Big Tech… Big Candor…Little Chance
By: Casey Osbourne
Tags: Congress, Big Tech, Infringement, Antitrust

I follow Shira Ovide regularly. She writes “On Tech” for the New York Times. I like what she does “explaining the inner workings of big and powerful tech companies.” This is, since I have written more than once, Big Tech plays a bigger and bigger role in our lives and our societies. Therefore, it is imperative we understand their inner-workings.

Ovide notes that Apple has added “nutrition-label-like descriptions” about data their apps collect. This is a good step. What she points out, what I’ve pointed out, what many point out, is that the amount of detailed data they collect on everything we do should be transparent. It begins with the consumer simply being aware that such data is being collected and to what end.

Facebook apparently didn’t like this and complained. It claims that disclosing such information would harm its primary business — collecting data so it can sell targeted ads. More than that… they are concerned that if people truly understood Facebook’s business model, they would stop using its various apps.

Look, its a trade-off. By streamlining advertising, businesses can make our products slightly more competitive (cheaper), theoretically at least. But would you, if you knew exactly what was happening with your usage data, still agree to use these apps?

Ovide calls for these companies to engage in “radical candor”. Lay it all out. Be honest. Let us the public, the consumers, decide if we like how the sausage is made.

I have a hard time seeing this happening but she makes a great point. We are, as a society, at an all time low in public trust in government, institutions and large corporations. And why shouldn’t we be? Especially with the latter? We see how Big Tech tramples its competition. We see how Big Tech seemingly censors certain political viewpoints while enabling others. We see how Big Tech engineers our online experience to keep us glued to our screens. We see how they regularly infringe on tech patents from independent start-ups. We see how they bury their competition on Google search results. We see how they monetize our data and use it for targeted ads. Why should we trust them?

So this is why Ovide’s suggestion makes sense. Let Big Tech openly explain what it is they are doing. We appreciate candor. We appreciate nuance. We can make our choices. Let us understand their business model or political policies.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/technology/big-tech-should-try-radical-candor.html

This is a year that the CEOs of the “big 4” — Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon — went before Congress. This is a time when the AGs of 35 states are going after Google with a major antitrust suit. A time when Facebook faces a “once in a generation lawsuit that could ultimately break up the company”. This is coming after two other major anti-trust suits were filed against Google earlier this year and after two “long anticipated lawsuits filed by the Federal Trade Commission and 48 states against Facebook” for “abusing its power in social networking to squash smaller competitors”.

And even though both sides of the aisle have different reasons, this is a bi-partisan confrontation of Big Tech.

I am not one to believe that everything should handled through legislation or lawsuits. Clearly, to solve societies’ challenges we need a“toolbox” approach. Laws and Congressional testimony are one tool. Lawsuits by federal and state watchdogs another. But perhaps and hopefully Big Tech will get the message, as Apple seems to have, that what we need is more transparency. More candor. We all know how sausages are made and we still eat them. But don’t sell us sausages and claim they’re made of “choice cuts”. Treat us like adults. Be transparent and let us decide. Its a good idea and a good start. Lets see if there’s a chance it succeeds.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/18/google-facebook-antitrust-lawsuits-big-tech