Mobiles, social media and cloud based services have become an ingrained part of day to day life for many. This has led to a situation where we routinely create vast amounts of data. This data is a kind of capital – cultural, social and, eventually, financial – monetised for profit by companies who claim access to it as payment for our use of their ‘free’ services. It is capital that ends up out of our control, even when freely given, malignant in the way it spreads and multiplies. Ben Byrne’s Malignant Capital renders that process viscerally material.