"Google didn't have to switch from content-based ads (which chose ads based on your search terms and the contents of webpages) to surveillance-based ads (which used dossiers on your searches, emails, purchases and physical movements to target ads to you, personally). The content-based ads made Google billions, but the company made a gamble that surveillance-based ads would make them more money."
"But the other half of the bet is far more important: namely, whether spying on us would cost Google anything. Would they face fines? Would users collect massive civil judgments over these privacy violations? Would Google face criminal charges? These are the critical questions, because even if advertisers are willing to pay a premium for surveillance ads, it only makes sense to collect that premium if the excess profit it represents is larger than the anticipated penalties for committing surveillance crimes."
"Advertisers and Google execs all work for their shareholders, in a psychotic "market system" in which the myth of "fiduciary duty" is said to require companies to hurt us right up to the point where the harms they inflict on the world cost them more than the additional profits those harms deliver."
The enshittification hypothesis attributes digital degradation to foreseeable policy decisions creating environments where harmful practices become profitable. Google exemplifies this by switching from content-based to surveillance-based advertising despite content-based ads generating substantial revenue. This shift depended on two factors: advertisers paying premiums for targeted surveillance ads, and crucially, Google facing minimal financial consequences for privacy violations. Companies operating under shareholder pressure pursue harmful strategies when anticipated penalties remain lower than excess profits gained. Policymakers bear responsibility for establishing regulatory frameworks that determine whether surveillance practices remain economically rational for corporations.
#enshittification #surveillance-capitalism #corporate-policy #digital-privacy #regulatory-accountability
Read at Pluralistic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]