’s a rock star.” sity of California-Berkeley ians in May.
A bestseller in Canada diciary Committee, whose Early on, Zuboff realized re- privacy expert. “It is the Zuboff traces the origin
and Britain, the book pub- antitrust panel is studying searchers had missed the product.” of surveillance capitalism
lished is being translated Big Tech’s potential abuse importance of the ambient Tech industry allies de- to 2001 as Google, then
into 17 languages and has of its market dominance. data that digital services nounce Zuboff’s thesis as little more than a search
inspired a pair of small the- Zuboff has “put the lan- collect — where we use conspiracy-minded hyper- engine, considered go-
aterproductions. Zuboff, guage of economics them, for how long, what bole. Consumers willingly ing public. Faced with the
meanwhile, has been around the experience we like, what we linger on trade their personal data need to generate reve-
counseling politicians, criss- that we all know we’re and with whom we associ- for access to valuable ser- nue, its founders decided
crossing the Atlantic for having,” says Beeban ate. vices that don’t cost them to mine the data Google
public forums from Los An- Kidron, a film director and They were calling it “digital a cent, they argue. Google amasses when people
geles to Rome and hitting U.K. House of Lords mem- exhaust.” and Facebook declined to make searches. q

YouTube cracks down on racist, sexist and similar insults

By RACHEL LERMAN creators for the material it tween allowing freedom
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — allows on — and bans from of expression and keeping
YouTube is taking another — the site. hateful speech to a mini-
step to curb hateful and The site has been accused mum .
violent speech on its site. of allowing and fostering YouTube has long prohib-
The video streaming com- hate speech and extrem- ited outright threats of vio-
pany said it will now take ism and creating spaces lence. In June, it updated
down videos that lob in- for harassment to linger on- its hate speech policies to
sults at people based on line, along with other digi- ban videos with white su-
race, gender expression, tal sites that allow people premacist and Neo-Nazi
sexual orientation or other to upload their own mate- viewpoints.
“protected attributes.” The rial, such as Facebook and But the company also re-
Google-owned company Twitter. ceived significant push-
will also prohibit veiled YouTube has been review- back that month after it
threats of violence, taking ing its policies and guide- allowed a video to remain
a step further into moder- lines for about two years, on the site from conserva-
ating what people can say Matt Halprin, the compa- tive commentator Steven
on the videos they create ny’s vice president of trust Crowder.
and upload. and safety, said in an inter- In the video, Crowder used
YouTube has been slapped This April 4, 2018, file photo shows a YouTube logo on a t-shirt view. homophobic slurs aimed
with criticism from politi- worn by a person near a YouTube office building in San Bruno, He said the company at Vox reporter Carlos
Calif.
cians, viewers and video Associated Press tries to find a balance be- Maza.q