In this chapter, we focus on the core dynamic between gathering and processing data with algorithms as means of production for generating and extracting surplus value, protected by patents, trade secrets, and copyrights. We do not know exactly what data companies collect, nor do we know exactly how algorithms process collected data. To study algorithms and data we are largely left with two main options: either to trace the flow of value in the form of money through technological forms, corporate production, and circulation, or to look at consequences of the deployment of (corporate) algorithms in various aspects of society (for example, credit scoring, recommendation systems, automobile navigation, personal assistants, news distribution, and so on). Taking the first option allowed us to focus on monopolization, advertising, regulation, and financialization in Chapters 3, 4, and 5. Now we turn to the social consequences of these techniques.

We do not argue that technological forms through algorithmic techniques establish full-blown, dystopian, and static control. Datadriven companies usually provide a range of behavioural options in line with their assessments of users and their data, thus providing a dynamic balance between flexibility and prediction. Yet, as instruments of perception, analytical techniques focus on human attentiveness of people and things of interest while, at the same time, discarding much of the context from which these persons and things emerged (Amoore & Piotukh, 2015). Control through technological forms is, therefore, a conditioning and structuring mechanism in which the range of options is constantly adapted and individualized in real time to allow profit making and commodity exchange to occur seamlessly in the background. The rise of data-driven production needed a social and legal fabric on which to build. Corporate development needed openness for producing and sharing data among engineers and internet users. The first social foundation was secured through privatizing openness and knowledge in software production. This occurred through legal forms that allowed closure of software modifications, breaking up the chain of software sharing, enabling modifications to act as competitive advantages. We touched upon the difference between Free Software and Open Source in Chapter 2. The second foundation was secured by offering freeof-charge services. Free-of-charge services within the capitalist mode of production of advertising funded platforms are pre-commodities.