Description
Book SynopsisWhat our health data tell American capitalism about our valueand how that controls our lives. Afterlives of Datafollows the curious and multiple lives that our data live once they escape our control. Mary F. E. Ebeling's ethnographic investigation showshow information about our health and the debt that we carry becomes biopolitical assets owned by healthcare providers, insurers, commercial data brokers, credit reporting companies, and platforms. By delving into the oceans of data built from everyday medical and debt traumas, Ebeling reveals how data about our lives come to affect our bodies and our life chances and to wholly define us. Investigations into secretive data collection and breaches of privacy by the likes of Cambridge Analytica have piqued concerns among many Americans about exactly what is being done with their data. From credit bureaus and consumer data brokers like Equifax and Experian to the secretive military contractor Palantir, this massive industry has little regulatory oversight for health data and works to actively obscure how it profits from our data. In this book, Ebeling traces the health datamedical information extracted from patients'bodiesthat aredigitized and repackaged into new data commodities that have afterlives in database lakes and oceans, algorithms, and statistical models used to score patients on their creditworthiness and riskiness. Critical and disturbing,Afterlives of Data examines how Americans'data about their health and their debt are used in the service of marketing and capitalist surveillance.
Trade Review"Well-grounded in current real-world issues, this text is both highly informative and approachable for readers thanks to the author's clear explanations and aptly chosen references. . . . Highly recommended." * CHOICE *
"Ebeling’s book sheds light on the point where our health and debt data meet. . . .this book’s valuable insights into how data, power, and ideology fortify each other in today’s data-based society can be extended to many other fields within the social sciences." * Exertions *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Data Lives On
1. Tracing Life through Data
2. Building Trust Where Data Divides
3. Collecting Life
4. Mobilizing Alternative Data
5. On Scoring Life
6. Data Visibilities
Epilogue: Afterlife
Notes
References
Index
