Surveillance Capitalism: How AI Turns Your Data Into Dollars

Surveillance Capitalism: How AI Turns Your Data Into Dollars
February 4th, 2025

You’re browsing for a new pair of running shoes. You check out a couple of reviews, maybe visit a brand’s website, but decide to hold off on buying. The next day, an ad for those exact shoes appears on Instagram. Then another on YouTube. By the time you see a discount code pop up in your email, it feels like fate.

It’s not fate. It’s AI-powered surveillance capitalism at work.

The Business of Watching You

In 2009, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt famously said, “We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”

At the time, it sounded like sci-fi paranoia. Today, it’s just how the internet works. Every click, search, and swipe feeds into an invisible system designed to study you, predict what you’ll do next, and, most importantly, find a way to profit from it.

What Is Surveillance Capitalism?

Coined by Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff, surveillance capitalism is the idea that tech companies don’t just collect your data—they monetize it. They track everything you do online (and sometimes offline), predict your behavior, and sell that intel to advertisers.

Your browsing history, search queries, location, purchases, even how long you hover over a post—it all gets fed into powerful AI systems that turn your digital footprints into cold, hard cash.

Companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon don’t just collect data; they turn it into a product. Not for you, but for advertisers willing to pay top dollar for the ability to target you with precision. This is the foundation of surveillance capitalism—the idea that your data is the most valuable currency in the digital economy.

How AI Turns Your Behavior Into Profit

Google doesn’t just track what you search for. It tracks how long you hesitate before clicking a link. Facebook knows not just what you like, but how long you linger on a post before scrolling away. TikTok monitors the videos you rewatch, the ones you skip, even the way you pause.

At first, this data helps personalize your experience. But personalization quickly turns into something else—manipulation.

Consider Amazon. Its recommendation engine doesn’t just suggest items based on past purchases. It anticipates what you might need before you even realize it. The same way Netflix nudges you toward binge-watching, Amazon nudges you toward spending. This isn’t coincidence; it’s design.

And then there’s location tracking. Google Maps logs every place you visit. Not just the coffee shop you frequent, but the time you usually go, how long you stay, and what route you take. That information gets fed into a massive system where businesses can pay to appear as a “recommended stop” along your usual path.

Even your health data isn’t off-limits. Fitness apps, menstrual tracking apps, and mental health platforms have all been caught selling user data to third parties. In 2023, a major investigation found that several period-tracking apps were quietly sharing data with advertisers—despite claiming they didn’t.

The Illusion of Choice

Platforms don’t just predict what you’ll do next. They steer you toward it.

YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is designed to keep you watching for as long as possible. If that means pushing increasingly extreme content to hold your attention, so be it. In 2019, a report found that YouTube’s AI was consistently recommending conspiracy videos to users who had never searched for them. The goal wasn’t to radicalize people. It was simply to keep them engaged.

TikTok’s For You page operates in a similar way. The algorithm tracks every micro-interaction—how long you watch, whether you replay a video, if you pause before scrolling—and fine-tunes its recommendations. Over time, it doesn’t just reflect your interests. It shapes them.

Can You Escape the System?

By now, opting out feels impossible. Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple—these companies have built an entire ecosystem designed to keep you plugged in. Even if you delete social media, turn off tracking, or switch to privacy-focused search engines, your data is still being collected somewhere.

But that doesn’t mean you’re powerless. While you can’t erase your digital footprint, you can make it harder for companies to track and monetize you. Switching to privacy-focused search engines like DuckDuckGo or Brave can prevent Google from logging every query you type. Turning off unnecessary app permissions—does your weather app really need access to your contacts?—cuts down on background data collection. Browser extensions like uBlock Origin block the hidden trackers that follow you from site to site. And while Big Tech doesn’t make it easy, you can opt out of personalized ads in platforms like Google and Facebook—if you’re willing to dig through the settings to find the option.

These steps won’t make you invisible, but they do limit how much data is siphoned from you. The bigger question is whether we’re willing to accept the trade-off. Is convenience worth the cost of privacy? Or have we already crossed the point of no return?

If Schmidt was right back in 2009, the real question isn’t whether companies know what we’re thinking. It’s whether we still have a say in it.

<< Previous Next >>

Related Posts