There's a complete blind-spot in this debate that I rarely see
discussed even in security circles.
Grubbing through personal emails to target advertising is unseemly.
But we accept companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple as the
squalid little filchers they are and take such snooping as a part of
life in the digital world now. We should not... be we do accept
it.
However, few people sincerely ask how did Google, Microsoft and Apple
get so big?
The fool says "by recruiting smart people and working hard at
innovation". At best that's a microscopic part of the answer.
A slightly wiser take is that they acquired every competitor and used
every trick in the book to sabotage competition. But, again that's
only part of the picture.
The answer is that over the past 30 years they've engaged in the
biggest, most egregious programme of industrial espionage in
history. There isn't a single business in the Western hemisphere who
BigTech have not had a total heads-up on their R&D, recruiting,
internal development, marketing strategy, trade secrets and financial
affairs.
Keeping this conversation limited to whether or not Mavis cares
whether Microsoft know what shoes she buys - is part of the trick.
Sure no individual will pay for privacy. That's not where anyone who
cares about liberal democracy and free markets should be looking.
Grubbing through personal emails to target advertising is unseemly. But we accept companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple as the squalid little filchers they are and take such snooping as a part of life in the digital world now. We should not... be we do accept it.
However, few people sincerely ask how did Google, Microsoft and Apple get so big?
The fool says "by recruiting smart people and working hard at innovation". At best that's a microscopic part of the answer.
A slightly wiser take is that they acquired every competitor and used every trick in the book to sabotage competition. But, again that's only part of the picture.
The answer is that over the past 30 years they've engaged in the biggest, most egregious programme of industrial espionage in history. There isn't a single business in the Western hemisphere who BigTech have not had a total heads-up on their R&D, recruiting, internal development, marketing strategy, trade secrets and financial affairs.
Keeping this conversation limited to whether or not Mavis cares whether Microsoft know what shoes she buys - is part of the trick.
Sure no individual will pay for privacy. That's not where anyone who cares about liberal democracy and free markets should be looking.