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The issue is that after Google and Facebook has abused users' data for so long and made so many tens of billions of dollars from that abuse, they're now allowed
by mtgx 9y ago
The issue is that after Google and Facebook has abused users' data for so long and made so many tens of billions of dollars from that abuse, they're now allowed to keep that money, so they have a huge head-start on anyone else who can't abuse users' data anymore.
The law is needed, otherwise everyone would continue to abuse users' data more and more. So that's clearly not the solution. The ideal solution is fining both Google and Facebook for all the money they've made from that abuse from at least the past 5 years, to level the playing field.
People say that capitalism is the "worst economic system, except for all the others", and that's true. But one of the main issues with capitalism and why it gets to be so broken in the end, is that when companies abuse their powers, the punishment almost never fits the crime. If it did, I think capitalism would be a much more optimal economic system. I think this is by far the biggest issue.
As an example, Intel made tens of billions from anti-competitive moves against AMD, and it was only fined $1.4 billion, a fine that's still under dispute even a decade later (Intel has yet to pay it).
Samsung, and other memory makers have been caught at least once in the past, and now again, doing price fixing. But the fine was and likely will be again much smaller than the profits they made.
Then we have the big banks, which also made a ton of money from screwing people over, and again they were fined at "record levels" but still much less than they made in profits.
This is how the incumbents keep getting ahead of the others, even when stronger regulations pass - they never have to truly pay for the crime they did in the past, and they get to keep 95% of their profits from that crime. That isn't how things should work - the governments should take all of the profits they made from the crime and the fine should be added on top of that. If a company grows 10x in size in a decade from abusing some law and consumers, then the governments should absolutely take back 90% of its size when it's punished later. That's the deterrent.
Now in regards to privacy, the laws weren't that strong before, and I don't really believe in punishing people or companies for laws that didn't exist, which is why governments need to be much more vigilant from the birth of new industries, and not wait until they are mature and most damage has already been done.
Maybe my solutions are a little too extreme, but I do believe more needs to be done compared to what governments are doing now. We can't just let companies get away with almost all the profits they made from abusing consumers.
Also, there need to be stronger anti-merger laws. That's for sure. We almost never need to let companies merge, and if they do merge, that almost always ends-up not being in the consumers' favor. If some companies can't compete on their own anymore, then so be it - let them go bankrupt. The rest will either become stronger, or new entrants will appear. I think that's still preferable over allowing them to "survive" under a bigger company. Let the creative destruction flourish in the market, as it's supposed to.
- pdimitar 9y agoYours is a very adequate criticism to the system. I especially agree that we need much more heavy-handed deterrents and more proactive government! Alas, many people make money off of loose regulation and they are thus biased. I am afraid we won't see any improvement anytime soon.
- ThomPete 9y agoHow have Google and Facebook abused users data? Users have been giving away data to google and facebook to use their services. What exactly do you mean have been abused about that.
- PurpleBoxDragon 9y agoAll of the data was taken without consent. The user might have clicked some 'I agree' checkbox, but they were not in a position to give consent. We could, to compare it to other similar issues involving lack of consent, call it statutory data theft.
- ThomPete 9y agoNot it wasn't taken. You give over the use of that data to FB when you use their service. Just like you do when you get a loyalty card in Safeway or pay with you credit card. Calling that stolen is mixing your personal opinions with facts.
- PurpleBoxDragon 9y ago>The ideal solution is fining both Google and Facebook for all the money they've made from that abuse from at least the past 5 years, to level the playing field. Probably not far enough. You need to outright shut them down, put them in a prison of sorts, fine them, and then let them continue operating after their term is up. Do not let them sell, do not let them split. But people will lose jobs, ads will be taken out to fight it, and it will be held up in court for far too long. Google and such have ingrained themselves in a way that to properly punish them for their actions is not politically tenable, because the only fitting punishment would destroy these companies and cause significant economic harm.