People are also differently placed to repair the costs inflicted through surveillance systems. Imagine the costs when every object, most processes, and much of one’s work and other life opportunities are managed through automated monitoring. You may need to buy a new tool when its built-in tracking system breaks down; you may need to find alternative sources for education, health care, or insurance when denied them on algorithmic grounds; or you may need to correct inaccurate data held about you in a system—for example, a credit rating. People’s ability to bear those costs will depend, as ever, on a preexisting (likely unequal) distribution of resources. And the more opaque the processes of data sorting are, the more resources will be needed to contest them effectively.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 484