Colonizing the home as data-source: investigating the language of Amazon skills and Google actions

Multiple domains of life and everyday routine interactions have been targeted as key sites for shaping individuals’ behaviors according to companies’ data extractive expectations, in particular the home. The introduction of Digital Personal Assistants (DPA) such as Alexa and Google Assistant has been one of the ways through which companies have sought to push the frontiers of data extraction into the most private and intimate spaces of everyday life. In this article, we look at how the home has been positioned as a space for data extraction through Amazon “skills” and Google “actions”—programmable apps within the DPA. We conducted a thematic analysis of documents from both companies and present different dimensions through which the home is opened up for data extraction, a process we call the “data colonization” of the home

Unpacking cyber norms: private companies as norm entrepreneurs

Concerns over practices in cyberspace are central to the consolidating international agenda for cybersecurity. Responses to such concerns come in different shapes and sizes, and are proposed by different actors. Whether it concerns intellectual property rights, the theft of trade secrets, collection of personal data, critical infrastructure protection, DNS security, or geopolitical issues, the rise of cybersecurity as a multifaceted global issue has led to the proliferation of governance mechanisms aimed at responding thereto. While state efforts have sought to promote norms of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace, we argue that technology companies are also taking the lead as norm entrepreneurs in the context of the stability and security of cyberspace. We explore the tensions between current literature on cyber norms and the role of private actors as potential norm entrepreneurs in global cybersecurity. In an attempt to determine the position of private actors in this field, we turn to practices such as corporate diplomacy and lobbying as avenues for highlighting the methods in which corporations engage in international policymaking in general, and cyber norms in particular. We look at Microsoft’s case to unpack the company’s role in the normative development of cybersecurity globally. We analyse documents containing the company’s policies and strategies, and argue that these efforts consist of an attempt to influence global public policies on cybersecurity. In conclusion, we note that, notwithstanding these efforts, the lack of coordination between different aspects of norm-making processes illustrates the challenges facing the advancement of international cyber norms