As Miss Zuboff says, electronic networks mean that firms now know more about their customers than ever before.

ECONOMIST: Face value

When it comes to a cure, Miss Zuboff and Mr Maxmin see the answer partly in the structure of corporations, which they regard as too narcissistic, too stuck in old concepts of mass production, even too male-dominated (real men, it seems, won't let the customer come first).

ECONOMIST: Face value