Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back

In the past, colonialism was a landgrab of natural resources, exploitative labour and private property from countries around the world. It promised to modernise and civilise, but actually sought to control. It stole from native populations and made them sign contracts they didn’t understand. It took resources just because they were there.

Colonialism has not disappeared – it has taken on a new form.

In the new world order, 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. 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.

In this searing, cutting-edge guide, two leading global researchers – and founders of the concept of data colonialism – reveal how history can help us both to understand the emerging future and to fight back.

About the author:
Ulises Mejias is Professor of Communication Studies and the director of the Institute for Global Engagement at SUNY Oswego. His research interests include critical internet studies, network theory and science, philosophy of technology, sociology of communication, and political economy of digital media.