Usage of personal data in surveillance capitalism: A research on websites and mobile apps within the frame of ethical web

Surveillance capitalism emphasizes a system in which surveillance and capitalism feed and develop each other. Platforms that prefer surveillance as a business model collect all kinds of human experiences, process them and convert them into commodities. Surveillance capitalism is unknowable to us and the way its operations and the problems it creates make the web problematic within the context of ethics. This study is carried out in parallel with two general purposes. The first purpose is to trace the surveillance capitalism and to reveal the surveillance actors and their surveillance methods. The second purpose is to identify the problems surveillance capitalism created in the system by approaching it from a holistic point of view and to determine a road map for what is necessary for the allocation of an ethical web. In the line with two general purposes, answers to ten questions have been sought. In the study, a mixed-method in which quantitative and qualitative methods were used together, was preferred to find answers to both two general objectives and research questions. Within the scope of quantitative research, third-party companies trackers were detected in 79% of the websites and 76% of mobile applications. 92% of websites offer users no choice to reject third-party cookies or customize the use of cookies in the first place when entering the site. In the qualitative study, participants were asked semi-structured questions according to their field of expertise. The answers are divided into specific main and sub-themes, surveillance capitalism has been examined from a broad perspective and what should be for an ethical web has been discussed. The study contributes to the communication literature in terms of revealing how online surveillance takes place in practice through websites and mobile apps. It is expected that the in-depth examination of surveillance capitalism will contribute to surveillance studies and the ethical web approach will contribute relevant works in literature.