News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Google and Facebook are monopolies. Does it matter? [audio] by benj111 on Thursday November 15, 2018 @02:46PM (#18462609)
I think the interesting thing is that the users aren't the customers in these examples. Anti trust law would be concerned with the advertisers and fb/google. Not the users.

I suppose you could make the argument that fb/google are monopolies because the advertisers have to go through them to reach us. It isn't clear to me though that this is the problem we actually want to solve. This leads me to believe that anti monopoly laws might not be the correct tools for dealing with these companies.

Re:Google and Facebook are monopolies. Does it matter? [audio] by dragonwriter on Thursday November 15, 2018 @06:45PM (#18464618)
> I think the interesting thing is that the users aren't the customers in these examples.

There is an exchange for value between Google (FB, etc.) and consumers; the fact that it's an in-kind exchange rather than money doesn't prevent anti-trust analysis from being applied.

There's also the possibility of monopoly in some advertising segment, sure.

Re:Google and Facebook are monopolies. Does it matter? [audio] by benj111 on Friday November 16, 2018 @04:04AM (#18467519)
You /may/ be right, I don't think that current laws were written with that in mind, but the laws could be munged to encompass the relationship.

I suppose then the anti trust argument would be that they are able to 'ask' for too much private data. It seems to me a first step would be gaining price transparency. Who is the cheapest (asks for the less data).

Actually if your theory holds water, isn't there scope to argue that the consideration (your data) isn't properly defined in the contract, and keeps changing (via defaults, and technological progress). Could then this not then be dealt with via contract law and consumer protections?

Re:Google and Facebook are monopolies. Does it matter? [audio] by mcrad on Thursday November 15, 2018 @05:53PM (#18464242)
You mean, fb/google have monopolistic power over the advertisers and since advertisers are generally not our friends, then go for it, let them pay up?
Re:Google and Facebook are monopolies. Does it matter? [audio] by dllthomas on Thursday November 15, 2018 @06:34PM (#18464536)
I think what's being got at is "the power over the users is also concerning, and not something we can get at directly with these laws."
Re:Google and Facebook are monopolies. Does it matter? [audio] by benj111 on Friday November 16, 2018 @03:46AM (#18467446)
Yes that's what I meant.