Most people have "no clue" how much data big tech companies are collecting about them, and the risks of this electronic surveillance are great, said an advocate for stricter regulation.
Facebook and Google have reached so far into the private lives of their users without their knowledge that they are committing “a fraud on the American people,” said a prominent advocate of stricter government regulation for the tech giants.
Hubbard said that based on her expertise in antitrust law, she believes there is “great legal authority to unwind Facebook's purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp.”Restoring competition to the sectors of social media, search and online advertising would do a few things, she said. It would reduce the ability of the two tech giants to act with impunity against the interests of average people, and make them more accountable to concerns about invasions of privacy.
“If you have the [Facebook] app on your phone, it's tracking your physical location. It's making all the connections with who your network is, the people in your network,” Hubbard said. “It's buying data from data brokers and combining those offline purchases” to create a detailed profile of each person on Facebook.
“For instance, the New York Times can segment and target its readers with ads, but only based on their use of the New York Times apps and website. Facebook, however, could not individually target users with ads based on their purchase of Mastercard data, or their acquisition of data through social plugins on third-party sites,” she said.
“Free-riding by the dominant online platforms has resulted in a massive siphoning off of profits, such that the lion’s share of online advertising dollars generated off the back of news content goes to the platforms, not to the content creators,” David Pitofsky, general counsel of News Corp, which owns the Wall Street Journal and other media and news entities, said in his written testimony for the hearing.
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., has introduced a bill to give news organizations the ability to bargain collectively with the online giants to garner concessions and try to level the playing field.The second major concern Hubbard cited with Facebook and Google’s dominance was the ways their surveillance capabilities could be used and abused by the government.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Pope: Migrants are people, not just a social issue'They are the symbol of all those rejected by today's globalized society': Pope Francis prays for migrants in a special Mass, saying they are people and not just a social issue.
Read more »
Michael Blackson Roasts AfroFuture Fest for Charging White People DoubleMichael Blackson's got jokes about the Detroit music festival's controversial decision to charge white people double.
Read more »
https://people.com/Get the latest news about celebrities, royals, music, TV, and real people. Find exclusive content, including photos and videos, on PEOPLE.com.
Read more »
https://people.com/Get the latest news about celebrities, royals, music, TV, and real people. Find exclusive content, including photos and videos, on PEOPLE.com.
Read more »
https://people.com/Get the latest news about celebrities, royals, music, TV, and real people. Find exclusive content, including photos and videos, on PEOPLE.com.
Read more »
https://people.com/Get the latest news about celebrities, royals, music, TV, and real people. Find exclusive content, including photos and videos, on PEOPLE.com.
Read more »