Outsourcing the Self: Corporate Control and Existential Responsibility in the Digital Age

In an era where the targeted advertising industry generates a yearly 270 billion dollars in the United States alone, tracking has become ubiquitous yet largely invisible. This paper analyzes how modern self-tracking technologies, primarily controlled by mega-corporations, facilitate an escape from existential responsibility while creating new forms of alienation. Drawing from Marx's theory of alienation, Sartre's concept of bad faith, and Russell's critique of passive leisure, I argue that the technological conquest of the epistemic self undermines authentic decision-making. It also contributes to a profound power imbalance between individuals and corporations, and incentivizes broader societal passivity.