Data Grab: The new Colonialism of Big Tech and how to fight back

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Leading global experts provide a sweeping, empowering playbook to tackle what Yuval Harari has described as one of the biggest threats to humanity, for fans of Shoshana Zuboff's internationally bestselling THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM If you're not paying for the product, then you are the product. In the past, colonialism was a landgrab of natural resources, exploitative labour and private property from developing countries. It made shiny promises to modernise and civilise, but actually sought to control. It made native populations sign contracts they didn't understand, and took resources just because they were there. Colonialism has not disappeared it has taken a new form. In the new world order where data is the new oil, big Tech companies are grabbing our most basic natural resources - our data - exploiting our labour and connections, and repackaging our information to control our views, track our movements, record our conversations and discriminate against us. They tell us this is for our own good, to build innovation and develop new technology. But in fact every time we unthinkingly click 'Accept' on Terms and Conditions, we allow our most personal information to kept indefinitely, repackaged by big Tech companies to control and exploit us for their own profit. This is the era of data colonialism. The new colonial landgrab is a DATAGRAB. In this searing, cutting-edge guide, two leading global researchers and founders of the concept of data colonialism reveal how history can help us understand the emerging future - and how we can fight back.

Author Bio

Ulises A. Mejias (Author) Professor Ulises A. Mejias (Mexican American) is recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and a Fulbright Specialist from 2021 to 2025. Nick Couldry (Author) Professor Nick Couldry (British) is a sociologist of media and culture at LSE and a Faculty Associate at Harvard University. Their joint work has been widely presented and mentioned in The Atlantic, The Financial Times, Wired and Techcrunch, and they have been invited to provide written testimony to the UK Parliament. Their academic book The Costs Of Connection about data colonialism was described by Naomi Klein as 'Profound, urgent and bracingly original'.