Photo: Cortis&Sonderegger/13 Photo

Data are the basis of just about every act of quantitative research. Today, data can be mass-produced, collected, bundled together and analysed, but also siphoned off. This is why a new concept is doing the rounds in academia that aims to sharpen our focus on the phenomenon: ‘data colonialism’. Nick Couldry and Ulises Ali Mejias are specialists in communication theory, and are the leading voices in this discussion. In their explanation, the concept illustrates the presence of a continuum here: from the historical appropriation of territory and material resources by foreign powers, to the “datafication of everyday life today”. At a conference held at the University of Zurich, they raised a warning: “This new ‘data colonialism’ is based not on the extraction of natural resources or labour, but on the appropriation of human life through data, paving the way for a further stage of capitalism”.