The challenges posed to humanity by the digital future, the first detailed analysis of a novel form of power, "surveillance capitalism," and the campaign by powerful companies to predict and control our behavior. In this masterful work, the result of groundbreaking thought and research, Shoshana Zuboff offers an insightful and awakening perspective on the phenomenon she calls "surveillance capitalism."

The stakes are incredibly high: In the 21st century, a global architecture of behavioral modification threatens to distort human nature in the same way that industrial capitalism distorted the natural environment in the previous century. The author vividly describes the impact of surveillance capitalism as it advances from Silicon Valley and permeates every aspect of the economic sector. New ominous "behavioral outcome markets" become points of accumulation for incalculable wealth and power.

Within them, forecasts regarding our behavior become objects of trade, while the production of goods and services is integrated into new "means of behavioral modification." The threat has now shifted from the Big Brother of the totalitarian state to a diffuse digital architecture: to a "Big Other" that acts in accordance with the interests of surveillance capital.

We are faced with an unprecedented form of power characterized by the accumulation of knowledge and operating outside the jurisdiction of democratic oversight. Shoshana Zuboff's analysis, thorough and poignant, exposes the threats facing today's society: The specter of an absolutely interconnected, controlled "managed space," which deceptively promises possibilities and profit maximization – all at the expense of democracy, freedom, and the future of human nature.

Having encountered little resistance from the law or citizens, surveillance capitalism stands at the threshold of its dominance in the social system, ready to shape the digital future – if we let it.

"If the measure of a book's importance is the clarity with which it describes our world, as well as its ability to effect change in it, then, in my opinion, this book is by far the most significant that has been published in this century. Zuboff is grappling with the most extensive project of capitalist colonization in history, only this time the colonization concerns our minds, our behavior, our free will, our very selves. This is not a book against technology, but a book against unrestrained capitalism, profoundly and unwaveringly combative. It is, without exaggeration, the Capital of this generation." Zadie Smith

"From the very first page, I was struck by the irresistible need to say that this book must be read by all of us as an act of self-defense in the digital age. Zuboff, with stunning clarity and moral courage, not only demonstrates how our brains have been turned into data-mining reservoirs but also how rapidly and radically they change during this process. We are already late, we have lost so much, yet, as these urgent pages reveal, there is still hope for emancipation." Naomi Klein

"Brilliant and absolutely essential. Shoshana Zuboff exposes the most dangerous transition of capitalism with shocking clarity: it is the new economic order of surveillance capitalism, a system based on extreme inequalities of power and knowledge. Her comprehensive analysis highlights the unprecedented risks that this type of unregulated capitalism poses for human autonomy, social solidarity, and democracy. It is a masterpiece of rare intellectual boldness, beautifully written and deeply relevant." Robert B. Reich