Surveillance Capitalism’s Influence on Personal Privacy and Intellectual Autonomy Case Study: Cambridge Analytica and the 2016 U.S. Election

Abstract

The dawn of the 21st century witnessed two developments that shaped the world we live in today. The first was the September 11 attacks, and the second was the emergence of a new market called surveillance capitalism. However, people around the globe do not seem to be as sentient to the latter’s reverberations as they are to the former’s. This study aims to introduce surveillance capitalism to the public by uncovering the mechanism through which this market functions, its effects on personal privacy and intellectual autonomy, and its repercussions on the collective mind in general by tracing back and analyzing the involvement of Cambridge Analytica in the United States’ 2016 presidential election when the consulting firm conducted what would be seen later as one of the instances in which surveillance capitalism blatantly manifested itself. This study will take a mixed methods form in which qualitative and quantitative data will be collected, discussed, and analyzed. This study found that surveillance capitalism is a detrimental menace to anything related to liberty, ranging from the right to privacy to the right to vote. The study also found that corporations that constitute the market of surveillance of capitalism have a great influence within the decision-making rooms in the United States. This influence sabotages any attempt to pass regulations that would limit, if not curb, the unethical misconducts of surveillance capitalism.