“ . . . The authors dramatically point out the powerlessness and other negative consequences of people unwittingly giving up their personal data to large corporations. . . . Going beyond description, their analysis outlines individual and collective tools to rectify the situation. The discussion gives meaning to fears about artificial intelligence and has the potential to guide policymakers as they come to grips with the existence of Big Data.”
 

Choice

“I wish that Data Grab was required reading when I was a graduate student working in the field of AI. Perspectives like these are crucial if we are to break the colonial paradigm that pervades computing disciplines.”

Timnit Gebru, founder of the Distributed AI Research Institute

“In this essential and original work, Mejias and Couldry lay out a powerful and persuasive analysis of the logical continuity between modern colonialism and the extraction of data by Big Tech and its platforms. Their call to resist data colonialism could not be more urgent or more timely.”

Jeremy Gilbert, author of Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World

“Mejias and Couldry have long been at the forefront of revealing the hidden power structures at play in our data-fueled digital era. With their new book Data Grab, they once again deliver their much-needed incisive analysis. They gift us with the vocabulary to understand—and thus resist—the extractive forces turning our bodies and lives into objects of datafication. Their words arrive right on time as we begin to navigate the latest wave of artificial intelligence.”

Karen Hao, contributing writer for The Atlantic

“Data Grab offers a fascinating and accessible exploration of how our colonial history drives today’s data landscape. It not only puts current data injustices and cruelties into context, it charts a path for how we might resist.”

Bruce Schneier, author of A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend Them Back

“Data Grab is a remarkable text; moving far beyond disabling alarmism or rhetoric that overly catastrophizes the world of Big Tech, it helps us understand the historical and ongoing relations of power and extraction that have now proceeded to the realm of data, as a new raw material that supports neocolonial interests and amplifies inequalities. Far from merely tracing these important connections, Mejias and Couldry place us on a path to recognize ongoing patterns and how to resist and challenge them.” 

Ramesh Srinivasan, author of Beyond the Valley: How Innovators around the World are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow

“This elegant, lucid work distills the common themes linking data colonialism to previous forms of colonialism, while also provocatively cataloguing differences. Essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the political economy of Big Tech, Big Data, Big Compute, and (the coming) Big AI.”

Julie E. Cohen, author of Between Truth and Power: The Legal Constructions of Informational Capitalism

“Mejias and Couldry provide a terrifying and well researched account of how our personal data are being extracted and exploited for corporate profit. This data grab concentrates wealth and power in the Global North, encages us all in consumer bubbles, and erodes our privacy. More than a compelling read, Data Grab is also a call to arms for how we can reclaim our humanity and resist becoming ground up as grist for the data mills.”

Ifeoma Ajunwa, author of The Quantified Worker

“As in their previous work, Mejias and Couldry show how important it is to take the perspective of the colonized, not the colonizer, in explaining how the digital world is governed. Data Grab offers important insights into how we should analyze power and counter-power in terms of data control. I particularly recommend this book for providing examples of local and vocal initiatives across various continents. A true eye-opener.”

José van Dijck, Utrecht University

“A blistering, vital exposure of the predatory world of data colonialism. In this vivid and passionately written book, Mejias and Couldry urge us to wake up to the invasive and extractive world of today’s Big Tech.”

Mike Savage, London School of Economics

“A brilliant account both of colonialism and Big Tech, and a bold and provocative argument that the latter is a version of the former because of the way it dispossesses people of what should be theirs: data about their lives. It is furiously precise about the crimes of the European colonial system, and illuminating on how opaque and unaccountable tech industries shape our world.”

David Hesmondhalgh, author of The Cultural Industries