The Declining Economics of Surveillance in a Bored‑Tech World
James Quillian,Economist, Political Analyst, Natural Law
Surveillance was once the economic engine of the tech industry. The model was simple: collect the data, predict the behavior, and sell the attention. For a time, it worked extraordinarily well. But the world has changed. The public is bored with tech, immune to ads, and increasingly distrustful of government. Surveillance still exists, but its economic value is collapsing, and that collapse is the real story the industry avoids discussing.