183
In Search of the Angel of Data
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185
[...] The Soviet failure cast suspicion on statist solutions. So, the government didn't just privatize the Internet; it self-consciously decided that it would allow it to grow with hardly any government supervision. "I want to create an oasis from regulation in the broadband world," William Kennard, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, declared in 1999, mouthing a familiar sentiment.
[...] The Soviet failure cast suspicion on statist solutions. So, the government didn't just privatize the Internet; it self-consciously decided that it would allow it to grow with hardly any government supervision. "I want to create an oasis from regulation in the broadband world," William Kennard, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, declared in 1999, mouthing a familiar sentiment.
187
[...] Capitalism has always dreamed of activating the desire to consume, the ability to tap the human brain to stimulate its desire for products that it never contemplated needing. Data helps achieve this old dream. It makes us more malleable, easier to addict, prone to nudging. It's the reason that Amazon recommendations for your next purchase so often result in sales, or why Google ads result in clicks.
[...] Capitalism has always dreamed of activating the desire to consume, the ability to tap the human brain to stimulate its desire for products that it never contemplated needing. Data helps achieve this old dream. It makes us more malleable, easier to addict, prone to nudging. It's the reason that Amazon recommendations for your next purchase so often result in sales, or why Google ads result in clicks.
188
[...] data is infinitely renewable. It continuously allows the new monopolists to conduct experiments to master the anticipation of trends, to better understand customers, to build superior algorithms. Before he went to Google, as the company's chief economist, Hal Varian cowrote an essential handbook called Information Rules. Varian predicted that data would exaggerate the workings of the market. "Positive feedback makes the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker, leading to extreme outcomes." One of these extreme outcomes is the proliferation of data-driven monopolies.
[...] data is infinitely renewable. It continuously allows the new monopolists to conduct experiments to master the anticipation of trends, to better understand customers, to build superior algorithms. Before he went to Google, as the company's chief economist, Hal Varian cowrote an essential handbook called Information Rules. Varian predicted that data would exaggerate the workings of the market. "Positive feedback makes the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker, leading to extreme outcomes." One of these extreme outcomes is the proliferation of data-driven monopolies.
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[...] We're certain that our tech giants achieved their dominance fairly and squarely through the free market, by dint of technical genius. To conjure this image of meritocratic triumph requires overlooking several pungent truths about the nature of these new monopolies. Their dominance is less than pure. They owe their dominance to innovation, but also to tax avoidance. [...] Unlike manufacturing or finance, tech doesn't need to be pinned to a geographic home. Tech companies can transfer their core assets, their intellectual property, to whatever tax haven offers the sweetest deal. They have hatched schemes that their competitors--brick-and-mortar firms, media companies--couldn't dare attempt.
ok im hardly an apologist for these companies but like tax avoidance is the smallest part of why they've achieved so much ... whether they achieved it "fairly and squarely through the free market" only matters if we accept that the market itself is perfect, which imo is a belief that more and more people are starting to question
[...] We're certain that our tech giants achieved their dominance fairly and squarely through the free market, by dint of technical genius. To conjure this image of meritocratic triumph requires overlooking several pungent truths about the nature of these new monopolies. Their dominance is less than pure. They owe their dominance to innovation, but also to tax avoidance. [...] Unlike manufacturing or finance, tech doesn't need to be pinned to a geographic home. Tech companies can transfer their core assets, their intellectual property, to whatever tax haven offers the sweetest deal. They have hatched schemes that their competitors--brick-and-mortar firms, media companies--couldn't dare attempt.
ok im hardly an apologist for these companies but like tax avoidance is the smallest part of why they've achieved so much ... whether they achieved it "fairly and squarely through the free market" only matters if we accept that the market itself is perfect, which imo is a belief that more and more people are starting to question
201
It's a basic, intuitive right, worthy of enshrinement: Citizens, not the corporations that stealthily track them, should own their own data. The law should demand that these companies treat this data with the greatest care, because it doesn't belong to them. Possessing our data is a heavy responsibility that must come with ethical obligations. The American government has a special category for corporations that profit from goods that they don't truly own: We call them trustees. This is how the government treats radio and television broadcasters. [...]
It's a basic, intuitive right, worthy of enshrinement: Citizens, not the corporations that stealthily track them, should own their own data. The law should demand that these companies treat this data with the greatest care, because it doesn't belong to them. Possessing our data is a heavy responsibility that must come with ethical obligations. The American government has a special category for corporations that profit from goods that they don't truly own: We call them trustees. This is how the government treats radio and television broadcasters. [...]