Countering “Surveillance Capitalism.” The Intertwining of Objective and Subjective Factors

The chapter attempts to answer a fundamental question: why do users generally pay little attention to the serious threats to their privacy inherent in new communication technologies? Two complementary approaches in giving space almost exclusively to subjective factors (the first approach) and objective factors (the second) are considered: the views of Zygmunt Bauman, focusing on the general need for visibility in a liquid society, and those of Shoshana Zuboff on “surveillance capitalism.” A proposal is then made to broaden the theoretical framework related to surveillance by considering the symbolic power exercised by charity. In fact, many tycoons of information capitalism are also protagonists of a new kind of philanthropy that is radically changing both global power relations and our ways of thinking and feeling. Thus, the hypothesis is advanced that one can better understand the nonchalance of users of new technologies by taking into account the trust that can be generated by such ostentatious prodigality. The conclusions point out that it is not essential to assume that users are totally unsuspectiong. Users may be at least partly aware of the dynamics entrapping them, but nonetheless accept that involvement by grasping its not entirely negative or even desirable aspects.