A new “social knowledge” emerges that lies entirely under corporate control. We call this “social caching.” This “God view” of the social world, though parceled out among many corporations, coalesces in a corporate social imaginary that justifies new ways of governing everyday life for the benefit and convenience of corporate power (think of insurers’ expanded power to demand self-tracking as a condition of service).

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 580