Digital Futures: Empires or Common Ownership?
How communities are challenging power structures through commons and cooperatives
A World Built on Data – and the Matrix of Power Behind It
Every time we go online, use a mobile app, or engage with a digital platform, we generate data. But rather than existing as a neutral exchange, our data is extracted, repackaged, and monetized by powerful entities, often without our knowledge or meaningful consent. Today, a handful of powerful tech companies extract and profit from our digital lives in ways that echo colonial histories of extraction, control, and dispossession.
In this entry, I’ll explore how data colonialism describes these exploitative practices, and how alternatives like the digital commons and data cooperatives mount valuable resistance.
The New Digital Empire
The parallels between historical colonialism and today's digital economy are striking. Just as colonial powers once claimed territories and extracted resources, tech giants now stake ownership over our digital lives, building empires of data that shape how we work, socialize, and understand the world. Data capture is made to appear natural by propagating a specific rationality: it is a freely available, infinite resource that is useless to us in raw form, and the social contract with those who extract data from us is fair – data for “free” services.
This data colonialism operates through sophisticated systems of control:
Cloud infrastructure that acts as a metropolis of digital empire, concentrating computational power in corporate hands, enabling continuous data capture and centralized decision-making
Systems that monitor and manage human behavior, setting the rules for digital interaction through opaque algorithms
Compulsory participation – Whether it’s using Google to search, accepting Terms of Service, or accepting the omniscient power of algorithms in our lives, individuals have little real choice in whether to participate
Data extraction that turns our relationships and experiences into corporate assets, just as raw materials were extracted from colonies to fuel imperial economies
Think about it: Can you really opt out of using Google? When was the last time you actually read those terms of service? The reality is, these companies have made themselves unavoidable while harvesting value from our everyday lives.
What Does Data Colonialism Look Like?
In the Workplace: Delivery drivers, ride-hailing drivers, freelancers, and warehouse workers are tracked by algorithms that dictate their pay, work conditions, and even job availability—all based on data-driven surveillance
In Our Cities: "Smart city" projects collect massive amounts of data about residents, often without their consent
In Our Homes: Smart devices record our conversations and habits, turning private life into data
Biometric Surveillance: The collection of facial recognition data in airports, urban spaces, and workplaces embeds mass surveillance into everyday life
Cloud Empires: The monopolization of cloud infrastructure by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure means that most of the internet’s operations are controlled by a handful of corporations
In the Global South: Tech companies exploit cheaper labor for content moderation and data processing while extracting value back to Silicon Valley
Taking Back Control: Digital Commons and Data Cooperatives
But people aren't accepting this data colonialism as inevitable. Around the world, communities are developing alternatives that put control back in the hands of users and citizens. Two powerful models are emerging.
Digital Commons reimagine technological infrastructure as a shared resource, governed democratically rather than controlled by corporations. These are platforms and systems that:
Are owned and governed by communities, not corporations
Prioritize public benefit over private profit
Keep knowledge and tools freely accessible
Enable genuine collaboration
Think of Wikipedia - a vast knowledge repository maintained through collaboration rather than profit motives. But the commons model extends far beyond encyclopedias. A few real-world examples demonstrates this:
Open Street Map: a community-built alternative to Google Maps
Pixabay: they provide access to hundreds of millions of Creative Commons licensed images, freely available within the digital commons
Open Music initiative: creating an open-source protocol for the uniform identification of music rights holders and creators
CoopCycle: a global federation of bike delivery cooperatives that leverages the digital commons to establish workplace democracy and drive sustainability
Tzoumakers: an open lab for communities to cooperatively design and manufacture tools for small-scale agricultural production
Data Cooperatives take a different but complementary approach, helping people collectively manage and benefit from their data. While digital commons provide open-access resources, data cooperatives operate through structured, membership-based governance, allowing individuals to collectively manage their data while benefiting from its value.
Individuals voluntarily join and co-govern the cooperative
Benefits flow back to data contributors, not corporate shareholders
Members decide how their data is used, rather than surrendering it to corporate control
Examples in Action:
Driver's Seat: rideshare drivers pool driving data to gain insights on wages and working conditions while retaining control over how their data is shared
Polypoly (Europe): a cooperative that provides users with a private server to store their data, allowing them to decide who can use it and for what purpose
These aren't just isolated experiments - they represent emerging models for reclaiming democratic control over data. For example, a long-standing case of community-led resistance is the National Slum Dwellers Federation (India), where slum residents collect and manage local data to push for improved infrastructure and policy interventions. Perhaps before digital commons or data cooperatives were thought of, these communities were organizing around their data.
Building Different Futures
The question isn't whether technology will shape our future - it's whether that future will serve us. Alternate data futures are possible, but they require systemic shifts in policy, technology, and governance. Breaking the logics of data colonialism requires action on multiple fronts:
1. Infrastructure - Building and maintaining democratic digital systems that communities actually control
2. Governance - Developing protocols and practices for collective decision-making about data, and laws that recognize collective data rights
3. Culture - Shifting how we think about data from property to relationships
4. Power - Organizing to challenge corporate control while building community alternatives, and connecting local initiatives into powerful networks for change
5. Education – Helping communities understand and exercise control over their digital lives
The Choice We Face
Every click, swipe, and online interaction generates data that crafts our individual and collective futures. We can surrender this data to digital empires that prioritize profit over people. Or we can build systems that enhance human relationships, strengthen communities, and expand democratic participation.
The future isn't written yet. But if we want that future to serve human needs rather than corporate accumulation, we need to act to support and expand community-controlled alternatives. The technologies we build today will shape the societies we live in tomorrow.