Ben Tarnoff, Guardian; Data is the new lifeblood of capitalism – don't hand corporate America control
"Over the past year, a growing number of people have come to realize that data has a dark side. The information revolution has turned out to be something less than total liberation. The digital sphere is not intrinsically democratic; rather, what matters is who owns it and how it’s organized.
The digitization of everything has made this abundantly clear. As more of our lives are made into data, the companies that control that data have grown rich and powerful. It’s not merely that they know so much about us, from our favorite type of toilet paper to our favorite type of porn. It’s that they use what they know to inform algorithmic decisions that have a significant impact on society as a whole –decisions like what kind of news (if any) we consume, or how long we go to prison.
But the stakes are even higher. The emphasis on personal data has obscured the fact that data is not just personal – it’s commercial, industrial, financial. The reason that corporations are so concerned about who controls the packets that flow through the world’s fiber-optic cables is because a vast array of profit-making activities now depends on them."
Showing posts with label corporations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporations. Show all posts
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
GDPR: EU Goes Against The Global Grain To Protect Privacy; Forbes, June 7, 2017
Simon Crosby, Forbes; GDPR: EU Goes Against The Global Grain To Protect Privacy
"Could it be that the EU is about to save the internet? At a time when internet users worldwide are increasingly under surveillance by governments, service providers, advertising networks and social media websites, it seems that one of the internet’s greatest promises -- open communication for all -- has been lost. But the EU has an opportunity to sway the outcome with the recently adopted General Data Protection Regulation, which will become law next year.
The EU’s implementation of GDPR has an opportunity to become the most important globally recognized set of principles to protect online privacy. In recent developments, President Donald Trump and his administration promised to mandate rapid improvements in U.S. cybersecurity, but they quickly acquiesced to commercial interests by overriding regulations that the Federal Communications Commission had set up to legitimize the sale of subscriber information by ISPs.
What does GDPR mean for consumers? In short, it will strengthen the practice of fundamental privacy rights of individuals and put users back in control of their personal data. This level of regulation will apply to both corporations and governments and will have the potential to inherently disrupt the protocols for data protection on a global scale."
"Could it be that the EU is about to save the internet? At a time when internet users worldwide are increasingly under surveillance by governments, service providers, advertising networks and social media websites, it seems that one of the internet’s greatest promises -- open communication for all -- has been lost. But the EU has an opportunity to sway the outcome with the recently adopted General Data Protection Regulation, which will become law next year.
The EU’s implementation of GDPR has an opportunity to become the most important globally recognized set of principles to protect online privacy. In recent developments, President Donald Trump and his administration promised to mandate rapid improvements in U.S. cybersecurity, but they quickly acquiesced to commercial interests by overriding regulations that the Federal Communications Commission had set up to legitimize the sale of subscriber information by ISPs.
What does GDPR mean for consumers? In short, it will strengthen the practice of fundamental privacy rights of individuals and put users back in control of their personal data. This level of regulation will apply to both corporations and governments and will have the potential to inherently disrupt the protocols for data protection on a global scale."
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Leading businesses take stand against states' new anti-LGBT laws; Guardian, 4/10/16
Edward Helmore and Matt Kessler, Guardian; Leading businesses take stand against states' new anti-LGBT laws:
"Local business leaders and educators warned that the legislation could harm the state’s competitiveness in attracting business and investment. “These assholes talk about gay women and gay men using the exact same language they were using in the 50s and 60s for segregationist purposes,” said the award-winning chef John Currence, owner of several restaurants in Oxford, Mississippi. He warned that Mississippi’s HB1523, known as the Religious Liberty Accommodation Act, would put businesses off from setting up in the state. “When people see this kind of regressive social politics going on, it affects the quality of life”, he said. The new laws, he added, “could not be any more vile or regressive”. Ivo Kamps, a University of Mississippi English professor, warned the law “will have a chilling effect on our ability to recruit students and faculty”, despite the university chancellor’s assurance that nothing would change... Academics say the current legislation, combined with the Citizens United bill of 2010 that in effect gave corporations the rights of citizens, has placed corporations at the forefront of efforts to contain the spread of ideologically extreme legislation."
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