Just about any social need is now met with an opportunity to ""connect"" through d igital means. But this convenience is not freeit is purchased with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit.The Costs of Connectionuncovers this process, this ""da ta colonialism,"" and its designs for controlling our livesour ways of knowing; o ur means of production; our political participation.Colonialism might seem lik e a thing of the past, but this book shows that the historic appropriation of la nd, bodies, and natural resources is mirrored today in this new era of pervasive datafication. Apps, platforms, and smart objects capture and translate our live s into data, and then extract information that is fed into capitalist enterprise s and sold back to us. The authors argue that this development foreshadows the c reation of a new social order emerging globallyand it must be challenged. Confro nting the alarming degree of surveillance already tolerated, they offer a stirri ng call to decolonize the internet and emancipate our desire for connection.