fbbfbc32-political-accommodation-inveigelment-surveillance-capitalism

The reason why surveillance capitalism was able to take root when it did was not merely down to technological forces. Google, as the originator of the form, was able to exploit the political currents of the time to further innoculate itself against scrutiny and oversight.

The discovery of behavioural surplus coincided with September 11 and the subsequent “global war on terror”. The quest for domestic “security” led to the sweeping erosion of previous generations’ privacy rights.

Prior to 911, the FCC had been arranging a series of legal challenges to Google on the question of privacy. This went out the window in the post-911 era where Google’s unique ability to track and surveil online behaviour became a coveted commodity for the intelligence apparatus. Google began working closely with both the CIA and the NSA, with the CIA establishing an office and forward base in Silicon Valley.

There was an deep interdependency between the Pentagon, intelligence agencies and Google:

The US intelligence community’s incubation of Google from inception occurred through a combination of direct sponsorship and informal networks of financial influence, themselves closely aligned with Pentagon interests.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019): 118

Another key aspect was cosying up to politicians during the electoral cycle. Most notably during Obama’s elections:

Google demonstrated that the same predictive knowledge derived from behavioural surplus that had made the surveillance capitalists wealthy could also help candidates win elections

Ibid: 122

Eric Schmidt took an active role in making Google’s dataset and technologies available to the Obama campaign in both of his elections in order to target voters more accurately. He then was swiftly appointed to advisory roles within the administration throughout both terms.