THE RISE OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM

The Rise of Surveillance Capitalism 

Surveillance capitalism is the concept of monitoring human behavior and monetizing the data gathered. With the rise of the internet & the use of smartphones a new revenue model has become dominate. Apps and websites are tracking everything you do in order to sell your data. Companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon generate billions of dollars in profits every year by leveraging our data for their benefit. Even worse, once they collect the data it’s passed through algorithms and the insights are sold to brands who use it to influence our behavior.

Price of Personal Data

The consumer is the product in the digital market. According to calculations from howmuch.net, users are worth a lot to big tech. For Example:

• Each user is worth $182 dollars to Google.
• Facebook makes over $158 per user.
• And, Amazon brings in a massive $788 by using your data against you!

That means Google, Facebook and Amazon are making cash off you, while you earn nothing. ImagineBC gives our members the opportunity to monetize their own data instead of digital giants capturing all the profits.

Everyone is Being Monitored Whether We Opt-in Or NOT!

“Most Americans realize that there are two groups of people who are monitored regularly as they move about the country.  The first group is monitored involuntarily by a court order requiring that a tracking device be attached to their ankle. The second group includes everyone else…”

The quote above was not from a technology expert from Silicon Valley or the NSA, but an auto insurance industry consultant in a passage from “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” by Von Shoshana Zuboff. 

The era of private surveillance exploiting our private space has arrived with companies tracking our past behavior to manipulate our future patterns. Today insurance companies can offer usage-based insurance policies by tracking our driving behavior or even offer discounts based on how safe an algorithm thinks we drive.  And Google tracks every single place we’ve ever visited to show us more targeted ads without the ability to opt-out.

Data is everywhere and large tech companies are seeking to capture it to maximize their own profits. Because technology has become so ingrained in our everyday lives, most of our actions are being monitored often without many of us realizing it. Our cellphones track our exact location and report back to our wireless carriers and many of the apps we use who then resale it to the highest bidder. Social media giants collect our web activity whether we’re logged into their websites or apps or have ever signed up. And, Google lets advertisers can place curated ads on our devices based on where & what we search. 

That’s why when all of our actions can be tracked it’s big companies that most profit from it. Not you.

Insight:

The data ecosystem should place what benefits the consumer and privacy at the core of the industry. As technology rapidly emerges into a necessity, rather than a luxury, it becomes merely unfathomable to envision living without our “gadgets”. Our access to more relevant information, ease of use, product improvements, & health and safety concerns are legitimate data uses. But, it is unfair when companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon take our data and use it to profit without offering us an opportunity to control and profit from our own data.  ImagineBC puts our members in control of their data and gives you the opportunity to profit. At ImagineBC we believe our members should have the authority to:

• Because your data belongs to you, you have the option of either sharing or not sharing your information.
• Decide which company should receive their sensitive data.
• Take the primary financial stake in their data and profit from it.