datenkraken

noun

datenkraken

noun

Etymology Borrowed from German Datenkraken, plural of Datenkrake, itself a compound of Daten (“data”) and Krake (“octopus”), invoking an imagery of such a company being an octopus having its virtual "tentacles" deeply penetrating its users' online habits.

1

Derogatory Internet-oriented companies that have a large number of users and possess detailed personal information on them, presumably without their consent.

  • It is a narrative that has cast the American datenkraken as the arch enemy.2014, Juliette Garside, The Guardian., Europe gears up to fight back against giant US beasts of the internet:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.