This progressive opening up of human life to externally driven data extraction is what we mean by the capitalization of human life without limit. In this phrase, we recognize Marx’s long-standing insight that capitalism has always sought to manage human life for the maximization of profit; at the same time, we emphasize that data colonialism absorbs new aspects of human life streams directly into the productive process. It is not that social limits to life’s capitalization can no longer be imagined—indeed, the whole point of this book is to argue for the necessity of such limits—but that, as things currently stand, much corporate discourse fails to recognize any limits except those that it sets itself.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 68