There is a long history of surveillance at work, disproportionately affecting low-paid jobs and disadvantaged populations, but the intimacy of monitoring in today's datafied workplace is without historical precedent. It fits well, however, with the colonial approach to social knowledge that chapter 4 uncovered in which individual reflection and voice matter little, and only aggregated data counts.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 467