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The downside of data
A book on the 'metric society' details the use of statistics and digital information for malign political, social and economic ends, says ANDY HEDGECOCK

The Metric Society: On the Quantification of the Social
by Steffen Mau
(Polity, £15.99)

FICTIONAL dystopias often feature characters suffering direct persecution at the hands of clearly identified oppressors — think The Trial, Brave New World and The Truman Show.

But Steffen Mau’s The Metric Society focuses on the growing trend for self-monitoring and ways in which we collude in our own subjugation.

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