From Datafication to Interpellation: Becoming a Data Subject in Contemporary Surveillance Cultures

In this paper I provide a conceptual framework to understand how people in contemporary surveillance are transformed into what I call data subjects. A data subject is a subject that actively datafies itself into abstract quantities by responding to triggering actions of big tech platforms – ranging from smart speakers, smart watches, and social media platforms, to streaming platforms, internet browsers, and supermarkets – while considering itself in control over its behaviours, attitudes, and future choices. Through unprecedented datafication practices, i.e. quantification processes of people and their lives into digital data (Mejias & Couldry, 2019), people in contemporary surveillance cultures are culturally expected to each be a subject that undergoes, self-initiates, and advocates for such practices. Big tech companies normalize their datafication practices in contemporary surveillance cultures by tying this data subject to their identity so that it subliminally becomes a part of people’s self-knowledge and consciousness (Foucault, 1997). When people in these cultures become this subject, it becomes easier for big tech companies to legitimize their intrusive data collection on people, normalize the black boxing of their algorithmic operations, and control people’s perceptions of socio-political issues (Nguyen & Beijnon, 2024). By conceptually unpacking how exactly people become a data subject today, I construct a conceptual framework that can help researchers to systematically delineate key procedures and steps through which data subjects come into being today.