Name: Deepa S V
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Volume-11, Issue-1, January-June 2026
Page Number: 1-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18195756

ABSTRACT
This article explores the phenomenon of surveillance capitalism through a critical sociological lens, focusing specifically on its profound and often subtle impacts on human social relationships and digital rights. Coined by Shoshana Zuboff, surveillance capitalism is conceptualized as a new economic order where the extraction of human experience as raw material for behavioural data (or "surplus value") is monetized through prediction products sold on behavioural futures markets. Drawing on critical theory, particularly the Frankfurt School's analysis of the culture industry and Foucault's concept of the Panopticon, this study analyses how the ubiquitous nature of digital
monitoring restructures social interactions, fostering a climate of calculated visibility and perpetual performance. The investigation reveals a dual effect: while digital platforms facilitate expansive social networks, the underlying mechanisms of surveillance erode authentic connection by incentivizing conformity, diminishing privacy boundaries, and weaponizing personal information in social contexts. The article argues that the commodification of the self leads to a "datafied alienation," replacing
autonomous sociality with algorithmically-mediated interaction. Furthermore, it examines the consequent erosion of digital rights, positing that the current paradigm necessitates urgent policy interventions and a robust reassertion of human autonomy against the logic of extraction. The final section proposes concrete sociological and legal suggestions to mitigate the deleterious effects of surveillance capitalism on the social fabric.

Keywords: Surveillance Capitalism, Social Relationships, Digital Rights, Datafied Alienation, Sociological Frameworks, Privacy Erosion.