Monitored ― Business and Surveillance in a Time of Big Data

We are living in the midst of a profound contradiction: on the one hand, our lives as workers, consumers, and citizens have become ever more monitored by new technologies. On the other, big business and finance have become ever less regulated and controllable.

What does this technocratic ideology and surveillance-heavy culture reveal about the deeper reality of modern society? Monitored investigates the history and implications of this contemporary paradox. Peter Bloom reveals pervasive monitoring practices—some familiar, others shocking—that shows how even as ordinary citizens are more tightly regulated than ever, the global elite remains socially and ethically out of control.

This will only change, Bloom argues, if we demand that the systems that administer our lives, and the technology that powers them, be forced to become more responsive to the needs of individuals than to business and government, with true social liberation as our ultimate goal.

Peter Bloom heads the People and Organisations Department at the Open University, UK. His recent books include The CEO Society: The Corporate Takeover of Everyday Lifeand The Ethics of Neoliberalism: The Business of Making Capitalism Moral. He has written for the Washington Post, Guardian, and NewStatesman.