If you’ve seen or read the news lately, you’ve probably heard about the Big Tech companies (Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple) and their battles with Congress and privacy advocates. 2019 seemed like a bad year for these tech giants, with massive fines levied at Facebook, YouTube, and Google, not only in the US, but in Europe as well. A substantial part of the privacy advocate community sees those fines as much less than massive, but that’s a debate for another time.
Why are the companies you know (and probably love) getting so much attention from policy makers? A lot of it has to do with how user information is compiled and sold to third parties. This has been done for YEARS, so why now? Political figures are jumping on the “consumer privacy” bandwagon because of, well, politics.
Remember that whole “fake news” thing between Facebook and third parties like Cambridge Analytica that took place after the 2016 election? Investigations discovered that Big Tech sold user data (read: your information) to third parties. And after amassing that data, third parties either sold it again, or selectively advertised false information. This led to users becoming misinformed, and further propagating misleading information to their peers. There’s a rather affectionate term in military conflict when psychological manipulation is needed to influence a population: “Hearts and Minds”.
By controlling and disseminating information, whether true or false, you can diminish the possibility of adverse action by an adversarial population. If I can convince you to believe what I want you to believe, I don’t need to fight you. You’ll think your actions were your idea all along, not only limiting your resistance to my agenda, but also fighting for it.
That, my friends, is a big reason why politicians are taking this fight to the Big Tech companies. Politicians realize they have skin in the game now. New legislation pushed by Senator Wyden, aptly named the “Mind Your Own Business Act,” places steeper fines and possible prison time for certain acts carried out by Big Tech and their executives. It would give teeth to state attorneys general to pursue tech companies for data privacy violations and make it far more difficult for companies to track users.
Tech companies are all about profit and revenue generation, come what may. They will operate within the bounds and limits of the law (nothing more and nothing less) because morals are left at the door. Facebook is hardly the only perpetrator, but it is certainly one of the worst offenders. There is a reason why almost any new phone you buy today comes with Facebook pre-loaded on it: they want to stalk you, sell your data, and make you believe it was your idea all along.
(See what I did there?)
The Big Tech problem is that it is a thinly veiled “Hearts and Minds” campaign to obtain and sell your intimate data to others for a profit and convince you that it is what you want to do. If the CIA had designed Facebook, or the FBI Google, would you be as willing to use it?
Of course not. You’d be creeped out.