ABSTRACT
Just as previous industrial revolutions relied on resources like coal and oil, the digital revolution has sparked an insatiable demand for its own resource—personal data. Rather than open-pit mines, data extraction depends on proliferating devices that do their digging by embedding themselves ever deeper into our lives and societies. This drive for data has led to modes of extraction that cause environmental pollution and what could be termed ‘social pollution’, which causes damage to societies and individual lives. This chapter utilizes the concept of extractivism to highlight the socio-cultural damage done by data extractive systems in Europe and around the world.
