I have been reading Soshana Zuboff’s Surveillance Capitalism. This is a deep and challenging look at the collection of personal information by online and offline services and how it is being used. I recommend it or for those unwilling to invest the time to look for interviews with Zuboff.
Zuboff explains that radical behaviorism (e.g., Skinner) is a core component of the means by which surveillance capitalists, perhaps even without their understanding, seek to influence users and develop a business model. In thinking about how this works, I see a mix of what I recognize as learning models. Behaviorists manipulate behavior through consequences. The rewards that users experience are due to content which feeds their cognitive disposition to confirmation bias. Receiving content that fits your existing way of thinking is rewarding.