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Data Colonialism & Geopolitics
As we shift into a multipolar world, data colonialism is a thing that’s happening. What are the implications?
For centuries, colonialism has been about the exploitation of human labour and the extraction of resources for the colonising power. In various forms, it continues today, most often in the mining of resources. It is also happening when it comes to data and is playing a quiet, yet significant role in a world geopolitics are fundamentally shifting.
It becomes even more concerning when the current American president, Trump and his team, are abrogating their hegemonic status and authoritarianism in the USA and other countries is on the rise. The new currency, the new resource extraction isn’t gold and minerals, it is the digital exhaust of our daily lives.
First, let’s define how I see data colonialism. What it means. We might see it as the extraction and exploitation of the human experience as raw material. Transforming it into behavioural data that serves as a proprietary resource for both state actors and corporations.
Where historical colonialism extracted physical labour and resources from conquered territories, data colonialism extracts the digital representations of human lives. Nations that have advanced technological advantages…
