Shoshana Zuboff (retired Harvard prof) is writing a book on this topic, due next year. She spoke at a 2014 conference, http://davidcharles.info/2014/10/shoshana-zuboff-reality-nex...

"If the people are not Google’s customers and they are not Google’s employees, then what does Google need people for? Only one thing: data. “Data is becoming everything,” Shoshana says. “The ugly truth here is that this so called ‘big data’ is plucked from our lives without our knowledge and without our informed consent.” This big data, which Shoshana calls ‘big contraband’ or ‘big stolen goods’, is sucked from our social media, from our smartphones, from our every networked click, type and touch ... "In the shadow of the dark Google, it has become fashionable to mourn the passing of democracy,” Shoshana concludes. “But if we leave behind democracy, we leave behind the best part of ourselves.”

24 min video: https://vimeo.com/110222526