Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface: Colonized by Data -
PART I. Extracting -
1 The Capitalization of Life without Limit -
2 The Cloud Empire -
Interlude: On Colonialism and the Decolonial Turm -
3 The Coloniality of Data Relations -
PART II. Ordering -
4 The Hollowing Out of the Social -
5 Data and the Threat to Human Autonomy -
PART III. Reconnecting -
6 Decolonizing Data -
Postscript: Another Path is Posible -
Acknowledgments -
Notes -
Bibliography -
Index.

Just about any social need is now met with an opportunity to 'connect' through digital means. But this convenience is not free-it is purchased with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit. The Costs of Connection uncovers this process, this 'data colonialism', and its designs for controlling our lives-our ways of knowing, our means of production, our political participation.
Data colonialism is, in essence, an emerging order for the appropriation of human life so that data can be continuously extracted from it for profit. Colonialism might seem like a thing of the past, but this book shows that the historic appropriation of land, bodies and natural resources is mirrored today in pervasive datafication. Apps, platforms and smart objects capture and translate our lives into data, and then extract information that is fed into capitalist enterprises and sold back to us. The authors argue that this development foreshadows the creation of a new social order emerging globally - and it must be challenged. Confronting the alarming degree of surveillance already tolerated, they offer a stirring call to decolonize the internet and emancipate our desire for connection.