Jun 09, 2021

Technology has become part of our daily lives. Gone are the days of asking directions from strangers or using a physical map to guide where you’re going. Today, it’s easier to ask a virtual assistant embedded in our phones like Siri on Apple or Google Assistants on Android.

Additionally, technology has allowed us to stay connected to our relatives, families, and co-workers during the COVID-19 pandemic without being with them in person. Through cloud computing and video conferencing solutions, such as Google Suite and Microsoft 365, people all around the world can get a full suite of services that enable them to stay productive and keep business operations as normal as possible remotely . In fact, Google Suite has added one million companies to its customer base since the pandemic started.

Eduardo Araral, Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, coordinates the School's research on ABCD (AI, Blockchain, Cloud, Data and Digitalisation) and has done research for Microsoft and Amazon. He says that part of the population views the integration of product lines like Google as beneficial and necessary. "It makes sense for Google to integrate its various product lines –from Android and Gmail to search engine and Google Cloud. As network goods, there are benefits of integration and therefore big tech should be kept integrated."

However, it’s important to note that these technologies and services are often provided by a few large conglomerate enterprises, namely Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft. This means that most of one’s data is kept, managed, and controlled by one company.

Exchanging Privacy for Convenience

Having a large amount of data has undoubtedly enabled these companies to better their services by giving personalised recommendations, searches, and feeds. Still, it's not uncommon for such a large amount of data to be misused, prone to cyber-attacks, or sold to third parties for personal gain.

 

One of the most notorious examples of this is Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, where 87 million Facebook profiles were exposed to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that worked for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. By doing so, the Trump campaign made specific, personalised, and targeted campaigns/advertisements to voters. As one of the largest social media platforms, Facebook possessed great power to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

There's no denying that the Google search engine has become beneficial for all people from all walks of life. The word "to Google" has even become a verb. However, have you realised that after a particular search is done, there are most likely advertisements showing up about the topic that you just searched about? This means that Google still exploits your data by sharing and monetising it to third parties, even though Google claims they won't sell your data.

A question to ask yourself is, "Is my convenience using such services worth the exchange of my personal data?"

No More Competition?

With the amount of data, influence, and power that these tech giants have accumulated through the years, there's no wonder that they would try to consolidate power as a leader in the industry via acquiring other enterprises that might possess a threat or give a run for their domination. Facebook, for instance, has acquired WhatsApp and Instagram. Such acquisitions often question fairer competition in the market and give customers more options to choose from.

Not only that, such acquisitions give these Big Tech firms a sizable hold in the digital advertising space through the amount of data they've collected on their users to further their monopoly power. Such a sentiment was shared by Sally Hubbard, Director of Strategic Enforcement at the Open Markets Institute. This also gives them the platform to moderate which information goes to the public and set public discourse regarding social or political issues.

When all major social networking platforms banned former US President Donald Trump permanently from their platforms due to inciting the January 6th riot in the Capitol, the power of Big Tech came into question once again, particularly among conservatives who felt their voices had been stifled. Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was a step too far; only governments have the right to set the limitations on freedom of speech, not companies.

This is where antitrust regulations come into play, meaning regulations and laws are enacted to limit one particular firm's market power, ensuring acquisitions and mergers don't result in a monopoly for an industry. Therefore, this law also includes breaking up companies that have become monopolies.

Back in the '90s, one of the landmark antitrust cases was that of United States v. Microsoft. The government accused Microsoft of making it harder to install other software in windows or uninstalling Internet Explorer for a competing browser. The judge agreed that Microsoft showed monopolistic tendencies that threaten the competition and stifled innovation. As a result, Microsoft shared its computing interfaces with other companies.

Prof Araral also mentions the view that "[tech giants] have become too big – they limit competition and innovation by buying up competitors and they also have too much power on personal information - and therefore ought to be broken up like any other monopoly or oligopoly and regulated."

Learning from this, it's not a surprise that countries globally have antitrust laws put in place. Singapore, for instance, has the Competition Act to provide a generic competition law to protect consumers and businesses from anti-competitive practices of private entities.

The Need for Data Protection Regulation

With the rapid evolvement of technology, governments may lag in terms of establishing regulations and policies. However, most have tried their best to keep up. Laws such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) outline the need for consent from users and notification of data breaches, along with the option to be forgotten.

Prof Araral cites this GDPR as a good example. " Governments should impose significant civil and criminal penalties against tech giants so that they are held accountable, like the EU model of privacy regulation."

Singapore has a similar law through the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). This law gives enforceable rights to users, placing the responsibility of lawful data processing on the shoulders of websites, companies, and organisations anywhere in the world that process personal data from inside Singapore. Moreover, it regulates personal data transfer outside of Singapore and establishes the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) as the main authority body.

The Power of the CEO

Being the CEOs of these tech giants afford the likes of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Ma, and Elon Musk great power to influence society and governments alike.Although Amazon has profited billions of dollars yearly, they paid zero dollars in federal taxable income in 2018.

Demographically, most of these CEOs fall into the "white male" category, which translates into a similar workforce background, as evidenced by a CNBC video which found that 51% of people working in the tech space are of white/Caucasian descent, a statistic that may lead to unintentional bias due to the groupthink consensus within the company.

One example that's problematic was that of Google Vision Cloud, a computer vision system. In an experiment, the system labelled an image of a dark-skinned individual holding a thermometer as "gun", while a similar image with a light-skinned individual was labelled "electronic device", showing algorithmic biases that favoured white citizens over minorities.

This will lead to discrimination against minorities, as discovered by Consumer Reports and ProPublica in 2017. They found that drivers living in predominantly minority urban neighbourhoods were charged higher auto insurance premiums on average than drivers with similar safety records in non-minority neighbourhoods with comparable levels of risk.

To prevent such incidents from occurring, Prof Araral remarked that "AIs should be made transparent and explainable, and be subject to rigorous testing in the same way that drugs and vaccines are tested before being made public."

Technologies will not disappear, but they will continue evolving and becoming more sophisticated in the years to come. It takes a village from all parties involved, ranging from users to the government, to hold these Big Tech corporations accountable and competitive in the market, giving consumers options, better service, and affordable prices.

(Photo credits: howtostartablogonline.net)

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