What is it about?
This chapter explores how everyday interactions with platforms like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft gradually turn us into “data subjects”: people who see and understand themselves through algorithmic profiles that shape our behavior, steer our desires, and influence our choices in a data-driven world.
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Why is it important?
This research reveals how big tech subtly shapes our identities and choices through data, helping us understand and challenge the hidden power of platforms in everyday life.
Perspectives
Writing this chapter allowed me to bring together years of thinking about how digital platforms shape who we are and how we see ourselves. I hope it helps readers recognize the subtle ways big tech influences our daily lives and sparks conversations about imagining alternative, more empowering ways of living with data.
Bjorn Beijnon
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: From Datafication to Interpellation: Becoming a Data Subject in Contemporary Surveillance Cultures, July 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004711396_006.
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