Surveillance: The DNA of platform capital — The case of Cambridge Analytica put into perspective

Abstract

This paper places the case of Cambridge Analytica's theft of data from Facebook user profiles into a larger context of the growing importance of surveillance in modern-day capitalism. It argues that in the current phase of capitalism, data, particularly user data, is becoming a 'fictitious commodity' that is used by various commercial entities as the key 'raw material'. The operation of such entities, which is effectively based on continuous privacy invasions, is not brought into question and is actually normalized by those who oppose only covert data acquisition as in the case of Cambridge Analytica