3 ms·
Its not about law, its about investors. Big investors have outsize control of the boards of most companies, and they pretty much only care about profits. The pu
by zaptheimpaler 9y ago
Its not about law, its about investors. Big investors have outsize control of the boards of most companies, and they pretty much only care about profits. The public doesn't blame them either because we don't talk about how decisions made by those on the board shape the entire company. Investors have little to fear from unethical decisions, so they make them.
- dbrgn 9y agoThe article actually contains a good point regarding investors and external influence: > Companies like Facebook, publicly traded, have a legal obligation to maximize profits for their shareholders. Private companies with investors are similarly obligated. Nowhere in the equation does it say that they’re obligated to do anything for you - the only role you serve is to be a vehicle for exploitation. But I see an exception to this rule: Self-financed companies where the founders are still the shareholders and where the founders are in the company for the long run, and where the company is financed by the users. If your company is financed by the users, then in order to make the business sustainable you need to optimize for the users. If the users demand privacy, then you optimize for privacy. I'm aware that slow, sustainable growth is not popular in silicon valley, but that's probably a question of culture (in many european countries a lot of startups still follow this path).