Which platforms rely on surveillance capitalism?

• A. Academic journals only
• B. Facebook/Meta and Google
• C. Public broadcasting services
• D. Local newspapers and magazines

Answer: (B)

Surveillance capitalism means a business model that turns personal data from users into money by predicting and influencing behavior, mainly through targeted advertising. Facebook/Meta and Google are archetypal examples because they collect huge amounts of data across their products—what you search, what you click, your location, apps you use, your social interactions—and then turn that data into detailed user profiles. Those profiles enable highly precise ad targeting and real-time ad auctions, making user data the core revenue engine.

Academic journals, public broadcasting services, and local newspapers and magazines don’t rely on this model. Their income typically comes from subscriptions, public funding, or general advertising not driven by exhaustive, individual-level data profiles. So while they may use some data for analytics or generic ads, they aren’t built around monetizing personal surveillance in the way Facebook/Meta and Google are.