surveillance capitalism
E323664
Surveillance capitalism is an economic system in which companies harvest, analyze, and monetize personal data and human attention as a primary source of profit and power.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| surveillance capitalism canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3054579 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: surveillance capitalism Context triple: [The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads, subject, surveillance capitalism]
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A.
“Capitalism”
"Capitalism" is a public artwork installed at the Oregon Convention Center that artistically critiques or reflects on economic and social themes associated with capitalist systems.
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B.
PRISM surveillance program
The PRISM surveillance program is a classified U.S. National Security Agency data-collection initiative that gathers and analyzes digital communications from major internet companies for intelligence purposes.
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C.
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires is a nonfiction book that examines the recurring cycle of openness and monopolistic control in communications and information industries throughout modern history.
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D.
The Decline and Rise of the Consumer
"The Decline and Rise of the Consumer" is a work by philosopher and cultural pluralism advocate Horace M. Kallen that examines the role, power, and rights of consumers within modern industrial and democratic society.
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E.
The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads
The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads is a nonfiction book that traces the history and mechanics of the attention economy, examining how media, advertising, and technology industries capture and monetize human attention.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: surveillance capitalism Target entity description: Surveillance capitalism is an economic system in which companies harvest, analyze, and monetize personal data and human attention as a primary source of profit and power.
-
A.
“Capitalism”
"Capitalism" is a public artwork installed at the Oregon Convention Center that artistically critiques or reflects on economic and social themes associated with capitalist systems.
-
B.
PRISM surveillance program
The PRISM surveillance program is a classified U.S. National Security Agency data-collection initiative that gathers and analyzes digital communications from major internet companies for intelligence purposes.
-
C.
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires is a nonfiction book that examines the recurring cycle of openness and monopolistic control in communications and information industries throughout modern history.
-
D.
The Decline and Rise of the Consumer
"The Decline and Rise of the Consumer" is a work by philosopher and cultural pluralism advocate Horace M. Kallen that examines the role, power, and rights of consumers within modern industrial and democratic society.
-
E.
The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads
The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads is a nonfiction book that traces the history and mechanics of the attention economy, examining how media, advertising, and technology industries capture and monetize human attention.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (53)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
business model
ⓘ
economic system ⓘ form of capitalism ⓘ |
| aimsAt |
influence over user behavior
ⓘ
prediction of user behavior ⓘ profit maximization through data ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
big tech companies
ⓘ
data brokers ⓘ digital platforms ⓘ online advertising industry ⓘ social media companies ⓘ |
| basedOn |
behavioral data
ⓘ
data extraction ⓘ human attention monetization ⓘ personal data collection ⓘ |
| coinageAttributedTo | Shoshana Zuboff ⓘ |
| contrastedWith |
industrial capitalism
ⓘ
welfare capitalism ⓘ |
| criticizedFor |
concentration of power
ⓘ
creation of digital inequalities ⓘ erosion of autonomy ⓘ exploitation of personal data ⓘ impact on democracy ⓘ lack of transparency ⓘ manipulation of behavior ⓘ privacy violations ⓘ surveillance of citizens ⓘ |
| describedIn | The Age of Surveillance Capitalism ⓘ |
| emergedIn | early 21st century ⓘ |
| enabledBy |
cloud computing
ⓘ
cookies and tracking pixels ⓘ large-scale data storage ⓘ mobile app permissions ⓘ online behavioral tracking ⓘ |
| hasKeyFeature |
algorithmic decision-making
ⓘ
asymmetry of information ⓘ behavior modification techniques ⓘ continuous surveillance of users ⓘ data commodification ⓘ opaque data practices ⓘ predictive analytics ⓘ profiling of individuals ⓘ targeted advertising ⓘ |
| raisesIssue |
data protection
ⓘ
digital rights ⓘ ethical use of AI ⓘ regulation of big tech ⓘ |
| reliesOn |
internet connectivity
ⓘ
machine learning algorithms ⓘ real-time data processing ⓘ sensors and tracking technologies ⓘ smartphones ⓘ ubiquitous computing ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: surveillance capitalism Description of subject: Surveillance capitalism is an economic system in which companies harvest, analyze, and monetize personal data and human attention as a primary source of profit and power.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads
→
subject
→
surveillance capitalism
ⓘ