I have dedicated the last twelve years to observing and analyzing the quiet emergence of a fundamentally anti-democratic new economic logic that I call surveillance capitalism.  The digital future has been hijacked by this rogue capitalism that now owns and operates the internet. There is a lot of work to be done if we are to build new bridges to a digital future that we can all call home.  We deserve a digital future that amplifies human rights, individual sovereignty, and other requirements of a free and flourishing democracy.  From 2011 through 2018 I wrote a comprehensive book on this subject: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.  It was published in Germany in October 2018 and in the US on January 15, 2019.

In the gathering storm of worldwide outrage toward illegitimate tech power many people are finding their way to my book.  I want to thank my readers and others who have engaged with my podcasts, articles, interviews, radio shows, lecture events, films, videos, and tweets!  We are a growing vanguard of young and old who share a sense of righteous indignation and a demand for action.  “Let there be a digital future,” we say, “but let it be a human future first.” 

The stage is set for the big work of 2021 and the decade ahead.  If we are to bend the arc of the digital back toward the light, we need public education, democratic mobilization, and political leadership. We need the creativity and courage to revitalize our frameworks of human rights, laws, and regulations for a new epoch. This next decade is pivotal.  It’s all hands on deck.  I look forward to meeting many more of you on the road ahead.