Smart Homes or Surveillance Capitalism?

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by Stephanie Chang

    This image depicts an Amazon Echo home assistant device, an example of surveillance capitalism infiltrating households under the pretense of utility. Hammer and Park argue that we voluntarily subject ourselves to “serving as trainers and teachers for the neural networks which power” (Hammer and Park 2021:224) such technologies. 



Works Cited

Hammer, Ricarda and Park, Tina M. 2021. “The Ghost in the Algorithm: Racial Colonial Capitalism and the Digital Age.” Political Power and Social Theory 38: 221-249.

“Hey Alexa: How can we escape surveillance capitalism?” April 30, 2019. From Engadget. Retrieved May 5, 2022 (https://www.engadget.com/2019-04-30-hey-alexa-how-can-we-escape-surveillance-capitalism.html). 




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