It is the age of smart devices. As we go through life, smart phone in hand, we are being tracked. Our appliances labelled “smart”, “intelligent” or “personalised”, would more truthfully be labelled “surveillance-enhanced”. Our current location, where we have been, our reactions on social media posts, our favourite TV shows, what we bought, are all being tracked. In return, we get personalised ‘suggestions’ on where we should go, what we should do or buy next. In short, our online behaviour is used for targeted advertisement and more.

The use of behavioural data was a historic turning point. Corporations have created a new kind of marketplace out of our private human experiences. Our society has been reshaped, is it for the better or worse? Big tech companies make us addicted to their tech unknowingly. “Will we be the masters of information, or will we be its slaves?” Shoshana Zuboff (author of The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power) asks. We’re all probably currently the slaves, except the selected few.

Zuboff reminds us that this system is an intentional mutation — it was not an inevitable evolution of capitalism. People made it happen and it has been allowed to continue to happen. If we don’t like it, how can we stop it? For those working in the technology fields, this is nothing new. The awareness must however be increased. The more people know about these ideas, the more likely we could break free from this manipulation. We need to rebuild a balance between the uses of smart devices that are trapping us in digital servitude and stop giving in to conveniences they provide.