The four corporations are part

It is a facet of what Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejas have called data colonialism. of a broader commercial sector focused on exploiting new definitions of knowledge and rationality aimed at data mining. Through the habitual appropriation of sensitive data and the capture of many other social domains health education and law to name a few we are moving towards the unlimited capitalization of life as Couldry and Mejas describe it. The normalization of wearable devices as tools that individuals carry supposedly to manage their health both psychological and physical is part of this process that turns everyday life into a flow of data susceptible to appropriation for profit.



Apples Mindfulness application and Fitbits Log Mood are just two examples of how technological Russia Mobile Number List after having colonized the territory of the body now have their sights set on the psyche. Data colonialism like previous stages of colonialism disproportionately affects those who are already marginalized. For one thing the technologies involved are sometimes biased against marginalized groups as highlighted by a recent lawsuit against Apple over the alleged racial bias of the Apple Watchs blood oxygen reader.









But furthermore the idea that physical and mental health is primarily a matter of individual responsibility and technologyassisted personal management ignores the fact that health problems are often driven by systemic issues such as unhealthy working conditions. and exploitation or lack of time and financial resources to lead a healthy life which are determined by longterm inequalities. Data colonialism conflates these factors in favor of mercantilism when a debate about the socioeconomic factors behind the mental health crisis is more necessary than ever. It is ironic that precisely when this structural change in the management of our bodies and minds is underway the main data extractors are promoting a strictly deterministic asocial and individualistic explanation of how mental health can be managed. In fact it is more than ironic perhaps it is the perfect alibi to divert our attention from the institutionally driven data appropriation that is underway today. Note The original version of this article in English was published in Jacobin on and is available here.