Non-domination as a barely fulfillable aspiration under surveillance capitalism: A republican perspective at the individual level

Surveillance capitalism has become a dominant business model in contemporary digital economies, and it is characterized by the large-scale collection, processing, and commercialization of personal data. This thesis responds to the work of Benn and Lazar (2021), who argued that surveillance capitalism, although harmful at a societal level, can hardly be shown to do moral harm on the individual level. Building on their conceptual framework that investigates the impact of surveillance capitalism-based practices at the societal level on three domains, privacy, exploitation and manipulation, this thesis examines the consequences of paying for virtually indispensable services with personal data at the level of the individual. This thesis re-evaluates whether the renouncement of personal data might put individuals at risk of moral harm by the power exercised by surveillance-capitalist entities. Grounding the analysis in a neo-republican framework (Pettit 2016), this thesis argues that...Show moreSurveillance capitalism has become a dominant business model in contemporary digital economies, and it is characterized by the large-scale collection, processing, and commercialization of personal data. This thesis responds to the work of Benn and Lazar (2021), who argued that surveillance capitalism, although harmful at a societal level, can hardly be shown to do moral harm on the individual level. Building on their conceptual framework that investigates the impact of surveillance capitalism-based practices at the societal level on three domains, privacy, exploitation and manipulation, this thesis examines the consequences of paying for virtually indispensable services with personal data at the level of the individual. This thesis re-evaluates whether the renouncement of personal data might put individuals at risk of moral harm by the power exercised by surveillance-capitalist entities. Grounding the analysis in a neo-republican framework (Pettit 2016), this thesis argues that pervasive data collection and inference practices expose individuals to standing vulnerability due to privacy loss. It further contends that structural power asymmetries and the absence of meaningful alternatives amount to domination through the lens of exploitation. Finally, while direct manipulation cannot be shown to amount to domination on the individual level, algorithmic control over informational environments enables forms of indirect manipulation that undermine individual agency. In contrast to Benn and Lazar (2021), the thesis concludes that surveillance capitalism based practices pose a serious threat to individual freedom as non-domination.Show less

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Non-domination as a barely fulfillable aspiration under surveillance capitalism: A republican perspective at the individual level