Data Grab Book Club
Join us for a timely and provocative book club on Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back makes a compelling case that the extractive practices of today’s tech giants are a continuation of colonialism and offers a crucial guide to collective resistance.
What we’ll discuss:
How Meta, Amazon, Google, and other tech giants use surveillance to accumulate unprecedented power and profit
The parallels between historical land grabs and today’s “data grab”
How Big Tech’s business models create job precarity, environmental harm, and discriminatory algorithms
The ways in which promises of convenience and progress are used to justify the extraction of our most personal information
Practical strategies for collective action and imagining new forms of resistance to digital colonialism
Why this book matters now:
Written by trusted tech experts Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry, Data Grab reframes the conversation about Big Tech, privacy, and power. By connecting today’s data extraction to the long history of colonialism, the book helps us see the true scope of the problem.
If you’re concerned about privacy or justice in the internet age, this book will give you the tools and inspiration to push back.
Perfect for:
Readers interested in the intersection of technology and social justice
Professionals navigating data ethics, privacy, or compliance
Activists and citizens seeking practical ways to resist digital exploitation
Discussion format:
We’ll share examples of tech’s extractive practices from our own lives and discuss actionable steps to resist.
Come ready to challenge assumptions and leave with a deeper understanding of how digital colonialism shapes our world.
Reading Schedule:
For our first session on 6/12, please read Chapter 1 of Data Grab.
This book club meets weekly via Zoom. Sign up to receive the full series invite.
Where to Buy: Bookshop.org | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | The University of Chicago Press