Mapping Surveillance Capitalism in South American Higher Education

We are currently witnessing a global increase in the provision of software platforms and services, offered at << no cost >> by large corporations, to higher education. The business model behind these services is largely based on the collection and analysis of massive quantities of user data and metadata, collected through educational packages, which include e-mail, video-conferencing, groupware, file sharing, and other integrated services. The penetration of these services in higher education worldwide is largely unknown. In this study we discuss a methodology and a software script developed to collected new data for all 448 public higher education institutions in all 13 countries in South America. The data show that for every ten higher education institutions in the region, eight have services and platforms offered by such businesses. We contend that the adoption of these services is largely due to disinvestment in public education, and threaten the operational autonomy of institutions in regards to research and teaching, while leading to concerns in regards to data control, privacy, and transparency for teachers, administrators and students.