By tracing continuities from colonialism's historical appropriation of vast territories, such as contemporary Brazil, all the way to data's role in contemporary life, we suggest that although the modes, intensities, scales, and contexts of today's dispossession are distinctive, the underlying function remains the same as under historical colonialism: to acquire large-scale resources from which economic value can be extracted.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 27