Publications

Article

Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization

By: Shoshana Zuboff

This article describes an emergent logic of accumulation in the networked sphere, 'surveillance capitalism,' and considers its implications for 'information civilization.' The institutionalizing practices and operational assumptions of Google Inc. are the... View Details

Keywords: Surveillance Capitalism; Big Data; Google; Information Society; Privacy; Internet Of Everything; Rights; Economic Systems; Analytics and Data Science; Internet and the Web; Ethics

SSRN

1990
Article

Social Influences on Creativity: Evaluation, Coaction, and Surveillance

By: T. M. Amabile, P. Goldfarb and S. C. Brackfield

Two experiments examined the effects of evaluation expectation and the presence of others on creativity. In both experiments, some subjects expected that their work would be evaluated by experts, and others expected no evaluation. Evaluation expectation was crossed, in... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Social Psychology; Situation or Environment; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Evaluation

04 Mar 2019
What Do You Think?

What’s the Antidote to Surveillance Capitalism?

peterhowell Summing Up: Can Single Nations Counter the Threat of Surveillance Capitalism? We’re on our own, with the possible support of government, in any efforts to counter the effects of surveillance... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Advertising; Consumer Products

2022
Working Paper

Post-market Surveillance of Software Medical Devices: Evidence from Regulatory Data

By: Alexander O. Everhart and Ariel D. Stern

Medical devices increasingly include software components, which facilitate remote patient monitoring. The introduction of software into previously analog medical devices as well as innovation in software-driven devices may introduce new safety concerns—all the more so... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Safety; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

2019
Book

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

By: Shoshana Zuboff

In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Profiling; Consumer Behavior; Forecasting and Prediction; Information Technology; Power and Influence; Ethics; Society; Transformation

Article

Applying Human-Centered Design Principles to Digital Syndromic Surveillance at a Mass Gathering in India: Viewpoint

By: Ahmed Shaikh, Abhishek Bhatia, Ghanshyam Yadav, Shashwat Hora, Chung Won, Mark Shankar, Aaron Heerboth, Prakash Vemulapalli, Paresh Navalkar, Kunal Oswal, Clay Heaton, Sujata Saunik, Tarun Khanna and Satchit Balsari

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital health tools have been deployed by governments around the world to advance clinical and population health objectives. Few interventions have been successful or have achieved sustainability or scale. In India, government... View Details

Keywords: Digital Health Tools; Human-centered Design; Health Care and Treatment; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Design; Technology Adoption

July 1978
Article

On the Cost of Deposit Insurance When There Are Surveillance Costs

By: Robert C. Merton

Keywords: Cost; Insurance; Banking Industry

Article

Policies to Influence Perceptions about COVID-19 Risk: The Case of Maps

By: Claudia Engel, Jonathan Rodden and Marco Tabellini

Choropleth disease maps have become an important tool for informing the public about the risks posed by COVID-19. In a survey conducted in the U.S. state of Georgia in June 2020, we randomly assigned respondents to view either of two maps. The first one reported... View Details

Keywords: Disease Surveillance; Health Pandemics; Risk and Uncertainty; Perception; Policy

June 2017
Article

A Systematic Approach to Discussing Active Surveillance with Patients with Low-risk Prostate Cancer

By: Behfar Ehdaie, Melissa Assel, Nicole Benfante, Deepak Malhotra and Andrew Vickers

A systematic approach to counseling—using appropriate framing techniques derived from principles studied by negotiation scholars—can be taught to physicians in a one-hour lecture. We found evidence that even this minimal intervention can decrease overtreatment of... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Service Delivery; Negotiation; Health Industry

November 2020
Article

Barriers to Hospital Electronic Public Health Reporting and Implications for the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: A Jay Holmgren, Nate Apathy and Julia Adler-Milstein

We sought to identify barriers to hospital reporting of electronic surveillance data to local, state, and federal public health agencies and the impact on areas projected to be overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using 2018 American Hospital Association data, we... View Details

Keywords: Electronic Health Records; Public Health; Syndromic Surveillance; Pandemic; COVID-19; Health Pandemics

Article

Fast Subset Scan for Multivariate Spatial Biosurveillance

By: Daniel B. Neill, Edward McFowland III and Huanian Zheng

We present new subset scan methods for multivariate event detection in massive space-time datasets. We extend the recently proposed 'fast subset scan' framework from univariate to multivariate data, enabling computationally efficient detection of irregular space-time... View Details

Keywords: Algorithms; Disease Surveillance; Event Detection; Scan Statistics; Spatial Scan

2017
Article

Making Transparency Transparent: The Evolution of Observation in Management Theory

By: Ethan Bernstein

Observation is key to management scholarship and practice. Yet a holistic view of its role in management has been elusive, in part due to shifting terminology. The current popularity of the term “transparency” provides the occasion for a thorough review, which finds... View Details

2016
Article

Penalized Fast Subset Scanning

By: Skyler Speakman, Sriram Somanchi, Edward McFowland III and Daniel B. Neill

We present the penalized fast subset scan (PFSS), a new and general framework for scalable and accurate pattern detection. PFSS enables exact and efficient identification of the most anomalous subsets of the data, as measured by a likelihood ratio scan statistic.... View Details

Keywords: Disease Surveillance; Likelihood Ratio Statistic; Pattern Detection; Scan Statistic; Mathematical Methods

July 2021
Article

Availability and Nutrient Composition of Vegetarian Items at U.S. Fast-Food Restaurants

By: Caroline G. Dunn, Mark J. Soto, Sophia V. Hua, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Lindsay M. Jaacks, Julia A. Wolfson and Sara N. Bleich

Research Questions: What are patterns in availability of vegetarian items in U.S. fast-food chains (2012 to 2018) and are there differences in nutrient composition between and within vegetarian and nonvegetarian items annually and over time?
Key Findings: In this... View Details

Keywords: Fast Food; Restaurants; Vegetarian; Consumer Health; Sodium; Food; Nutrition; Health; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

05 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 5

http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/AmbigMainTextFinal_8a88b410-0618-40ea-969a-c29f3e509d9d.pdf May 2015 Journal of Information Technology Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization By:... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Article

The Asymmetric Experience of Positive and Negative Economic Growth: Global Evidence Using Subjective Well-being Data

By: Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, George Ward, Femke De Keulenaer, Bert Van Landeghem, Georgios Kavetsos and Michael I. Norton

Are individuals more sensitive to losses than gains in terms of economic growth? We find that measures of subjective well-being are more than twice as sensitive to negative as compared to positive economic growth. We use Gallup World Poll data from over 150 countries,... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Business Cycles; Welfare; Perception; Global Range

January 1992 (Revised August 1992)
Case

Lexon Corp. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine

A general manager at Lexon Computer Corp. must decide whether interception and surveillance of employees' e-mail is acceptable company practice, and whether to follow the advice of his computer operations manager who wants to fire the person who complained that the... View Details

Keywords: Information; Rights; Managerial Roles; Interpersonal Communication; Employee Relationship Management; Ethics; Computer Industry

Educators

March 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Making SMaL Big: SMaL Camera Technologies

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Scott Duncan Anthony

SMaL Camera Technologies CEO Maurizio Arienzo was trying to decide what market opportunities SMaL should target. The company had developed a revolutionary imaging technology that powered small digital still and video cameras. Its first-generation product--a kit to... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Decision Making; Disruptive Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Electronics Industry; Computer Industry; Massachusetts

Educators