Surveillance Capitalism
Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboffby Shoshana Zuboff
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 15 of 152 nonfiction books by recommenders
Recommended as a foundational account of how customer data shapes modern business and surveillance. One caveat: it was written before the recent AI boom.
Recommended as a foundational account of how customer data shapes modern business and surveillance. One caveat: it was written before the recent AI boom.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strongly recommended by readers
“If you're interested in developing a more robust view of this topic, I highly recommend”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “McDonald's Built a 515-Page Dossier on Me. It Says I'll Never Stop Eating There” “For anyone that didn't read that book, I can't recommend it highly enough.”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Everything You Do Is Being Recorded” “Can't recommend it enough”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you reading?” Explains scale of data surveillance
“might not change your mind, but you're likely to end up realizing customer data hovering is more of a driver of modern business decisions than you realize”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Europeans' health data sold to US firm run by ex-Israeli spies” “the book "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" is rather revealing of the sheer scale of this”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “It Is Time to Ban the Sale of Precise Geolocation” “The second, and arguably more direct and fascinating, is The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “People Cheering Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What Theyre Cheering For” Key reading on surveillance capitalism
“This comes straight out of Shoshana Zuboff's Surveillance Capitalism book. If you haven't: read it.”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “DHS 'Predictive Policing' Unit Is Analyzing Americans' Financial Habits” “There are whole books about it (check out "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" by Shoshana Zuboff)”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Chrome removes claim of On-device Al not sending data to Google Servers” “books like Privacy is Power and Surveillance Capitalism”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “What next for big tech after landmark social media addiction verdict?” Concepts still relevant today
“a successor to manufactured consent in my humble opinion”
Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “Google Removed 749M Anna's Archive URLs from Its Search Results” “this isn't a new phenomenon”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “Meta Ignores Brazilian Court Order to End Bolsonaro Favoritism”
Other nonfiction books people recommend
The four most recommended other nonfiction books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Cuckoo's Eggby Clifford Stoll | 40 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Amusing Ourselves to Deathby Neil Postman | 36 | 0 | 100% | 9 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| The Anxious Generationby Jonathan Haidt | 24 | 12 | 67% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Bullshit Jobsby David Graeber | 20 | 12 | 63% | 8 | — | — |
| Surveillance Capitalismby Shoshana ZuboffThis page | 13 | 0 | 100% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
16 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“this isn't a new phenomenon”
“Can't recommend it enough”
“This comes straight out of Shoshana Zuboff's Surveillance Capitalism book. If you haven't: read it.”
“If you're interested in developing a more robust view of this topic, I highly recommend”
“For anyone that didn't read that book, I can't recommend it highly enough.”
“Doctorow had against Shoshana Zuboff's Age of Surveillance Capitalism”
“There are whole books about it (check out "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" by Shoshana Zuboff)”
“I wish they had kids read Surveillance Capitalism and also Privacy is Power as part of their school reading.”
“the book "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" is rather revealing of the sheer scale of this”
“The second, and arguably more direct and fascinating, is The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”
“books like Privacy is Power and Surveillance Capitalism”
“More good reading that I found helpful are the books”
“might not change your mind, but you're likely to end up realizing customer data hovering is more of a driver of modern business decisions than you realize”
“or if you prefer your depression in book format”
“which itself is interesting to read now since its written before the huge AI leap”
“a successor to manufactured consent in my humble opinion”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.