Re:Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech
by handrous on Friday June 11, 2021 @02:01PM
(#27476550)
> One of the most pernicious effects of tech advances in recent decades has been the rise of surveillance state and surveillance capitalism, and the loss of privacy that comes with that.
Exactly this! Two out of five of FAANG derive effectively all their revenue from global-scale dragnet spying, and all five of them use that kind of data collection as a highly effective moat against competition.
It should simply be outlawed. That should be step #1 for breaking the tech monopolies.
Re:Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech
by ethbr0 on Friday June 11, 2021 @02:49PM
(#27477088)
I'd say 3/5 (+Amazon). And arguably 5/5 if you include product mining within their ecosystems (+Apple +Netflix).
Re:Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech
by handrous on Friday June 11, 2021 @04:13PM
(#27477879)
Yeah, that'd be the "moat" I mentioned, but maybe I didn't sufficiently emphasize what a huge advantage that is for them. Losing the ability to vacuum up and hoard data just wouldn't be quite as big a shock directly to the bottom line, in very short order, for the rest of FAANG (+M) as it would be for F and G, in particular. It'd hurt the others plenty, however.
One of the most pernicious effects of tech advances in recent decades has been the rise of surveillance state and surveillance capitalism, and the loss of privacy that comes with that.
This enabling of spying on everyone is not going to be addressed by more competition, and might even enable it further if innovation in that space increases.
Another major issue is economic inequality fostered by the internet and tech booms which, again, the breakup up (or even end) of these companies would not address.