The art of tech poaching

Ms Zuboff can get overheated with her metaphors; an extended passage with tech executives as Spanish conquistadors and the rest of us as indigenous peoples is frankly ridiculous

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
Shoshana Zuboff
Public Affairs
691 pages; $38
 
A friend of mine says that whenever he walks into someone’s home he’s tempted to yell out, “Hey, Alexa,” or “OK, Google,” and order 50 pizzas, just to see if there’s a device listening in on whatever gossip he planned to dish out next.
 
Shoshana Zuboff would undoubtedly get the joke, but she probably wouldn’t laugh. In The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, she warns against mistaking the soothing voice of a personal digital