ABSTRACT
Over the last years the field of media anthropology has explored the impact of algorithmic logics and data technologies in everyday life. Whilst much needed attention has been placed on the powerful discourses associated to algorithmic logics and data in society (Dourish, 2016; Seaver, 2017; Boellstroff, 2013; Boellstroff and Mauer, 2015), media anthropological research on how data technologies, flows, and their data narratives are experienced and negotiated in everyday lives is still limited (Pink, Lanzeni, and Horst, 2018). This chapter focuses on these processes of negotiation and demonstrates that we can no longer talk about ‘tech-surveillance’ in everyday family life without dealing with the question about ‘algorithmic profiling’. The chapter will explore how algorithmic profiling in everyday life makes people feel belittled and objectified, and is often experienced as a form of violence. The chapter argues that current understandings of algorithmic violence tend to ignore anthropological theory and hence fail to explore the relationship between algorithmic profiling, bureaucratic processes, and structural violence (Appadurai, 1993; Herzfeld, 1993; Gupta, 2012; Graeber, 2015). Its aim is to demonstrate how this theory can be pivotal in understanding the impact of algorithmic violence in everyday life.
