Digital Hong Kong and Surveillance Capitalism

In the age of the digital economy, data is said to be the “new oil.” This chapter investigates the fourfold “cyber-pastoral” dynamics at the core of surveillance capitalism. First, the relationship between big tech companies and people demonstrates a new variant of the master-slave dialectic. Second, data-analytics can surpass psychoanalysis in tracking both the body and the mind, leading to transparent subjectivity and paranoia. Third, in light of the digital footprint, humans are their own worst enemies when they must curate a digital doppelgänger, only to witness how their double comes to haunt and hunt them. Fourth, sousveillance can advance voyeuristic peer monitoring as well as collective exhibitionism. The ubiquity of surveillance capitalism leads to two responses in Hong Kong: hyper-vigilance or resignation. I argue that clear information, customized design, and informed choices are essential in the age of networked technology.