Although our main focus is companies that seek to profit from the capitalization of our social lives, it is important to keep in mind the relation that the social quantification sector has to the larger ICT sector, and indeed to the wider business world, in its use of ICTs. Plainly stated, without the tools and business models of the ICT sector, the social quantification sector would not exist. … The point is that the social quantification sector is more of a subsector of the entire ICT business sector, useful in identifying specific activities and approaches that revolve around the capturing of everyday social acts and their translation into quantifiable data, which is then analyzed and used for the generation of profit. The point also is that in the era of data colonialism, the ICT sector is working ever more closely with all forms of business within the wider Cloud Empire.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 186