So-called surveillance capitalism was one of the big issues for the 2020s identified in the first Economics Explained episode this year. Google, Facebook, and other tech giants have massive amounts of data on us and they are using it for commercial gain. In this episode, Economics Explained host Gene Tunny discusses various perspectives on surveillance capitalism with his good friend Darren Brady Nelson, Chief Economist of LibertyWorks, an Australian libertarian think tank.

Darren’s recently had an article published on the Mises Institute website with the title Surveillance Capitalism: A summary of critics. 

This is Darren’s second appearance on Economics Explained, and we spoke via Zoom video conferencing on the 18th of January 2020.

Use these timestamps to jump right to the highlights:

• 4:45 – Darren argues some criticism of surveillance capitalism is simply the latest manifestation of opposition to capitalism in general
• 11:40 – Darren mentions work by Austrian economist George Gilder who thinks current tech giants are “going over the hill” (according to this Forbes article) and companies to watch will be in blockchain and quantum computing
• 25:55 – Darren mentions section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act, often referred to as “The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet”
• 27:30 – discussion of how it’s monarchs or governments which have traditionally created monopolies – e.g. British East India Company
• 42.30 – mention of recent laws affecting tech companies – EU GDPR (e.g. see this Wired article) and California Consumer Privacy Act (for info, check out this Guardian article)