# SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE # Copyright (C) YEAR Cory Doctorow # This file is distributed under the same license as the How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism package. # FIRST AUTHOR , YEAR. # #, fuzzy msgid "" msgstr "" "Project-Id-Version: How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism n/a\n" "POT-Creation-Date: 2021-01-24 19:27+0100\n" "PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n" "Last-Translator: FULL NAME \n" "Language-Team: LANGUAGE \n" "Language: \n" "MIME-Version: 1.0\n" "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n" "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n" #. type: Attribute 'lang' of:
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#: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:6 msgid "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><authorgroup><author><firstname> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:11 msgid "Cory" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><authorgroup><author><surname> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:12 msgid "Doctorow" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><publisher><address> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:17 #, no-wrap msgid "<city>Oslo</city>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:15 msgid "" "<publisher> <publishername>Petter Reinholdtsen</publishername> <placeholder " "type=\"address\" id=\"0\"/> </publisher> <copyright> <year>2020</year> " "<holder>Cory Doctorow</holder> </copyright> <copyright> <year>2021</year> " "<holder>Petter Reinholdtsen</holder> </copyright>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><legalnotice><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:32 msgid "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism by Cory Doctorow." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><legalnotice><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:35 msgid "Published by Petter Reinholdtsen." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><legalnotice><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:39 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.hungry.com/~pere/publisher/\"/>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><legalnotice><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:43 msgid "ISBN 978-82-93828-XX-X (paperback)" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><legalnotice><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:46 msgid "ISBN 978-82-93828-XX-X (ePub)" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><legalnotice><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:50 msgid "" "This book is available for purchase from <ulink " "url=\"https://www.lulu.com/\"/>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:62 msgid "" "<imageobject> <imagedata fileref=\"images/cc-some-rights-reserved.png\" " "contentdepth=\"3em\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\"/> </imageobject> " "<imageobject> <imagedata fileref=\"images/cc-some-rights-reserved.svg\" " "contentdepth=\"3em\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\"/> </imageobject>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject><textobject><phrase> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:69 msgid "Creative Commons, Some rights reserved" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><legalnotice><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:61 msgid "<placeholder type=\"inlinemediaobject\" id=\"0\"/>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><articleinfo><legalnotice><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:75 msgid "" "This book is licensed under a Creative Commons license. This license permits " "any use of this work, so long as attribution is given and no derivatived " "material is distributed. For more information about the license visit " "<ulink url=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/\"/>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:84 msgid "The net of a thousand lies" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:86 msgid "" "The most surprising thing about the rebirth of flat Earthers in the 21st " "century is just how widespread the evidence against them is. You can " "understand how, centuries ago, people who’d never gained a high-enough " "vantage point from which to see the Earth’s curvature might come to the " "commonsense belief that the flat-seeming Earth was, indeed, flat." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:94 msgid "" "But today, when elementary schools routinely dangle GoPro cameras from " "balloons and loft them high enough to photograph the Earth’s curve — to say " "nothing of the unexceptional sight of the curved Earth from an airplane " "window — it takes a heroic effort to maintain the belief that the world is " "flat." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:101 msgid "" "Likewise for white nationalism and eugenics: In an age where you can become " "a computational genomics datapoint by swabbing your cheek and mailing it to " "a gene-sequencing company along with a modest sum of money, <quote>race " "science</quote> has never been easier to refute." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:107 msgid "" "We are living through a golden age of both readily available facts and " "denial of those facts. Terrible ideas that have lingered on the fringes for " "decades or even centuries have gone mainstream seemingly overnight." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:113 msgid "" "When an obscure idea gains currency, there are only two things that can " "explain its ascendance: Either the person expressing that idea has gotten a " "lot better at stating their case, or the proposition has become harder to " "deny in the face of mounting evidence. In other words, if we want people to " "take climate change seriously, we can get a bunch of Greta Thunbergs to make " "eloquent, passionate arguments from podiums, winning our hearts and minds, " "or we can wait for flood, fire, broiling sun, and pandemics to make the case " "for us. In practice, we’ll probably have to do some of both: The more we’re " "boiling and burning and drowning and wasting away, the easier it will be for " "the Greta Thunbergs of the world to convince us." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:126 msgid "" "The arguments for ridiculous beliefs in odious conspiracies like " "anti-vaccination, climate denial, a flat Earth, and eugenics are no better " "than they were a generation ago. Indeed, they’re worse because they are " "being pitched to people who have at least a background awareness of the " "refuting facts." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:133 msgid "" "Anti-vax has been around since the first vaccines, but the early " "anti-vaxxers were pitching people who were less equipped to understand even " "the most basic ideas from microbiology, and moreover, those people had not " "witnessed the extermination of mass-murdering diseases like polio, smallpox, " "and measles. Today’s anti-vaxxers are no more eloquent than their forebears, " "and they have a much harder job." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:142 msgid "" "So can these far-fetched conspiracy theorists really be succeeding on the " "basis of superior arguments?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:146 msgid "" "Some people think so. Today, there is a widespread belief that machine " "learning and commercial surveillance can turn even the most fumble-tongued " "conspiracy theorist into a svengali who can warp your perceptions and win " "your belief by locating vulnerable people and then pitching them with " "A.I.-refined arguments that bypass their rational faculties and turn " "everyday people into flat Earthers, anti-vaxxers, or even Nazis. When the " "RAND Corporation <ulink " "url=\"https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR400/RR453/RAND_RR453.pdf\">blames " "Facebook for <quote>radicalization</quote></ulink> and when Facebook’s role " "in spreading coronavirus misinformation is <ulink " "url=\"https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/facebook_threat_health/\">blamed " "on its algorithm</ulink>, the implicit message is that machine learning and " "surveillance are causing the changes in our consensus about what’s true." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:162 msgid "" "After all, in a world where sprawling and incoherent conspiracy theories " "like Pizzagate and its successor, QAnon, have widespread followings, " "<emphasis>something</emphasis> must be afoot." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:167 msgid "" "But what if there’s another explanation? What if it’s the material " "circumstances, and not the arguments, that are making the difference for " "these conspiracy pitchmen? What if the trauma of living through " "<emphasis>real conspiracies</emphasis> all around us — conspiracies among " "wealthy people, their lobbyists, and lawmakers to bury inconvenient facts " "and evidence of wrongdoing (these conspiracies are commonly known as " "<quote>corruption</quote>) — is making people vulnerable to conspiracy " "theories?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:177 msgid "" "If it’s trauma and not contagion — material conditions and not ideology — " "that is making the difference today and enabling a rise of repulsive " "misinformation in the face of easily observed facts, that doesn’t mean our " "computer networks are blameless. They’re still doing the heavy work of " "locating vulnerable people and guiding them through a series of " "ever-more-extreme ideas and communities." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:185 msgid "" "Belief in conspiracy is a raging fire that has done real damage and poses " "real danger to our planet and species, from epidemics <ulink " "url=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html\">kicked off by " "vaccine denial</ulink> to genocides <ulink " "url=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html\">kicked " "off by racist conspiracies</ulink> to planetary meltdown caused by " "denial-inspired climate inaction. Our world is on fire, and so we have to " "put the fires out — to figure out how to help people see the truth of the " "world through the conspiracies they’ve been confused by." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:197 msgid "" "But firefighting is reactive. We need fire " "<emphasis>prevention</emphasis>. We need to strike at the traumatic material " "conditions that make people vulnerable to the contagion of conspiracy. Here, " "too, tech has a role to play." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:203 msgid "" "There’s no shortage of proposals to address this. From the EU’s <ulink " "url=\"https://edri.org/tag/terreg/\">Terrorist Content Regulation</ulink>, " "which requires platforms to police and remove <quote>extremist</quote> " "content, to the U.S. proposals to <ulink " "url=\"https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/earn-it-act-violates-constitution\">force " "tech companies to spy on their users</ulink> and hold them liable <ulink " "url=\"https://www.natlawreview.com/article/repeal-cda-section-230\">for " "their users’ bad speech</ulink>, there’s a lot of energy to force tech " "companies to solve the problems they created." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:214 msgid "" "There’s a critical piece missing from the debate, though. All these " "solutions assume that tech companies are a fixture, that their dominance " "over the internet is a permanent fact. Proposals to replace Big Tech with a " "more diffused, pluralistic internet are nowhere to be found. Worse: The " "<quote>solutions</quote> on the table today <emphasis>require</emphasis> Big " "Tech to stay big because only the very largest companies can afford to " "implement the systems these laws demand." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:224 msgid "" "Figuring out what we want our tech to look like is crucial if we’re going to " "get out of this mess. Today, we’re at a crossroads where we’re trying to " "figure out if we want to fix the Big Tech companies that dominate our " "internet or if we want to fix the internet itself by unshackling it from Big " "Tech’s stranglehold. We can’t do both, so we have to choose." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:232 msgid "" "I want us to choose wisely. Taming Big Tech is integral to fixing the " "Internet, and for that, we need digital rights activism." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:236 msgid "Digital rights activism, a quarter-century on" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:238 msgid "" "Digital rights activism is more than 30 years old now. The Electronic " "Frontier Foundation turned 30 this year; the Free Software Foundation " "launched in 1985. For most of the history of the movement, the most " "prominent criticism leveled against it was that it was irrelevant: The real " "activist causes were real-world causes (think of the skepticism when <ulink " "url=\"https://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/finland-legal-right-to-broadband-for-all-citizens/#:~:text=Global%20Legal%20Monitor,-Home%20%7C%20Search%20%7C%20Browse&text=(July%206%2C%202010)%20On,connection%20100%20MBPS%20by%202015.\">Finland " "declared broadband a human right in 2010</ulink>), and real-world activism " "was shoe-leather activism (think of Malcolm Gladwell’s <ulink " "url=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell\">contempt " "for <quote>clicktivism</quote></ulink>). But as tech has grown more central " "to our daily lives, these accusations of irrelevance have given way first to " "accusations of insincerity (<quote>You only care about tech because you’re " "<ulink " "url=\"https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/06/04/report-engine-eff-shills-google-patent-reform/id=98007/\">shilling " "for tech companies</ulink></quote>) to accusations of negligence (<quote>Why " "didn’t you foresee that tech could be such a destructive force?</quote>). " "But digital rights activism is right where it’s always been: looking out for " "the humans in a world where tech is inexorably taking over." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:259 msgid "" "The latest version of this critique comes in the form of <quote>surveillance " "capitalism,</quote> a term coined by business professor Shoshana Zuboff in " "her long and influential 2019 book, <emphasis>The Age of Surveillance " "Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of " "Power</emphasis>. Zuboff argues that <quote>surveillance capitalism</quote> " "is a unique creature of the tech industry and that it is unlike any other " "abusive commercial practice in history, one that is <quote>constituted by " "unexpected and often illegible mechanisms of extraction, commodification, " "and control that effectively exile persons from their own behavior while " "producing new markets of behavioral prediction and " "modification. Surveillance capitalism challenges democratic norms and " "departs in key ways from the centuries-long evolution of market " "capitalism.</quote> It is a new and deadly form of capitalism, a " "<quote>rogue capitalism,</quote> and our lack of understanding of its unique " "capabilities and dangers represents an existential, species-wide " "threat. She’s right that capitalism today threatens our species, and she’s " "right that tech poses unique challenges to our species and civilization, but " "she’s really wrong about how tech is different and why it threatens our " "species." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:280 msgid "" "What’s more, I think that her incorrect diagnosis will lead us down a path " "that ends up making Big Tech stronger, not weaker. We need to take down Big " "Tech, and to do that, we need to start by correctly identifying the problem." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:286 msgid "Tech exceptionalism, then and now" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:288 msgid "" "Early critics of the digital rights movement — perhaps best represented by " "campaigning organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Free " "Software Foundation, Public Knowledge, and others that focused on preserving " "and enhancing basic human rights in the digital realm — damned activists for " "practicing <quote>tech exceptionalism.</quote> Around the turn of the " "millennium, serious people ridiculed any claim that tech policy mattered in " "the <quote>real world.</quote> Claims that tech rules had implications for " "speech, association, privacy, search and seizure, and fundamental rights and " "equities were treated as ridiculous, an elevation of the concerns of sad " "nerds arguing about <emphasis>Star Trek</emphasis> on bulletin board systems " "above the struggles of the Freedom Riders, Nelson Mandela, or the Warsaw " "ghetto uprising." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:303 msgid "" "In the decades since, accusations of <quote>tech exceptionalism</quote> have " "only sharpened as tech’s role in everyday life has expanded: Now that tech " "has infiltrated every corner of our life and our online lives have been " "monopolized by a handful of giants, defenders of digital freedoms are " "accused of carrying water for Big Tech, providing cover for its " "self-interested negligence (or worse, nefarious plots)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:311 msgid "" "From my perspective, the digital rights movement has remained stationary " "while the rest of the world has moved. From the earliest days, the " "movement’s concern was users and the toolsmiths who provided the code they " "needed to realize their fundamental rights. Digital rights activists only " "cared about companies to the extent that companies were acting to uphold " "users’ rights (or, just as often, when companies were acting so foolishly " "that they threatened to bring down new rules that would also make it harder " "for good actors to help users)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:322 msgid "" "The <quote>surveillance capitalism</quote> critique recasts the digital " "rights movement in a new light again: not as alarmists who overestimate the " "importance of their shiny toys nor as shills for big tech but as serene " "deck-chair rearrangers whose long-standing activism is a liability because " "it makes them incapable of perceiving novel threats as they continue to " "fight the last century’s tech battles." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:330 msgid "But tech exceptionalism is a sin no matter who practices it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:333 msgid "Don’t believe the hype" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:335 msgid "" "You’ve probably heard that <quote>if you’re not paying for the product, " "you’re the product.</quote> As we’ll see below, that’s true, if incomplete. " "But what is <emphasis>absolutely</emphasis> true is that ad-driven Big " "Tech’s customers are advertisers, and what companies like Google and " "Facebook sell is their ability to convince <emphasis>you</emphasis> to buy " "stuff. Big Tech’s product is persuasion. The services — social media, search " "engines, maps, messaging, and more — are delivery systems for persuasion." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:345 msgid "" "The fear of surveillance capitalism starts from the (correct) presumption " "that everything Big Tech says about itself is probably a lie. But the " "surveillance capitalism critique makes an exception for the claims Big Tech " "makes in its sales literature — the breathless hype in the pitches to " "potential advertisers online and in ad-tech seminars about the efficacy of " "its products: It assumes that Big Tech is as good at influencing us as they " "claim they are when they’re selling influencing products to credulous " "customers. That’s a mistake because sales literature is not a reliable " "indicator of a product’s efficacy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:357 msgid "" "Surveillance capitalism assumes that because advertisers buy a lot of what " "Big Tech is selling, Big Tech must be selling something real. But Big Tech’s " "massive sales could just as easily be the result of a popular delusion or " "something even more pernicious: monopolistic control over our communications " "and commerce." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:364 msgid "" "Being watched changes your behavior, and not for the better. It creates " "risks for our social progress. Zuboff’s book features beautifully wrought " "explanations of these phenomena. But Zuboff also claims that surveillance " "literally robs us of our free will — that when our personal data is mixed " "with machine learning, it creates a system of persuasion so devastating that " "we are helpless before it. That is, Facebook uses an algorithm to analyze " "the data it nonconsensually extracts from your daily life and uses it to " "customize your feed in ways that get you to buy stuff. It is a mind-control " "ray out of a 1950s comic book, wielded by mad scientists whose " "supercomputers guarantee them perpetual and total world domination." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:378 msgid "What is persuasion?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:380 msgid "" "To understand why you shouldn’t worry about mind-control rays — but why you " "<emphasis>should</emphasis> worry about surveillance " "<emphasis>and</emphasis> Big Tech — we must start by unpacking what we mean " "by <quote>persuasion.</quote>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:386 msgid "" "Google, Facebook, and other surveillance capitalists promise their customers " "(the advertisers) that if they use machine-learning tools trained on " "unimaginably large data sets of nonconsensually harvested personal " "information, they will be able to uncover ways to bypass the rational " "faculties of the public and direct their behavior, creating a stream of " "purchases, votes, and other desired outcomes." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><blockquote><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:395 msgid "" "The impact of dominance far exceeds the impact of manipulation and should be " "central to our analysis and any remedies we seek." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:400 msgid "" "But there’s little evidence that this is happening. Instead, the predictions " "that surveillance capitalism delivers to its customers are much less " "impressive. Rather than finding ways to bypass our rational faculties, " "surveillance capitalists like Mark Zuckerberg mostly do one or more of three " "things:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:407 msgid "1. Segmenting" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:409 msgid "" "If you’re selling diapers, you have better luck if you pitch them to people " "in maternity wards. Not everyone who enters or leaves a maternity ward just " "had a baby, and not everyone who just had a baby is in the market for " "diapers. But having a baby is a really reliable correlate of being in the " "market for diapers, and being in a maternity ward is highly correlated with " "having a baby. Hence diaper ads around maternity wards (and even pitchmen " "for baby products, who haunt maternity wards with baskets full of freebies)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:420 msgid "" "Surveillance capitalism is segmenting times a billion. Diaper vendors can go " "way beyond people in maternity wards (though they can do that, too, with " "things like location-based mobile ads). They can target you based on " "whether you’re reading articles about child-rearing, diapers, or a host of " "other subjects, and data mining can suggest unobvious keywords to advertise " "against. They can target you based on the articles you’ve recently " "read. They can target you based on what you’ve recently purchased. They can " "target you based on whether you receive emails or private messages about " "these subjects — or even if you speak aloud about them (though Facebook and " "the like convincingly claim that’s not happening — yet)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:434 msgid "This is seriously creepy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:437 msgid "But it’s not mind control." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:440 msgid "It doesn’t deprive you of your free will. It doesn’t trick you." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:443 msgid "" "Think of how surveillance capitalism works in politics. Surveillance " "capitalist companies sell political operatives the power to locate people " "who might be receptive to their pitch. Candidates campaigning on finance " "industry corruption seek people struggling with debt; candidates campaigning " "on xenophobia seek out racists. Political operatives have always targeted " "their message whether their intentions were honorable or not: Union " "organizers set up pitches at factory gates, and white supremacists hand out " "fliers at John Birch Society meetings." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:454 msgid "" "But this is an inexact and thus wasteful practice. The union organizer can’t " "know which worker to approach on the way out of the factory gates and may " "waste their time on a covert John Birch Society member; the white " "supremacist doesn’t know which of the Birchers are so delusional that making " "it to a meeting is as much as they can manage and which ones might be " "convinced to cross the country to carry a tiki torch through the streets of " "Charlottesville, Virginia." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:464 msgid "" "Because targeting improves the yields on political pitches, it can " "accelerate the pace of political upheaval by making it possible for everyone " "who has secretly wished for the toppling of an autocrat — or just an 11-term " "incumbent politician — to find everyone else who feels the same way at very " "low cost. This has been critical to the rapid crystallization of recent " "political movements including Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street as " "well as less savory players like the far-right white nationalist movements " "that marched in Charlottesville." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:475 msgid "" "It’s important to differentiate this kind of political organizing from " "influence campaigns; finding people who secretly agree with you isn’t the " "same as convincing people to agree with you. The rise of phenomena like " "nonbinary or otherwise nonconforming gender identities is often " "characterized by reactionaries as the result of online brainwashing " "campaigns that convince impressionable people that they have been secretly " "queer all along." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:484 msgid "" "But the personal accounts of those who have come out tell a different story " "where people who long harbored a secret about their gender were emboldened " "by others coming forward and where people who knew that they were different " "but lacked a vocabulary for discussing that difference learned the right " "words from these low-cost means of finding people and learning about their " "ideas." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:493 msgid "2. Deception" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:495 msgid "" "Lies and fraud are pernicious, and surveillance capitalism supercharges them " "through targeting. If you want to sell a fraudulent payday loan or subprime " "mortgage, surveillance capitalism can help you find people who are both " "desperate and unsophisticated and thus receptive to your pitch. This " "accounts for the rise of many phenomena, like multilevel marketing schemes, " "in which deceptive claims about potential earnings and the efficacy of sales " "techniques are targeted at desperate people by advertising against search " "queries that indicate, for example, someone struggling with ill-advised " "loans." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:507 msgid "" "Surveillance capitalism also abets fraud by making it easy to locate other " "people who have been similarly deceived, forming a community of people who " "reinforce one another’s false beliefs. Think of <ulink " "url=\"https://www.vulture.com/2020/01/the-dream-podcast-review.html\">the " "forums</ulink> where people who are being victimized by multilevel marketing " "frauds gather to trade tips on how to improve their luck in peddling the " "product." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:517 msgid "" "Sometimes, online deception involves replacing someone’s correct beliefs " "with incorrect ones, as it does in the anti-vaccination movement, whose " "victims are often people who start out believing in vaccines but are " "convinced by seemingly plausible evidence that leads them into the false " "belief that vaccines are harmful." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:524 msgid "" "But it’s much more common for fraud to succeed when it doesn’t have to " "displace a true belief. When my daughter contracted head lice at daycare, " "one of the daycare workers told me I could get rid of them by treating her " "hair and scalp with olive oil. I didn’t know anything about head lice, and I " "assumed that the daycare worker did, so I tried it (it didn’t work, and it " "doesn’t work). It’s easy to end up with false beliefs when you simply don’t " "know any better and when those beliefs are conveyed by someone who seems to " "know what they’re doing." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:535 msgid "" "This is pernicious and difficult — and it’s also the kind of thing the " "internet can help guard against by making true information available, " "especially in a form that exposes the underlying deliberations among parties " "with sharply divergent views, such as Wikipedia. But it’s not brainwashing; " "it’s fraud. In the <ulink " "url=\"https://datasociety.net/library/data-voids/\">majority of " "cases</ulink>, the victims of these fraud campaigns have an informational " "void filled in the customary way, by consulting a seemingly reliable " "source. If I look up the length of the Brooklyn Bridge and learn that it is " "5,800 feet long, but in reality, it is 5,989 feet long, the underlying " "deception is a problem, but it’s a problem with a simple remedy. It’s a very " "different problem from the anti-vax issue in which someone’s true belief is " "displaced by a false one by means of sophisticated persuasion." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:552 msgid "3. Domination" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:554 msgid "" "Surveillance capitalism is the result of monopoly. Monopoly is the cause, " "and surveillance capitalism and its negative outcomes are the effects of " "monopoly. I’ll get into this in depth later, but for now, suffice it to say " "that the tech industry has grown up with a radical theory of antitrust that " "has allowed companies to grow by merging with their rivals, buying up their " "nascent competitors, and expanding to control whole market verticals." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:563 msgid "" "One example of how monopolism aids in persuasion is through dominance: " "Google makes editorial decisions about its algorithms that determine the " "sort order of the responses to our queries. If a cabal of fraudsters have " "set out to trick the world into thinking that the Brooklyn Bridge is 5,800 " "feet long, and if Google gives a high search rank to this group in response " "to queries like <quote>How long is the Brooklyn Bridge?</quote> then the " "first eight or 10 screens’ worth of Google results could be wrong. And since " "most people don’t go beyond the first couple of results — let alone the " "first <emphasis>page</emphasis> of results — Google’s choice means that many " "people will be deceived." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:576 msgid "" "Google’s dominance over search — more than 86% of web searches are performed " "through Google — means that the way it orders its search results has an " "outsized effect on public beliefs. Ironically, Google claims this is why it " "can’t afford to have any transparency in its algorithm design: Google’s " "search dominance makes the results of its sorting too important to risk " "telling the world how it arrives at those results lest some bad actor " "discover a flaw in the ranking system and exploit it to push its point of " "view to the top of the search results. There’s an obvious remedy to a " "company that is too big to audit: break it up into smaller pieces." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:588 msgid "" "Zuboff calls surveillance capitalism a <quote>rogue capitalism</quote> whose " "data-hoarding and machine-learning techniques rob us of our free will. But " "influence campaigns that seek to displace existing, correct beliefs with " "false ones have an effect that is small and temporary while monopolistic " "dominance over informational systems has massive, enduring " "effects. Controlling the results to the world’s search queries means " "controlling access both to arguments and their rebuttals and, thus, control " "over much of the world’s beliefs. If our concern is how corporations are " "foreclosing on our ability to make up our own minds and determine our own " "futures, the impact of dominance far exceeds the impact of manipulation and " "should be central to our analysis and any remedies we seek." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:603 msgid "4. Bypassing our rational faculties" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:605 msgid "" "<emphasis>This</emphasis> is the good stuff: using machine learning, " "<quote>dark patterns,</quote> engagement hacking, and other techniques to " "get us to do things that run counter to our better judgment. This is mind " "control." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:611 msgid "" "Some of these techniques have proven devastatingly effective (if only in the " "short term). The use of countdown timers on a purchase completion page can " "create a sense of urgency that causes you to ignore the nagging internal " "voice suggesting that you should shop around or sleep on your decision. The " "use of people from your social graph in ads can provide <quote>social " "proof</quote> that a purchase is worth making. Even the auction system " "pioneered by eBay is calculated to play on our cognitive blind spots, " "letting us feel like we <quote>own</quote> something because we bid on it, " "thus encouraging us to bid again when we are outbid to ensure that " "<quote>our</quote> things stay ours." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:624 msgid "" "Games are extraordinarily good at this. <quote>Free to play</quote> games " "manipulate us through many techniques, such as presenting players with a " "series of smoothly escalating challenges that create a sense of mastery and " "accomplishment but which sharply transition into a set of challenges that " "are impossible to overcome without paid upgrades. Add some social proof to " "the mix — a stream of notifications about how well your friends are faring — " "and before you know it, you’re buying virtual power-ups to get to the next " "level." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:635 msgid "" "Companies have risen and fallen on these techniques, and the " "<quote>fallen</quote> part is worth paying attention to. In general, living " "things adapt to stimulus: Something that is very compelling or noteworthy " "when you first encounter it fades with repetition until you stop noticing it " "altogether. Consider the refrigerator hum that irritates you when it starts " "up but disappears into the background so thoroughly that you only notice it " "when it stops again." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:645 msgid "" "That’s why behavioral conditioning uses <quote>intermittent reinforcement " "schedules.</quote> Instead of giving you a steady drip of encouragement or " "setbacks, games and gamified services scatter rewards on a randomized " "schedule — often enough to keep you interested and random enough that you " "can never quite find the pattern that would make it boring." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:653 msgid "" "Intermittent reinforcement is a powerful behavioral tool, but it also " "represents a collective action problem for surveillance capitalism. The " "<quote>engagement techniques</quote> invented by the behaviorists of " "surveillance capitalist companies are quickly copied across the whole sector " "so that what starts as a mysteriously compelling fillip in the design of a " "service—like <quote>pull to refresh</quote> or alerts when someone likes " "your posts or side quests that your characters get invited to while in the " "midst of main quests—quickly becomes dully ubiquitous. The " "impossible-to-nail-down nonpattern of randomized drips from your phone " "becomes a grey-noise wall of sound as every single app and site starts to " "make use of whatever seems to be working at the time." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:668 msgid "" "From the surveillance capitalist’s point of view, our adaptive capacity is " "like a harmful bacterium that deprives it of its food source — our attention " "— and novel techniques for snagging that attention are like new antibiotics " "that can be used to breach our defenses and destroy our " "self-determination. And there <emphasis>are</emphasis> techniques like " "that. Who can forget the Great Zynga Epidemic, when all of our friends were " "caught in <emphasis>FarmVille</emphasis>’s endless, mindless dopamine loops? " "But every new attention-commanding technique is jumped on by the whole " "industry and used so indiscriminately that antibiotic resistance sets " "in. Given enough repetition, almost all of us develop immunity to even the " "most powerful techniques — by 2013, two years after Zynga’s peak, its user " "base had halved." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:683 msgid "" "Not everyone, of course. Some people never adapt to stimulus, just as some " "people never stop hearing the hum of the refrigerator. This is why most " "people who are exposed to slot machines play them for a while and then move " "on while a small and tragic minority liquidate their kids’ college funds, " "buy adult diapers, and position themselves in front of a machine until they " "collapse." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:691 msgid "" "But surveillance capitalism’s margins on behavioral modification " "suck. Tripling the rate at which someone buys a widget sounds great <ulink " "url=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/priceonomics/2018/03/09/the-advertising-conversion-rates-for-every-major-tech-platform/#2f6a67485957\">unless " "the base rate is way less than 1%</ulink> with an improved rate of… still " "less than 1%. Even penny slot machines pull down pennies for every spin " "while surveillance capitalism rakes in infinitesimal penny fractions." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:701 msgid "" "Slot machines’ high returns mean that they can be profitable just by " "draining the fortunes of the small rump of people who are pathologically " "vulnerable to them and unable to adapt to their tricks. But surveillance " "capitalism can’t survive on the fractional pennies it brings down from that " "vulnerable sliver — that’s why, after the Great Zynga Epidemic had finally " "burned itself out, the small number of still-addicted players left behind " "couldn’t sustain it as a global phenomenon. And new powerful attention " "weapons aren’t easy to find, as is evidenced by the long years since the " "last time Zynga had a hit. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars that " "Zynga has to spend on developing new tools to blast through our adaptation, " "it has never managed to repeat the lucky accident that let it snag so much " "of our attention for a brief moment in 2009. Powerhouses like Supercell have " "fared a little better, but they are rare and throw away many failures for " "every success." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><sect2><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:719 msgid "" "The vulnerability of small segments of the population to dramatic, efficient " "corporate manipulation is a real concern that’s worthy of our attention and " "energy. But it’s not an existential threat to society." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:726 msgid "If data is the new oil, then surveillance capitalism’s engine has a leak" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:729 msgid "" "This adaptation problem offers an explanation for one of surveillance " "capitalism’s most alarming traits: its relentless hunger for data and its " "endless expansion of data-gathering capabilities through the spread of " "sensors, online surveillance, and acquisition of data streams from third " "parties." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:736 msgid "" "Zuboff observes this phenomenon and concludes that data must be very " "valuable if surveillance capitalism is so hungry for it. (In her words: " "<quote>Just as industrial capitalism was driven to the continuous " "intensification of the means of production, so surveillance capitalists and " "their market players are now locked into the continuous intensification of " "the means of behavioral modification and the gathering might of " "instrumentarian power.</quote>) But what if the voracious appetite is " "because data has such a short half-life — because people become inured so " "quickly to new, data-driven persuasion techniques — that the companies are " "locked in an arms race with our limbic system? What if it’s all a Red " "Queen’s race where they have to run ever faster — collect ever-more data — " "just to stay in the same spot?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:751 msgid "" "Of course, all of Big Tech’s persuasion techniques work in concert with one " "another, and collecting data is useful beyond mere behavioral trickery." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:756 msgid "" "If someone wants to recruit you to buy a refrigerator or join a pogrom, they " "might use profiling and targeting to send messages to people they judge to " "be good sales prospects. The messages themselves may be deceptive, making " "claims about things you’re not very knowledgeable about (food safety and " "energy efficiency or eugenics and historical claims about racial " "superiority). They might use search engine optimization and/or armies of " "fake reviewers and commenters and/or paid placement to dominate the " "discourse so that any search for further information takes you back to their " "messages. And finally, they may refine the different pitches using machine " "learning and other techniques to figure out what kind of pitch works best on " "someone like you." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:770 msgid "" "Each phase of this process benefits from surveillance: The more data they " "have, the more precisely they can profile you and target you with specific " "messages. Think of how you’d sell a fridge if you knew that the warranty on " "your prospect’s fridge just expired and that they were expecting a tax " "rebate in April." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:777 msgid "" "Also, the more data they have, the better they can craft deceptive messages " "— if I know that you’re into genealogy, I might not try to feed you " "pseudoscience about genetic differences between <quote>races,</quote> " "sticking instead to conspiratorial secret histories of <quote>demographic " "replacement</quote> and the like." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:784 msgid "" "Facebook also helps you locate people who have the same odious or antisocial " "views as you. It makes it possible to find other people who want to carry " "tiki torches through the streets of Charlottesville in Confederate " "cosplay. It can help you find other people who want to join your militia and " "go to the border to look for undocumented migrants to terrorize. It can help " "you find people who share your belief that vaccines are poison and that the " "Earth is flat." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:794 msgid "" "There is one way in which targeted advertising uniquely benefits those " "advocating for socially unacceptable causes: It is invisible. Racism is " "widely geographically dispersed, and there are few places where racists — " "and only racists — gather. This is similar to the problem of selling " "refrigerators in that potential refrigerator purchasers are geographically " "dispersed and there are few places where you can buy an ad that will be " "primarily seen by refrigerator customers. But buying a refrigerator is " "socially acceptable while being a Nazi is not, so you can buy a billboard or " "advertise in the newspaper sports section for your refrigerator business, " "and the only potential downside is that your ad will be seen by a lot of " "people who don’t want refrigerators, resulting in a lot of wasted expense." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:809 msgid "" "But even if you wanted to advertise your Nazi movement on a billboard or " "prime-time TV or the sports section, you would struggle to find anyone " "willing to sell you the space for your ad partly because they disagree with " "your views and partly because they fear censure (boycott, reputational " "damage, etc.) from other people who disagree with your views." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:817 msgid "" "Targeted ads solve this problem: On the internet, every ad unit can be " "different for every person, meaning that you can buy ads that are only shown " "to people who appear to be Nazis and not to people who hate Nazis. When " "there’s spillover — when someone who hates racism is shown a racist " "recruiting ad — there is some fallout; the platform or publication might get " "an angry public or private denunciation. But the nature of the risk assumed " "by an online ad buyer is different than the risks to a traditional publisher " "or billboard owner who might want to run a Nazi ad." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:828 msgid "" "Online ads are placed by algorithms that broker between a diverse ecosystem " "of self-serve ad platforms that anyone can buy an ad through, so the Nazi ad " "that slips onto your favorite online publication isn’t seen as their moral " "failing but rather as a failure in some distant, upstream ad supplier. When " "a publication gets a complaint about an offensive ad that’s appearing in one " "of its units, it can take some steps to block that ad, but the Nazi might " "buy a slightly different ad from a different broker serving the same " "unit. And in any event, internet users increasingly understand that when " "they see an ad, it’s likely that the advertiser did not choose that " "publication and that the publication has no idea who its advertisers are." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:842 msgid "" "These layers of indirection between advertisers and publishers serve as " "moral buffers: Today’s moral consensus is largely that publishers shouldn’t " "be held responsible for the ads that appear on their pages because they’re " "not actively choosing to put those ads there. Because of this, Nazis are " "able to overcome significant barriers to organizing their movement." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:850 msgid "" "Data has a complex relationship with domination. Being able to spy on your " "customers can alert you to their preferences for your rivals and allow you " "to head off your rivals at the pass." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:855 msgid "" "More importantly, if you can dominate the information space while also " "gathering data, then you make other deceptive tactics stronger because it’s " "harder to break out of the web of deceit you’re spinning. Domination — that " "is, ultimately becoming a monopoly — and not the data itself is the " "supercharger that makes every tactic worth pursuing because monopolistic " "domination deprives your target of an escape route." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:864 msgid "" "If you’re a Nazi who wants to ensure that your prospects primarily see " "deceptive, confirming information when they search for more, you can improve " "your odds by seeding the search terms they use through your initial " "communications. You don’t need to own the top 10 results for <quote>voter " "suppression</quote> if you can convince your marks to confine their search " "terms to <quote>voter fraud,</quote> which throws up a very different set of " "search results." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:873 msgid "" "Surveillance capitalists are like stage mentalists who claim that their " "extraordinary insights into human behavior let them guess the word that you " "wrote down and folded up in your pocket but who really use shills, hidden " "cameras, sleight of hand, and brute-force memorization to amaze you." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:880 msgid "" "Or perhaps they’re more like pick-up artists, the misogynistic cult that " "promises to help awkward men have sex with women by teaching them " "<quote>neurolinguistic programming</quote> phrases, body language " "techniques, and psychological manipulation tactics like " "<quote>negging</quote> — offering unsolicited negative feedback to women to " "lower their self-esteem and prick their interest." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:888 msgid "" "Some pick-up artists eventually manage to convince women to go home with " "them, but it’s not because these men have figured out how to bypass women’s " "critical faculties. Rather, pick-up artists’ <quote>success</quote> stories " "are a mix of women who were incapable of giving consent, women who were " "coerced, women who were intoxicated, self-destructive women, and a few women " "who were sober and in command of their faculties but who didn’t realize " "straightaway that they were with terrible men but rectified the error as " "soon as they could." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:899 msgid "" "Pick-up artists <emphasis>believe</emphasis> they have figured out a secret " "back door that bypasses women’s critical faculties, but they haven’t. Many " "of the tactics they deploy, like negging, became the butt of jokes (just " "like people joke about bad ad targeting), and there’s a good chance that " "anyone they try these tactics on will immediately recognize them and dismiss " "the men who use them as irredeemable losers." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:908 msgid "" "Pick-up artists are proof that people can believe they have developed a " "system of mind control <emphasis>even when it doesn’t " "work</emphasis>. Pick-up artists simply exploit the fact that " "one-in-a-million chances can come through for you if you make a million " "attempts, and then they assume that the other 999,999 times, they simply " "performed the technique incorrectly and commit themselves to doing better " "next time. There’s only one group of people who find pick-up artist lore " "reliably convincing: other would-be pick-up artists whose anxiety and " "insecurity make them vulnerable to scammers and delusional men who convince " "them that if they pay for tutelage and follow instructions, then they will " "someday succeed. Pick-up artists assume they fail to entice women because " "they are bad at being pick-up artists, not because pick-up artistry is " "bullshit. Pick-up artists are bad at selling themselves to women, but " "they’re much better at selling themselves to men who pay to learn the " "secrets of pick-up artistry." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:926 msgid "" "Department store pioneer John Wanamaker is said to have lamented, " "<quote>Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I " "don’t know which half.</quote> The fact that Wanamaker thought that only " "half of his advertising spending was wasted is a tribute to the " "persuasiveness of advertising executives, who are <emphasis>much</emphasis> " "better at convincing potential clients to buy their services than they are " "at convincing the general public to buy their clients’ wares." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:936 msgid "What is Facebook?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:938 msgid "" "Facebook is heralded as the origin of all of our modern plagues, and it’s " "not hard to see why. Some tech companies want to lock their users in but " "make their money by monopolizing access to the market for apps for their " "devices and gouging them on prices rather than by spying on them (like " "Apple). Some companies don’t care about locking in users because they’ve " "figured out how to spy on them no matter where they are and what they’re " "doing and can turn that surveillance into money (Google). Facebook alone " "among the Western tech giants has built a business based on locking in its " "users <emphasis>and</emphasis> spying on them all the time." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:950 msgid "" "Facebook’s surveillance regime is really without parallel in the Western " "world. Though Facebook tries to prevent itself from being visible on the " "public web, hiding most of what goes on there from people unless they’re " "logged into Facebook, the company has nevertheless booby-trapped the entire " "web with surveillance tools in the form of Facebook <quote>Like</quote> " "buttons that web publishers include on their sites to boost their Facebook " "profiles. Facebook also makes various libraries and other useful code " "snippets available to web publishers that act as surveillance tendrils on " "the sites where they’re used, funneling information about visitors to the " "site — newspapers, dating sites, message boards — to Facebook." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><blockquote><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:964 msgid "" "Big Tech is able to practice surveillance not just because it is tech but " "because it is <emphasis>big</emphasis>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:969 msgid "" "Facebook offers similar tools to app developers, so the apps — games, fart " "machines, business review services, apps for keeping abreast of your kid’s " "schooling — you use will send information about your activities to Facebook " "even if you don’t have a Facebook account and even if you don’t download or " "use Facebook apps. On top of all that, Facebook buys data from third-party " "brokers on shopping habits, physical location, use of <quote>loyalty</quote> " "programs, financial transactions, etc., and cross-references that with the " "dossiers it develops on activity on Facebook and with apps and the public " "web." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:980 msgid "" "Though it’s easy to integrate the web with Facebook — linking to news " "stories and such — Facebook products are generally not available to be " "integrated back into the web itself. You can embed a tweet in a Facebook " "post, but if you embed a Facebook post in a tweet, you just get a link back " "to Facebook and must log in before you can see it. Facebook has used extreme " "technological and legal countermeasures to prevent rivals from allowing " "their users to embed Facebook snippets in competing services or to create " "alternative interfaces to Facebook that merge your Facebook inbox with those " "of other services that you use." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:992 msgid "" "And Facebook is incredibly popular, with 2.3 billion claimed users (though " "many believe this figure to be inflated). Facebook has been used to organize " "genocidal pogroms, racist riots, anti-vaccination movements, flat Earth " "cults, and the political lives of some of the world’s ugliest, most brutal " "autocrats. There are some really alarming things going on in the world, and " "Facebook is implicated in many of them, so it’s easy to conclude that these " "bad things are the result of Facebook’s mind-control system, which it rents " "out to anyone with a few bucks to spend." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1003 msgid "" "To understand what role Facebook plays in the formulation and mobilization " "of antisocial movements, we need to understand the dual nature of Facebook." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1008 msgid "" "Because it has a lot of users and a lot of data about those users, Facebook " "is a very efficient tool for locating people with hard-to-find traits, the " "kinds of traits that are widely diffused in the population such that " "advertisers have historically struggled to find a cost-effective way to " "reach them. Think back to refrigerators: Most of us only replace our major " "appliances a few times in our entire lives. If you’re a refrigerator " "manufacturer or retailer, you have these brief windows in the life of a " "consumer during which they are pondering a purchase, and you have to somehow " "reach them. Anyone who’s ever registered a title change after buying a house " "can attest that appliance manufacturers are incredibly desperate to reach " "anyone who has even the slenderest chance of being in the market for a new " "fridge." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1023 msgid "" "Facebook makes finding people shopping for refrigerators a " "<emphasis>lot</emphasis> easier. It can target ads to people who’ve " "registered a new home purchase, to people who’ve searched for refrigerator " "buying advice, to people who have complained about their fridge dying, or " "any combination thereof. It can even target people who’ve recently bought " "<emphasis>other</emphasis> kitchen appliances on the theory that someone " "who’s just replaced their stove and dishwasher might be in a fridge-buying " "kind of mood. The vast majority of people who are reached by these ads will " "not be in the market for a new fridge, but — crucially — the percentage of " "people who <emphasis>are</emphasis> looking for fridges that these ads reach " "is <emphasis>much</emphasis> larger than it is than for any group that might " "be subjected to traditional, offline targeted refrigerator marketing." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1039 msgid "" "Facebook also makes it a lot easier to find people who have the same rare " "disease as you, which might have been impossible in earlier eras — the " "closest fellow sufferer might otherwise be hundreds of miles away. It makes " "it easier to find people who went to the same high school as you even though " "decades have passed and your former classmates have all been scattered to " "the four corners of the Earth." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1047 msgid "" "Facebook also makes it much easier to find people who hold the same rare " "political beliefs as you. If you’ve always harbored a secret affinity for " "socialism but never dared utter this aloud lest you be demonized by your " "neighbors, Facebook can help you discover other people who feel the same way " "(and it might just demonstrate to you that your affinity is more widespread " "than you ever suspected). It can make it easier to find people who share " "your sexual identity. And again, it can help you to understand that what " "you thought was a shameful secret that affected only you was really a widely " "shared trait, giving you both comfort and the courage to come out to the " "people in your life." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1060 msgid "" "All of this presents a dilemma for Facebook: Targeting makes the company’s " "ads more effective than traditional ads, but it also lets advertisers see " "just how effective their ads are. While advertisers are pleased to learn " "that Facebook ads are more effective than ads on systems with less " "sophisticated targeting, advertisers can also see that in nearly every case, " "the people who see their ads ignore them. Or, at best, the ads work on a " "subconscious level, creating nebulous unmeasurables like <quote>brand " "recognition.</quote> This means that the price per ad is very low in nearly " "every case." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1071 msgid "" "To make things worse, many Facebook groups spark precious little " "discussion. Your little-league soccer team, the people with the same rare " "disease as you, and the people you share a political affinity with may " "exchange the odd flurry of messages at critical junctures, but on a daily " "basis, there’s not much to say to your old high school chums or other " "hockey-card collectors." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1079 msgid "" "With nothing but <quote>organic</quote> discussion, Facebook would not " "generate enough traffic to sell enough ads to make the money it needs to " "continually expand by buying up its competitors while returning handsome " "sums to its investors." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1085 msgid "" "So Facebook has to gin up traffic by sidetracking its own forums: Every time " "Facebook’s algorithm injects controversial materials — inflammatory " "political articles, conspiracy theories, outrage stories — into a group, it " "can hijack that group’s nominal purpose with its desultory discussions and " "supercharge those discussions by turning them into bitter, unproductive " "arguments that drag on and on. Facebook is optimized for engagement, not " "happiness, and it turns out that automated systems are pretty good at " "figuring out things that people will get angry about." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1096 msgid "" "Facebook <emphasis>can</emphasis> modify our behavior but only in a couple " "of trivial ways. First, it can lock in all your friends and family members " "so that you check and check and check with Facebook to find out what they " "are up to; and second, it can make you angry and anxious. It can force you " "to choose between being interrupted constantly by updates — a process that " "breaks your concentration and makes it hard to be introspective — and " "staying in touch with your friends. This is a very limited form of mind " "control, and it can only really make us miserable, angry, and anxious." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1107 msgid "" "This is why Facebook’s targeting systems — both the ones it shows to " "advertisers and the ones that let users find people who share their " "interests — are so next-gen and smooth and easy to use as well as why its " "message boards have a toolset that seems like it hasn’t changed since the " "mid-2000s. If Facebook delivered an equally flexible, sophisticated " "message-reading system to its users, those users could defend themselves " "against being nonconsensually eyeball-fucked with Donald Trump headlines." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1117 msgid "" "The more time you spend on Facebook, the more ads it gets to show you. The " "solution to Facebook’s ads only working one in a thousand times is for the " "company to try to increase how much time you spend on Facebook by a factor " "of a thousand. Rather than thinking of Facebook as a company that has " "figured out how to show you exactly the right ad in exactly the right way to " "get you to do what its advertisers want, think of it as a company that has " "figured out how to make you slog through an endless torrent of arguments " "even though they make you miserable, spending so much time on the site that " "it eventually shows you at least one ad that you respond to." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1129 msgid "Monopoly and the right to the future tense" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1131 msgid "" "Zuboff and her cohort are particularly alarmed at the extent to which " "surveillance allows corporations to influence our decisions, taking away " "something she poetically calls <quote>the right to the future tense</quote> " "— that is, the right to decide for yourself what you will do in the future." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1138 msgid "" "It’s true that advertising can tip the scales one way or another: When " "you’re thinking of buying a fridge, a timely fridge ad might end the search " "on the spot. But Zuboff puts enormous and undue weight on the persuasive " "power of surveillance-based influence techniques. Most of these don’t work " "very well, and the ones that do won’t work for very long. The makers of " "these influence tools are confident they will someday refine them into " "systems of total control, but they are hardly unbiased observers, and the " "risks from their dreams coming true are very speculative." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1149 msgid "" "By contrast, Zuboff is rather sanguine about 40 years of lax antitrust " "practice that has allowed a handful of companies to dominate the internet, " "ushering in an information age with, <ulink " "url=\"https://twitter.com/tveastman/status/1069674780826071040\">as one " "person on Twitter noted</ulink>, five giant websites each filled with " "screenshots of the other four." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1157 msgid "" "However, if we are to be alarmed that we might lose the right to choose for " "ourselves what our future will hold, then monopoly’s nonspeculative, " "concrete, here-and-now harms should be front and center in our debate over " "tech policy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1163 msgid "" "Start with <quote>digital rights management.</quote> In 1998, Bill Clinton " "signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) into law. It’s a complex " "piece of legislation with many controversial clauses but none more so than " "Section 1201, the <quote>anti-circumvention</quote> rule." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1169 msgid "" "This is a blanket ban on tampering with systems that restrict access to " "copyrighted works. The ban is so thoroughgoing that it prohibits removing a " "copyright lock even when no copyright infringement takes place. This is by " "design: The activities that the DMCA’s Section 1201 sets out to ban are not " "copyright infringements; rather, they are legal activities that frustrate " "manufacturers’ commercial plans." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1177 msgid "" "For example, Section 1201’s first major application was on DVD players as a " "means of enforcing the region coding built into those devices. DVD-CCA, the " "body that standardized DVDs and DVD players, divided the world into six " "regions and specified that DVD players must check each disc to determine " "which regions it was authorized to be played in. DVD players would have " "their own corresponding region (a DVD player bought in the U.S. would be " "region 1 while one bought in India would be region 5). If the player and the " "disc’s region matched, the player would play the disc; otherwise, it would " "reject it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1189 msgid "" "However, watching a lawfully produced disc in a country other than the one " "where you purchased it is not copyright infringement — it’s the " "opposite. Copyright law imposes this duty on customers for a movie: You must " "go into a store, find a licensed disc, and pay the asking price. Do that — " "and <emphasis>nothing else</emphasis> — and you and copyright are square " "with one another." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1197 msgid "" "The fact that a movie studio wants to charge Indians less than Americans or " "release in Australia later than it releases in the U.K. has no bearing on " "copyright law. Once you lawfully acquire a DVD, it is no copyright " "infringement to watch it no matter where you happen to be." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1204 msgid "" "So DVD and DVD player manufacturers would not be able to use accusations of " "abetting copyright infringement to punish manufacturers who made " "noncompliant players that would play discs from any region or repair shops " "that modified players to let you watch out-of-region discs or software " "programmers who created programs to let you do this." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1212 msgid "" "That’s where Section 1201 of the DMCA comes in: By banning tampering with an " "<quote>access control,</quote> the rule gave manufacturers and rights " "holders standing to sue competitors who released superior products with " "lawful features that the market demanded (in this case, region-free " "players)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1219 msgid "" "This is an odious scam against consumers, but as time went by, Section 1201 " "grew to encompass a rapidly expanding constellation of devices and services " "as canny manufacturers have realized certain things:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><itemizedlist><listitem><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1227 msgid "" "Any device with software in it contains a <quote>copyrighted work</quote> — " "i.e., the software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><itemizedlist><listitem><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1233 msgid "" "A device can be designed so that reconfiguring the software requires " "bypassing an <quote>access control for copyrighted works,</quote> which is a " "potential felony under Section 1201." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><itemizedlist><listitem><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1240 msgid "" "Thus, companies can control their customers’ behavior after they take home " "their purchases by designing products so that all unpermitted uses require " "modifications that fall afoul of Section 1201." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1248 msgid "" "Section 1201 then becomes a means for manufacturers of all descriptions to " "force their customers to arrange their affairs to benefit the manufacturers’ " "shareholders instead of themselves." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1253 msgid "" "This manifests in many ways: from a new generation of inkjet printers that " "use countermeasures to prevent third-party ink that cannot be bypassed " "without legal risks to similar systems in tractors that prevent third-party " "technicians from swapping in the manufacturer’s own parts that are not " "recognized by the tractor’s control system until it is supplied with a " "manufacturer’s unlock code." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1262 msgid "" "Closer to home, Apple’s iPhones use these measures to prevent both " "third-party service and third-party software installation. This allows Apple " "to decide when an iPhone is beyond repair and must be shredded and " "landfilled as opposed to the iPhone’s purchaser. (Apple is notorious for its " "environmentally catastrophic policy of destroying old electronics rather " "than permitting them to be cannibalized for parts.) This is a very useful " "power to wield, especially in light of CEO Tim Cook’s January 2019 warning " "to investors that the company’s profits are endangered by customers choosing " "to hold onto their phones for longer rather than replacing them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1275 msgid "" "Apple’s use of copyright locks also allows it to establish a monopoly over " "how its customers acquire software for their mobile devices. The App Store’s " "commercial terms guarantee Apple a share of all revenues generated by the " "apps sold there, meaning that Apple gets paid when you buy an app from its " "store and then continues to get paid every time you buy something using that " "app. This comes out of the bottom line of software developers, who must " "either charge more or accept lower profits for their products." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1285 msgid "" "Crucially, Apple’s use of copyright locks gives it the power to make " "editorial decisions about which apps you may and may not install on your own " "device. Apple has used this power to <ulink " "url=\"https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/5982243/Apple-bans-dictionary-from-App-Store-over-swear-words.html\">reject " "dictionaries</ulink> for containing obscene words; to <ulink " "url=\"https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/538kan/apple-just-banned-the-app-that-tracks-us-drone-strikes-again\">limit " "political speech</ulink>, especially from apps that make sensitive political " "commentary such as an app that notifies you every time a U.S. drone kills " "someone somewhere in the world; and to <ulink " "url=\"https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-05-19-palestinian-indie-game-must-not-be-called-a-game-apple-says\">object " "to a game</ulink> that commented on the Israel-Palestine conflict." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1298 msgid "" "Apple often justifies monopoly power over software installation in the name " "of security, arguing that its vetting of apps for its store means that it " "can guard its users against apps that contain surveillance code. But this " "cuts both ways. In China, the government <ulink " "url=\"https://www.ft.com/content/ad42e536-cf36-11e7-b781-794ce08b24dc\">ordered " "Apple to prohibit the sale of privacy tools</ulink> like VPNs with the " "exception of VPNs that had deliberately introduced flaws designed to let the " "Chinese state eavesdrop on users. Because Apple uses technological " "countermeasures — with legal backstops — to block customers from installing " "unauthorized apps, Chinese iPhone owners cannot readily (or legally) acquire " "VPNs that would protect them from Chinese state snooping." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1312 msgid "" "Zuboff calls surveillance capitalism a <quote>rogue capitalism.</quote> " "Theoreticians of capitalism claim that its virtue is that it <ulink " "url=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_signal\">aggregates information in " "the form of consumers’ decisions</ulink>, producing efficient " "markets. Surveillance capitalism’s supposed power to rob its victims of " "their free will through computationally supercharged influence campaigns " "means that our markets no longer aggregate customers’ decisions because we " "customers no longer decide — we are given orders by surveillance " "capitalism’s mind-control rays." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1323 msgid "" "If our concern is that markets cease to function when consumers can no " "longer make choices, then copyright locks should concern us at " "<emphasis>least</emphasis> as much as influence campaigns. An influence " "campaign might nudge you to buy a certain brand of phone; but the copyright " "locks on that phone absolutely determine where you get it serviced, which " "apps can run on it, and when you have to throw it away rather than fixing " "it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1332 msgid "Search order and the right to the future tense" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1334 msgid "" "Markets are posed as a kind of magic: By discovering otherwise hidden " "information conveyed by the free choices of consumers, those consumers’ " "local knowledge is integrated into a self-correcting system that makes " "efficient allocations—more efficient than any computer could calculate. But " "monopolies are incompatible with that notion. When you only have one app " "store, the owner of the store — not the consumer — decides on the range of " "choices. As Boss Tweed once said, <quote>I don’t care who does the electing, " "so long as I get to do the nominating.</quote> A monopolized market is an " "election whose candidates are chosen by the monopolist." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1346 msgid "" "This ballot rigging is made more pernicious by the existence of monopolies " "over search order. Google’s search market share is about 90%. When Google’s " "ranking algorithm puts a result for a popular search term in its top 10, " "that helps determine the behavior of millions of people. If Google’s answer " "to <quote>Are vaccines dangerous?</quote> is a page that rebuts anti-vax " "conspiracy theories, then a sizable portion of the public will learn that " "vaccines are safe. If, on the other hand, Google sends those people to a " "site affirming the anti-vax conspiracies, a sizable portion of those " "millions will come away convinced that vaccines are dangerous." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1358 msgid "" "Google’s algorithm is often tricked into serving disinformation as a " "prominent search result. But in these cases, Google isn’t persuading people " "to change their minds; it’s just presenting something untrue as fact when " "the user has no cause to doubt it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1364 msgid "" "This is true whether the search is for <quote>Are vaccines " "dangerous?</quote> or <quote>best restaurants near me.</quote> Most users " "will never look past the first page of search results, and when the " "overwhelming majority of people all use the same search engine, the ranking " "algorithm deployed by that search engine will determine myriad outcomes " "(whether to adopt a child, whether to have cancer surgery, where to eat " "dinner, where to move, where to apply for a job) to a degree that vastly " "outstrips any behavioral outcomes dictated by algorithmic persuasion " "techniques." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1375 msgid "" "Many of the questions we ask search engines have no empirically correct " "answers: <quote>Where should I eat dinner?</quote> is not an objective " "question. Even questions that do have correct answers (<quote>Are vaccines " "dangerous?</quote>) don’t have one empirically superior source for that " "answer. Many pages affirm the safety of vaccines, so which one goes first? " "Under conditions of competition, consumers can choose from many search " "engines and stick with the one whose algorithmic judgment suits them best, " "but under conditions of monopoly, we all get our answers from the same " "place." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1386 msgid "" "Google’s search dominance isn’t a matter of pure merit: The company has " "leveraged many tactics that would have been prohibited under classical, " "pre-Ronald-Reagan antitrust enforcement standards to attain its " "dominance. After all, this is a company that has developed two major " "products: a really good search engine and a pretty good Hotmail clone. Every " "other major success it’s had — Android, YouTube, Google Maps, etc. — has " "come through an acquisition of a nascent competitor. Many of the company’s " "key divisions, such as the advertising technology of DoubleClick, violate " "the historical antitrust principle of structural separation, which forbade " "firms from owning subsidiaries that competed with their " "customers. Railroads, for example, were barred from owning freight companies " "that competed with the shippers whose freight they carried." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1402 msgid "" "If we’re worried about giant companies subverting markets by stripping " "consumers of their ability to make free choices, then vigorous antitrust " "enforcement seems like an excellent remedy. If we’d denied Google the right " "to effect its many mergers, we would also have probably denied it its total " "search dominance. Without that dominance, the pet theories, biases, errors " "(and good judgment, too) of Google search engineers and product managers " "would not have such an outsized effect on consumer choice." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1412 msgid "" "This goes for many other companies. Amazon, a classic surveillance " "capitalist, is obviously the dominant tool for searching Amazon — though " "many people find their way to Amazon through Google searches and Facebook " "posts — and obviously, Amazon controls Amazon search. That means that " "Amazon’s own self-serving editorial choices—like promoting its own house " "brands over rival goods from its sellers as well as its own pet theories, " "biases, and errors— determine much of what we buy on Amazon. And since " "Amazon is the dominant e-commerce retailer outside of China and since it " "attained that dominance by buying up both large rivals and nascent " "competitors in defiance of historical antitrust rules, we can blame the " "monopoly for stripping consumers of their right to the future tense and the " "ability to shape markets by making informed choices." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1427 msgid "" "Not every monopolist is a surveillance capitalist, but that doesn’t mean " "they’re not able to shape consumer choices in wide-ranging ways. Zuboff " "lauds Apple for its App Store and iTunes Store, insisting that adding price " "tags to the features on its platforms has been the secret to resisting " "surveillance and thus creating markets. But Apple is the only retailer " "allowed to sell on its platforms, and it’s the second-largest mobile device " "vendor in the world. The independent software vendors that sell through " "Apple’s marketplace accuse the company of the same surveillance sins as " "Amazon and other big retailers: spying on its customers to find lucrative " "new products to launch, effectively using independent software vendors as " "free-market researchers, then forcing them out of any markets they discover." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1442 msgid "" "Because of its use of copyright locks, Apple’s mobile customers are not " "legally allowed to switch to a rival retailer for its apps if they want to " "do so on an iPhone. Apple, obviously, is the only entity that gets to decide " "how it ranks the results of search queries in its stores. These decisions " "ensure that some apps are often installed (because they appear on page one) " "and others are never installed (because they appear on page one " "million). Apple’s search-ranking design decisions have a vastly more " "significant effect on consumer behaviors than influence campaigns delivered " "by surveillance capitalism’s ad-serving bots." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1454 msgid "Monopolists can afford sleeping pills for watchdogs" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1456 msgid "" "Only the most extreme market ideologues think that markets can self-regulate " "without state oversight. Markets need watchdogs — regulators, lawmakers, and " "other elements of democratic control — to keep them honest. When these " "watchdogs sleep on the job, then markets cease to aggregate consumer choices " "because those choices are constrained by illegitimate and deceptive " "activities that companies are able to get away with because no one is " "holding them to account." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1466 msgid "" "But this kind of regulatory capture doesn’t come cheap. In competitive " "sectors, where rivals are constantly eroding one another’s margins, " "individual firms lack the surplus capital to effectively lobby for laws and " "regulations that serve their ends." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1472 msgid "" "Many of the harms of surveillance capitalism are the result of weak or " "nonexistent regulation. Those regulatory vacuums spring from the power of " "monopolists to resist stronger regulation and to tailor what regulation " "exists to permit their existing businesses." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1478 msgid "" "Here’s an example: When firms over-collect and over-retain our data, they " "are at increased risk of suffering a breach — you can’t leak data you never " "collected, and once you delete all copies of that data, you can no longer " "leak it. For more than a decade, we’ve lived through an endless parade of " "ever-worsening data breaches, each one uniquely horrible in the scale of " "data breached and the sensitivity of that data." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1487 msgid "" "But still, firms continue to over-collect and over-retain our data for three " "reasons:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1491 msgid "" "<emphasis role=\"strong\">1. They are locked in the aforementioned limbic " "arms race with our capacity to shore up our attentional defense systems to " "resist their new persuasion techniques.</emphasis> They’re also locked in an " "arms race with their competitors to find new ways to target people for sales " "pitches. As soon as they discover a soft spot in our attentional defenses (a " "counterintuitive, unobvious way to target potential refrigerator buyers), " "the public begins to wise up to the tactic, and their competitors leap on " "it, hastening the day in which all potential refrigerator buyers have been " "inured to the pitch." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1503 msgid "" "<emphasis role=\"strong\">2. They believe the surveillance capitalism " "story.</emphasis> Data is cheap to aggregate and store, and both proponents " "and opponents of surveillance capitalism have assured managers and product " "designers that if you collect enough data, you will be able to perform " "sorcerous acts of mind control, thus supercharging your sales. Even if you " "never figure out how to profit from the data, someone else will eventually " "offer to buy it from you to give it a try. This is the hallmark of all " "economic bubbles: acquiring an asset on the assumption that someone else " "will buy it from you for more than you paid for it, often to sell to someone " "else at an even greater price." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1516 msgid "" "<emphasis role=\"strong\">3. The penalties for leaking data are " "negligible.</emphasis> Most countries limit these penalties to actual " "damages, meaning that consumers who’ve had their data breached have to show " "actual monetary harms to get a reward. In 2014, Home Depot disclosed that it " "had lost credit-card data for 53 million of its customers, but it settled " "the matter by paying those customers about $0.34 each — and a third of that " "$0.34 wasn’t even paid in cash. It took the form of a credit to procure a " "largely ineffectual credit-monitoring service." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1527 msgid "" "But the harms from breaches are much more extensive than these " "actual-damages rules capture. Identity thieves and fraudsters are wily and " "endlessly inventive. All the vast breaches of our century are being " "continuously recombined, the data sets merged and mined for new ways to " "victimize the people whose data was present in them. Any reasonable, " "evidence-based theory of deterrence and compensation for breaches would not " "confine damages to actual damages but rather would allow users to claim " "these future harms." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1537 msgid "" "However, even the most ambitious privacy rules, such as the EU General Data " "Protection Regulation, fall far short of capturing the negative " "externalities of the platforms’ negligent over-collection and " "over-retention, and what penalties they do provide are not aggressively " "pursued by regulators." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1544 msgid "" "This tolerance of — or indifference to — data over-collection and " "over-retention can be ascribed in part to the sheer lobbying muscle of the " "platforms. They are so profitable that they can handily afford to divert " "gigantic sums to fight any real change — that is, change that would force " "them to internalize the costs of their surveillance activities." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1552 msgid "" "And then there’s state surveillance, which the surveillance capitalism story " "dismisses as a relic of another era when the big worry was being jailed for " "your dissident speech, not having your free will stripped away with machine " "learning." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1558 msgid "" "But state surveillance and private surveillance are intimately related. As " "we saw when Apple was conscripted by the Chinese government as a vital " "collaborator in state surveillance, the only really affordable and tractable " "way to conduct mass surveillance on the scale practiced by modern states — " "both <quote>free</quote> and autocratic states — is to suborn commercial " "services." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1566 msgid "" "Whether it’s Google being used as a location tracking tool by local law " "enforcement across the U.S. or the use of social media tracking by the " "Department of Homeland Security to build dossiers on participants in " "protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s family separation " "practices, any hard limits on surveillance capitalism would hamstring the " "state’s own surveillance capability. Without Palantir, Amazon, Google, and " "other major tech contractors, U.S. cops would not be able to spy on Black " "people, ICE would not be able to manage the caging of children at the U.S. " "border, and state welfare systems would not be able to purge their rolls by " "dressing up cruelty as empiricism and claiming that poor and vulnerable " "people are ineligible for assistance. At least some of the states’ " "unwillingness to take meaningful action to curb surveillance should be " "attributed to this symbiotic relationship. There is no mass state " "surveillance without mass commercial surveillance." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1584 msgid "" "Monopolism is key to the project of mass state surveillance. It’s true that " "smaller tech firms are apt to be less well-defended than Big Tech, whose " "security experts are drawn from the tops of their field and who are given " "enormous resources to secure and monitor their systems against " "intruders. But smaller firms also have less to protect: fewer users whose " "data is more fragmented across more systems and have to be suborned one at a " "time by state actors." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1593 msgid "" "A concentrated tech sector that works with authorities is a much more " "powerful ally in the project of mass state surveillance than a fragmented " "one composed of smaller actors. The U.S. tech sector is small enough that " "all of its top executives fit around a single boardroom table in Trump Tower " "in 2017, shortly after Trump’s inauguration. Most of its biggest players bid " "to win JEDI, the Pentagon’s $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense " "Infrastructure cloud contract. Like other highly concentrated industries, " "Big Tech rotates its key employees in and out of government service, sending " "them to serve in the Department of Defense and the White House, then hiring " "ex-Pentagon and ex-DOD top staffers and officers to work in their own " "government relations departments." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1607 msgid "" "They can even make a good case for doing this: After all, when there are " "only four or five big companies in an industry, everyone qualified to " "regulate those companies has served as an executive in at least a couple of " "them — because, likewise, when there are only five companies in an industry, " "everyone qualified for a senior role at any of them is by definition working " "at one of the other ones." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><blockquote><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1616 msgid "" "While surveillance doesn’t cause monopolies, monopolies certainly abet " "surveillance." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1621 msgid "" "Industries that are competitive are fragmented — composed of companies that " "are at each other’s throats all the time and eroding one another’s margins " "in bids to steal their best customers. This leaves them with much more " "limited capital to use to lobby for favorable rules and a much harder job of " "getting everyone to agree to pool their resources to benefit the industry as " "a whole." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1629 msgid "" "Surveillance combined with machine learning is supposed to be an existential " "crisis, a species-defining moment at which our free will is just a few more " "advances in the field from being stripped away. I am skeptical of this " "claim, but I <emphasis>do</emphasis> think that tech poses an existential " "threat to our society and possibly our species." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1637 msgid "But that threat grows out of monopoly." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1640 msgid "" "One of the consequences of tech’s regulatory capture is that it can shift " "liability for poor security decisions onto its customers and the wider " "society. It is absolutely normal in tech for companies to obfuscate the " "workings of their products, to make them deliberately hard to understand, " "and to threaten security researchers who seek to independently audit those " "products." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1648 msgid "" "IT is the only field in which this is practiced: No one builds a bridge or a " "hospital and keeps the composition of the steel or the equations used to " "calculate load stresses a secret. It is a frankly bizarre practice that " "leads, time and again, to grotesque security defects on farcical scales, " "with whole classes of devices being revealed as vulnerable long after they " "are deployed in the field and put into sensitive places." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1657 msgid "" "The monopoly power that keeps any meaningful consequences for breaches at " "bay means that tech companies continue to build terrible products that are " "insecure by design and that end up integrated into our lives, in possession " "of our data, and connected to our physical world. For years, Boeing has " "struggled with the aftermath of a series of bad technology decisions that " "made its 737 fleet a global pariah, a rare instance in which bad tech " "decisions have been seriously punished in the market." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1667 msgid "" "These bad security decisions are compounded yet again by the use of " "copyright locks to enforce business-model decisions against " "consumers. Recall that these locks have become the go-to means for shaping " "consumer behavior, making it technically impossible to use third-party ink, " "insulin, apps, or service depots in connection with your lawfully acquired " "property." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1675 msgid "" "Recall also that these copyright locks are backstopped by legislation (such " "as Section 1201 of the DMCA or Article 6 of the 2001 EU Copyright Directive) " "that ban tampering with (<quote>circumventing</quote>) them, and these " "statutes have been used to threaten security researchers who make " "disclosures about vulnerabilities without permission from manufacturers." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1683 msgid "" "This amounts to a manufacturer’s veto over safety warnings and " "criticism. While this is far from the legislative intent of the DMCA and its " "sister statutes around the world, Congress has not intervened to clarify the " "statute nor will it because to do so would run counter to the interests of " "powerful, large firms whose lobbying muscle is unstoppable." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1691 msgid "" "Copyright locks are a double whammy: They create bad security decisions that " "can’t be freely investigated or discussed. If markets are supposed to be " "machines for aggregating information (and if surveillance capitalism’s " "notional mind-control rays are what make it a <quote>rogue " "capitalism</quote> because it denies consumers the power to make decisions), " "then a program of legally enforced ignorance of the risks of products makes " "monopolism even more of a <quote>rogue capitalism</quote> than surveillance " "capitalism’s influence campaigns." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1701 msgid "" "And unlike mind-control rays, enforced silence over security is an " "immediate, documented problem, and it <emphasis>does</emphasis> constitute " "an existential threat to our civilization and possibly our species. The " "proliferation of insecure devices — especially devices that spy on us and " "especially when those devices also can manipulate the physical world by, " "say, steering your car or flipping a breaker at a power station — is a kind " "of technology debt." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1710 msgid "" "In software design, <quote>technology debt</quote> refers to old, baked-in " "decisions that turn out to be bad ones in hindsight. Perhaps a long-ago " "developer decided to incorporate a networking protocol made by a vendor that " "has since stopped supporting it. But everything in the product still relies " "on that superannuated protocol, and so, with each revision, the product team " "has to work around this obsolete core, adding compatibility layers, " "surrounding it with security checks that try to shore up its defenses, and " "so on. These Band-Aid measures compound the debt because every subsequent " "revision has to make allowances for <emphasis>them</emphasis>, too, like " "interest mounting on a predatory subprime loan. And like a subprime loan, " "the interest mounts faster than you can hope to pay it off: The product team " "has to put so much energy into maintaining this complex, brittle system that " "they don’t have any time left over to refactor the product from the ground " "up and <quote>pay off the debt</quote> once and for all." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1728 msgid "" "Typically, technology debt results in a technological bankruptcy: The " "product gets so brittle and unsustainable that it fails " "catastrophically. Think of the antiquated COBOL-based banking and accounting " "systems that fell over at the start of the pandemic emergency when " "confronted with surges of unemployment claims. Sometimes that ends the " "product; sometimes it takes the company down with it. Being caught in the " "default of a technology debt is scary and traumatic, just like losing your " "house due to bankruptcy is scary and traumatic." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1739 msgid "" "But the technology debt created by copyright locks isn’t individual debt; " "it’s systemic. Everyone in the world is exposed to this over-leverage, as " "was the case with the 2008 financial crisis. When that debt comes due — when " "we face a cascade of security breaches that threaten global shipping and " "logistics, the food supply, pharmaceutical production pipelines, emergency " "communications, and other critical systems that are accumulating technology " "debt in part due to the presence of deliberately insecure and deliberately " "unauditable copyright locks — it will indeed pose an existential risk." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1751 msgid "Privacy and monopoly" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1753 msgid "" "Many tech companies are gripped by an orthodoxy that holds that if they just " "gather enough data on enough of our activities, everything else is possible " "— the mind control and endless profits. This is an unfalsifiable hypothesis: " "If data gives a tech company even a tiny improvement in behavior prediction " "and modification, the company declares that it has taken the first step " "toward global domination with no end in sight. If a company " "<emphasis>fails</emphasis> to attain any improvements from gathering and " "analyzing data, it declares success to be just around the corner, attainable " "once more data is in hand." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1765 msgid "" "Surveillance tech is far from the first industry to embrace a nonsensical, " "self-serving belief that harms the rest of the world, and it is not the " "first industry to profit handsomely from such a delusion. Long before " "hedge-fund managers were claiming (falsely) that they could beat the " "S&P 500, there were plenty of other <quote>respectable</quote> " "industries that have been revealed as quacks in hindsight. From the makers " "of radium suppositories (a real thing!) to the cruel sociopaths who claimed " "they could <quote>cure</quote> gay people, history is littered with the " "formerly respectable titans of discredited industries." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1777 msgid "" "This is not to say that there’s nothing wrong with Big Tech and its " "ideological addiction to data. While surveillance’s benefits are mostly " "overstated, its harms are, if anything, <emphasis>understated</emphasis>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1783 msgid "" "There’s real irony here. The belief in surveillance capitalism as a " "<quote>rogue capitalism</quote> is driven by the belief that markets " "wouldn’t tolerate firms that are gripped by false beliefs. An oil company " "that has false beliefs about where the oil is will eventually go broke " "digging dry wells after all." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1790 msgid "" "But monopolists get to do terrible things for a long time before they pay " "the price. Think of how concentration in the finance sector allowed the " "subprime crisis to fester as bond-rating agencies, regulators, investors, " "and critics all fell under the sway of a false belief that complex " "mathematics could construct <quote>fully hedged</quote> debt instruments " "that could not possibly default. A small bank that engaged in this kind of " "malfeasance would simply go broke rather than outrunning the inevitable " "crisis, perhaps growing so big that it averted it altogether. But large " "banks were able to continue to attract investors, and when they finally " "<emphasis>did</emphasis> come a-cropper, the world’s governments bailed them " "out. The worst offenders of the subprime crisis are bigger than they were in " "2008, bringing home more profits and paying their execs even larger sums." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1805 msgid "" "Big Tech is able to practice surveillance not just because it is tech but " "because it is <emphasis>big</emphasis>. The reason every web publisher " "embeds a Facebook <quote>Like</quote> button is that Facebook dominates the " "internet’s social media referrals — and every one of those " "<quote>Like</quote> buttons spies on everyone who lands on a page that " "contains them (see also: Google Analytics embeds, Twitter buttons, etc.)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1814 msgid "" "The reason the world’s governments have been slow to create meaningful " "penalties for privacy breaches is that Big Tech’s concentration produces " "huge profits that can be used to lobby against those penalties — and Big " "Tech’s concentration means that the companies involved are able to arrive at " "a unified negotiating position that supercharges the lobbying." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1822 msgid "" "The reason that the smartest engineers in the world want to work for Big " "Tech is that Big Tech commands the lion’s share of tech industry jobs." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1827 msgid "" "The reason people who are aghast at Facebook’s and Google’s and Amazon’s " "data-handling practices continue to use these services is that all their " "friends are on Facebook; Google dominates search; and Amazon has put all the " "local merchants out of business." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1833 msgid "" "Competitive markets would weaken the companies’ lobbying muscle by reducing " "their profits and pitting them against each other in regulatory forums. It " "would give customers other places to go to get their online services. It " "would make the companies small enough to regulate and pave the way to " "meaningful penalties for breaches. It would let engineers with ideas that " "challenged the surveillance orthodoxy raise capital to compete with the " "incumbents. It would give web publishers multiple ways to reach audiences " "and make the case against Facebook and Google and Twitter embeds." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1844 msgid "" "In other words, while surveillance doesn’t cause monopolies, monopolies " "certainly abet surveillance." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1848 msgid "Ronald Reagan, pioneer of tech monopolism" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1850 msgid "" "Technology exceptionalism is a sin, whether it’s practiced by technology’s " "blind proponents or by its critics. Both of these camps are prone to " "explaining away monopolistic concentration by citing some special " "characteristic of the tech industry, like network effects or first-mover " "advantage. The only real difference between these two groups is that the " "tech apologists say monopoly is inevitable so we should just let tech get " "away with its abuses while competition regulators in the U.S. and the EU say " "monopoly is inevitable so we should punish tech for its abuses but not try " "to break up the monopolies." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1862 msgid "" "To understand how tech became so monopolistic, it’s useful to look at the " "dawn of the consumer tech industry: 1979, the year the Apple II Plus " "launched and became the first successful home computer. That also happens to " "be the year that Ronald Reagan hit the campaign trail for the 1980 " "presidential race — a race he won, leading to a radical shift in the way " "that antitrust concerns are handled in America. Reagan’s cohort of " "politicians — including Margaret Thatcher in the U.K., Brian Mulroney in " "Canada, Helmut Kohl in Germany, and Augusto Pinochet in Chile — went on to " "enact similar reforms that eventually spread around the world." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1874 msgid "" "Antitrust’s story began nearly a century before all that with laws like the " "Sherman Act, which took aim at monopolists on the grounds that monopolies " "were bad in and of themselves — squeezing out competitors, creating " "<quote>diseconomies of scale</quote> (when a company is so big that its " "constituent parts go awry and it is seemingly helpless to address the " "problems), and capturing their regulators to such a degree that they can get " "away with a host of evils." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1883 msgid "" "Then came a fabulist named Robert Bork, a former solicitor general who " "Reagan appointed to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit " "and who had created an alternate legislative history of the Sherman Act and " "its successors out of whole cloth. Bork insisted that these statutes were " "never targeted at monopolies (despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary, " "including the transcribed speeches of the acts’ authors) but, rather, that " "they were intended to prevent <quote>consumer harm</quote> — in the form of " "higher prices." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1893 msgid "" "Bork was a crank, but he was a crank with a theory that rich people really " "liked. Monopolies are a great way to make rich people richer by allowing " "them to receive <quote>monopoly rents</quote> (that is, bigger profits) and " "capture regulators, leading to a weaker, more favorable regulatory " "environment with fewer protections for customers, suppliers, the " "environment, and workers." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1901 msgid "" "Bork’s theories were especially palatable to the same power brokers who " "backed Reagan, and Reagan’s Department of Justice and other agencies began " "to incorporate Bork’s antitrust doctrine into their enforcement decisions " "(Reagan even put Bork up for a Supreme Court seat, but Bork flunked the " "Senate confirmation hearing so badly that, 40 years later, D.C. insiders use " "the term <quote>borked</quote> to refer to any catastrophically bad " "political performance)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1910 msgid "" "Little by little, Bork’s theories entered the mainstream, and their backers " "began to infiltrate the legal education field, even putting on junkets where " "members of the judiciary were treated to lavish meals, fun outdoor " "activities, and seminars where they were indoctrinated into the consumer " "harm theory of antitrust. The more Bork’s theories took hold, the more money " "the monopolists were making — and the more surplus capital they had at their " "disposal to lobby for even more Borkian antitrust influence campaigns." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1920 msgid "" "The history of Bork’s antitrust theories is a really good example of the " "kind of covertly engineered shifts in public opinion that Zuboff warns us " "against, where fringe ideas become mainstream orthodoxy. But Bork didn’t " "change the world overnight. He played a very long game, for over a " "generation, and he had a tailwind because the same forces that backed " "oligarchic antitrust theories also backed many other oligarchic shifts in " "public opinion. For example, the idea that taxation is theft, that wealth is " "a sign of virtue, and so on — all of these theories meshed to form a " "coherent ideology that elevated inequality to a virtue." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1932 msgid "" "Today, many fear that machine learning allows surveillance capitalism to " "sell <quote>Bork-as-a-Service,</quote> at internet speeds, so that you can " "contract a machine-learning company to engineer <emphasis>rapid</emphasis> " "shifts in public sentiment without needing the capital to sustain a " "multipronged, multigenerational project working at the local, state, " "national, and global levels in business, law, and philosophy. I do not " "believe that such a project is plausible, though I agree that this is " "basically what the platforms claim to be selling. They’re just lying about " "it. Big Tech lies all the time, <emphasis>including</emphasis> in their " "sales literature." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1945 msgid "" "The idea that tech forms <quote>natural monopolies</quote> (monopolies that " "are the inevitable result of the realities of an industry, such as the " "monopolies that accrue the first company to run long-haul phone lines or " "rail lines) is belied by tech’s own history: In the absence of " "anti-competitive tactics, Google was able to unseat AltaVista and Yahoo; " "Facebook was able to head off Myspace. There are some advantages to " "gathering mountains of data, but those mountains of data also have " "disadvantages: liability (from leaking), diminishing returns (from old " "data), and institutional inertia (big companies, like science, progress one " "funeral at a time)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1957 msgid "" "Indeed, the birth of the web saw a mass-extinction event for the existing " "giant, wildly profitable proprietary technologies that had capital, network " "effects, and walls and moats surrounding their businesses. The web showed " "that when a new industry is built around a protocol, rather than a product, " "the combined might of everyone who uses the protocol to reach their " "customers or users or communities outweighs even the most massive " "products. CompuServe, AOL, MSN, and a host of other proprietary walled " "gardens learned this lesson the hard way: Each believed it could stay " "separate from the web, offering <quote>curation</quote> and a guarantee of " "consistency and quality instead of the chaos of an open system. Each was " "wrong and ended up being absorbed into the public web." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1971 msgid "" "Yes, tech is heavily monopolized and is now closely associated with industry " "concentration, but this has more to do with a matter of timing than its " "intrinsically monopolistic tendencies. Tech was born at the moment that " "antitrust enforcement was being dismantled, and tech fell into exactly the " "same pathologies that antitrust was supposed to guard against. To a first " "approximation, it is reasonable to assume that tech’s monopolies are the " "result of a lack of anti-monopoly action and not the much-touted unique " "characteristics of tech, such as network effects, first-mover advantage, and " "so on." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1983 msgid "" "In support of this thesis, I offer the concentration that every " "<emphasis>other</emphasis> industry has undergone over the same period. From " "professional wrestling to consumer packaged goods to commercial property " "leasing to banking to sea freight to oil to record labels to newspaper " "ownership to theme parks, <emphasis>every</emphasis> industry has undergone " "a massive shift toward concentration. There’s no obvious network effects or " "first-mover advantage at play in these industries. However, in every case, " "these industries attained their concentrated status through tactics that " "were prohibited before Bork’s triumph: merging with major competitors, " "buying out innovative new market entrants, horizontal and vertical " "integration, and a suite of anti-competitive tactics that were once illegal " "but are not any longer." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:1998 msgid "" "Again: When you change the laws intended to prevent monopolies and then " "monopolies form in exactly the way the law was supposed to prevent, it is " "reasonable to suppose that these facts are related. Tech’s concentration " "can be readily explained without recourse to radical theories of network " "effects — but only if you’re willing to indict unregulated markets as " "tending toward monopoly. Just as a lifelong smoker can give you a hundred " "reasons why their smoking didn’t cause their cancer (<quote>It was the " "environmental toxins</quote>), true believers in unregulated markets have a " "whole suite of unconvincing explanations for monopoly in tech that leave " "capitalism intact." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2010 msgid "Steering with the windshield wipers" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2012 msgid "" "It’s been 40 years since Bork’s project to rehabilitate monopolies achieved " "liftoff, and that is a generation and a half, which is plenty of time to " "take a common idea and make it seem outlandish and vice versa. Before the " "1940s, affluent Americans dressed their baby boys in pink while baby girls " "wore blue (a <quote>delicate and dainty</quote> color). While gendered " "colors are obviously totally arbitrary, many still greet this news with " "amazement and find it hard to imagine a time when pink connoted masculinity." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2022 msgid "" "After 40 years of studiously ignoring antitrust analysis and enforcement, " "it’s not surprising that we’ve all but forgotten that antitrust exists, that " "in living memory, growth through mergers and acquisitions were largely " "prohibited under law, that market-cornering strategies like vertical " "integration could land a company in court." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2030 msgid "" "Antitrust is a market society’s steering wheel, the control of first resort " "to keep would-be masters of the universe in their lanes. But Bork and his " "cohort ripped out our steering wheel 40 years ago. The car is still " "barreling along, and so we’re yanking as hard as we can on all the " "<emphasis>other</emphasis> controls in the car as well as desperately " "flapping the doors and rolling the windows up and down in the hopes that one " "of these other controls can be repurposed to let us choose where we’re " "heading before we careen off a cliff." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2040 msgid "" "It’s like a 1960s science-fiction plot come to life: People stuck in a " "<quote>generation ship,</quote> plying its way across the stars, a ship once " "piloted by their ancestors; and now, after a great cataclysm, the ship’s " "crew have forgotten that they’re in a ship at all and no longer remember " "where the control room is. Adrift, the ship is racing toward its extinction, " "and unless we can seize the controls and execute emergency course " "correction, we’re all headed for a fiery death in the heart of a sun." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2050 msgid "Surveillance still matters" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2052 msgid "" "None of this is to minimize the problems with surveillance. Surveillance " "matters, and Big Tech’s use of surveillance <emphasis>is</emphasis> an " "existential risk to our species, but that’s not because surveillance and " "machine learning rob us of our free will." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2059 msgid "" "Surveillance has become <emphasis>much</emphasis> more efficient thanks to " "Big Tech. In 1989, the Stasi — the East German secret police — had the whole " "country under surveillance, a massive undertaking that recruited one out of " "every 60 people to serve as an informant or intelligence operative." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2066 msgid "" "Today, we know that the NSA is spying on a significant fraction of the " "entire world’s population, and its ratio of surveillance operatives to the " "surveilled is more like 1:10,000 (that’s probably on the low side since it " "assumes that every American with top-secret clearance is working for the NSA " "on this project — we don’t know how many of those cleared people are " "involved in NSA spying, but it’s definitely not all of them)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2075 msgid "" "How did the ratio of surveillable citizens expand from 1:60 to 1:10,000 in " "less than 30 years? It’s thanks to Big Tech. Our devices and services gather " "most of the data that the NSA mines for its surveillance project. We pay for " "these devices and the services they connect to, and then we painstakingly " "perform the data-entry tasks associated with logging facts about our lives, " "opinions, and preferences. This mass surveillance project has been largely " "useless for fighting terrorism: The NSA can <ulink " "url=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-cites-case-as-success-of-phone-data-collection-program/2013/08/08/fc915e5a-feda-11e2-96a8-d3b921c0924a_story.html\">only " "point to a single minor success story</ulink> in which it used its data " "collection program to foil an attempt by a U.S. resident to wire a few " "thousand dollars to an overseas terror group. It’s ineffective for much the " "same reason that commercial surveillance projects are largely ineffective at " "targeting advertising: The people who want to commit acts of terror, like " "people who want to buy a refrigerator, are extremely rare. If you’re trying " "to detect a phenomenon whose base rate is one in a million with an " "instrument whose accuracy is only 99%, then every true positive will come at " "the cost of 9,999 false positives." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2096 msgid "" "Let me explain that again: If one in a million people is a terrorist, then " "there will only be about one terrorist in a random sample of one million " "people. If your test for detecting terrorists is 99% accurate, it will " "identify 10,000 terrorists in your million-person sample (1% of one million " "is 10,000). For every true positive, you’ll get 9,999 false positives." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2104 msgid "" "In reality, the accuracy of algorithmic terrorism detection falls far short " "of the 99% mark, as does refrigerator ad targeting. The difference is that " "being falsely accused of wanting to buy a fridge is a minor nuisance while " "being falsely accused of planning a terror attack can destroy your life and " "the lives of everyone you love." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2111 msgid "" "Mass state surveillance is only feasible because of surveillance capitalism " "and its extremely low-yield ad-targeting systems, which require a constant " "feed of personal data to remain barely viable. Surveillance capitalism’s " "primary failure mode is mistargeted ads while mass state surveillance’s " "primary failure mode is grotesque human rights abuses, tending toward " "totalitarianism." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2119 msgid "" "State surveillance is no mere parasite on Big Tech, sucking up its data and " "giving nothing in return. In truth, the two are symbiotes: Big Tech sucks up " "our data for spy agencies, and spy agencies ensure that governments don’t " "limit Big Tech’s activities so severely that it would no longer serve the " "spy agencies’ needs. There is no firm distinction between state surveillance " "and surveillance capitalism; they are dependent on one another." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2128 msgid "" "To see this at work today, look no further than Amazon’s home surveillance " "device, the Ring doorbell, and its associated app, Neighbors. Ring — a " "product that Amazon acquired and did not develop in house — makes a " "camera-enabled doorbell that streams footage from your front door to your " "mobile device. The Neighbors app allows you to form a neighborhood-wide " "surveillance grid with your fellow Ring owners through which you can share " "clips of <quote>suspicious characters.</quote> If you’re thinking that this " "sounds like a recipe for letting curtain-twitching racists supercharge their " "suspicions of people with brown skin who walk down their blocks, <ulink " "url=\"https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/amazons-ring-enables-over-policing-efforts-some-americas-deadliest-law-enforcement\">you’re " "right</ulink>. Ring has become a <emphasis>de facto,</emphasis> " "off-the-books arm of the police without any of the pesky oversight or rules." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2144 msgid "" "In mid-2019, a series of public records requests revealed that Amazon had " "struck confidential deals with more than 400 local law enforcement agencies " "through which the agencies would promote Ring and Neighbors and in exchange " "get access to footage from Ring cameras. In theory, cops would need to " "request this footage through Amazon (and internal documents reveal that " "Amazon devotes substantial resources to coaching cops on how to spin a " "convincing story when doing so), but in practice, when a Ring customer turns " "down a police request, Amazon only requires the agency to formally request " "the footage from the company, which it will then produce." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2156 msgid "" "Ring and law enforcement have found many ways to intertwine their " "activities. Ring strikes secret deals to acquire real-time access to 911 " "dispatch and then streams alarming crime reports to Neighbors users, which " "serve as convincers for anyone who’s contemplating a surveillance doorbell " "but isn’t sure whether their neighborhood is dangerous enough to warrant it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2164 msgid "" "The more the cops buzz-market the surveillance capitalist Ring, the more " "surveillance capability the state gets. Cops who rely on private entities " "for law-enforcement roles then brief against any controls on the deployment " "of that technology while the companies return the favor by lobbying against " "rules requiring public oversight of police surveillance technology. The more " "the cops rely on Ring and Neighbors, the harder it will be to pass laws to " "curb them. The fewer laws there are against them, the more the cops will " "rely on them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2175 msgid "Dignity and sanctuary" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2177 msgid "" "But even if we could exercise democratic control over our states and force " "them to stop raiding surveillance capitalism’s reservoirs of behavioral " "data, surveillance capitalism would still harm us." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2182 msgid "" "This is an area where Zuboff shines. Her chapter on <quote>sanctuary</quote> " "— the feeling of being unobserved — is a beautiful hymn to introspection, " "calmness, mindfulness, and tranquility." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2187 msgid "" "When you are watched, something changes. Anyone who has ever raised a child " "knows this. You might look up from your book (or more realistically, from " "your phone) and catch your child in a moment of profound realization and " "growth, a moment where they are learning something that is right at the edge " "of their abilities, requiring their entire ferocious concentration. For a " "moment, you’re transfixed, watching that rare and beautiful moment of focus " "playing out before your eyes, and then your child looks up and sees you " "seeing them, and the moment collapses. To grow, you need to be and expose " "your authentic self, and in that moment, you are vulnerable like a hermit " "crab scuttling from one shell to the next. The tender, unprotected tissues " "you expose in that moment are too delicate to reveal in the presence of " "another, even someone you trust as implicitly as a child trusts their " "parent." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2203 msgid "" "In the digital age, our authentic selves are inextricably tied to our " "digital lives. Your search history is a running ledger of the questions " "you’ve pondered. Your location history is a record of the places you’ve " "sought out and the experiences you’ve had there. Your social graph reveals " "the different facets of your identity, the people you’ve connected with." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2211 msgid "" "To be observed in these activities is to lose the sanctuary of your " "authentic self." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2215 msgid "" "There’s another way in which surveillance capitalism robs us of our capacity " "to be our authentic selves: by making us anxious. Surveillance capitalism " "isn’t really a mind-control ray, but you don’t need a mind-control ray to " "make someone anxious. After all, another word for anxiety is agitation, and " "to make someone experience agitation, you need merely to agitate them. To " "poke them and prod them and beep at them and buzz at them and bombard them " "on an intermittent schedule that is just random enough that our limbic " "systems never quite become inured to it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2226 msgid "" "Our devices and services are <quote>general purpose</quote> in that they can " "connect anything or anyone to anything or anyone else and that they can run " "any program that can be written. This means that the distraction rectangles " "in our pockets hold our most precious moments with our most beloved people " "and their most urgent or time-sensitive communications (from <quote>running " "late can you get the kid?</quote> to <quote>doctor gave me bad news and I " "need to talk to you RIGHT NOW</quote>) as well as ads for refrigerators and " "recruiting messages from Nazis." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2236 msgid "" "All day and all night, our pockets buzz, shattering our concentration and " "tearing apart the fragile webs of connection we spin as we think through " "difficult ideas. If you locked someone in a cell and agitated them like " "this, we’d call it <quote>sleep deprivation torture,</quote> and it would be " "<ulink url=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SKpRbvnx6g\">a war crime under " "the Geneva Conventions</ulink>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2245 msgid "Afflicting the afflicted" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2247 msgid "" "The effects of surveillance on our ability to be our authentic selves are " "not equal for all people. Some of us are lucky enough to live in a time and " "place in which all the most important facts of our lives are widely and " "roundly socially acceptable and can be publicly displayed without the risk " "of social consequence." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2254 msgid "" "But for many of us, this is not true. Recall that in living memory, many of " "the ways of being that we think of as socially acceptable today were once " "cause for dire social sanction or even imprisonment. If you are 65 years " "old, you have lived through a time in which people living in <quote>free " "societies</quote> could be imprisoned or sanctioned for engaging in " "homosexual activity, for falling in love with a person whose skin was a " "different color than their own, or for smoking weed." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2264 msgid "" "Today, these activities aren’t just decriminalized in much of the world, " "they’re considered normal, and the fallen prohibitions are viewed as " "shameful, regrettable relics of the past." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2269 msgid "" "How did we get from prohibition to normalization? Through private, personal " "activity: People who were secretly gay or secret pot-smokers or who secretly " "loved someone with a different skin color were vulnerable to retaliation if " "they made their true selves known and were limited in how much they could " "advocate for their own right to exist in the world and be true to " "themselves. But because there was a private sphere, these people could form " "alliances with their friends and loved ones who did not share their " "disfavored traits by having private conversations in which they came out, " "disclosing their true selves to the people around them and bringing them to " "their cause one conversation at a time." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2282 msgid "" "The right to choose the time and manner of these conversations was key to " "their success. It’s one thing to come out to your dad while you’re on a " "fishing trip away from the world and another thing entirely to blurt it out " "over the Christmas dinner table while your racist Facebook uncle is there to " "make a scene." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2289 msgid "" "Without a private sphere, there’s a chance that none of these changes would " "have come to pass and that the people who benefited from these changes would " "have either faced social sanction for coming out to a hostile world or would " "have never been able to reveal their true selves to the people they love." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2296 msgid "" "The corollary is that, unless you think that our society has attained social " "perfection — that your grandchildren in 50 years will ask you to tell them " "the story of how, in 2020, every injustice had been righted and no further " "change had to be made — then you should expect that right now, at this " "minute, there are people you love, whose happiness is key to your own, who " "have a secret in their hearts that stops them from ever being their " "authentic selves with you. These people are sorrowing and will go to their " "graves with that secret sorrow in their hearts, and the source of that " "sorrow will be the falsity of their relationship to you." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2308 msgid "A private realm is necessary for human progress." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2311 msgid "Any data you collect and retain will eventually leak" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2313 msgid "" "The lack of a private life can rob vulnerable people of the chance to be " "their authentic selves and constrain our actions by depriving us of " "sanctuary, but there is another risk that is borne by everyone, not just " "people with a secret: crime." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2319 msgid "" "Personally identifying information is of very limited use for the purpose of " "controlling peoples’ minds, but identity theft — really a catchall term for " "a whole constellation of terrible criminal activities that can destroy your " "finances, compromise your personal integrity, ruin your reputation, or even " "expose you to physical danger — thrives on it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2327 msgid "" "Attackers are not limited to using data from one breached source, " "either. Multiple services have suffered breaches that exposed names, " "addresses, phone numbers, passwords, sexual tastes, school grades, work " "performance, brushes with the criminal justice system, family details, " "genetic information, fingerprints and other biometrics, reading habits, " "search histories, literary tastes, pseudonymous identities, and other " "sensitive information. Attackers can merge data from these different " "breaches to build up extremely detailed dossiers on random subjects and then " "use different parts of the data for different criminal purposes." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2339 msgid "" "For example, attackers can use leaked username and password combinations to " "hijack whole fleets of commercial vehicles that <ulink " "url=\"https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmpx4x/hacker-monitor-cars-kill-engine-gps-tracking-apps\">have " "been fitted with anti-theft GPS trackers and immobilizers</ulink> or to " "hijack baby monitors in order to <ulink " "url=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/23/how-nest-designed-keep-intruders-out-peoples-homes-effectively-allowed-hackers-get/?utm_term=.15220e98c550\">terrorize " "toddlers with the audio tracks from pornography</ulink>. Attackers use " "leaked data to trick phone companies into giving them your phone number, " "then they intercept SMS-based two-factor authentication codes in order to " "take over your email, bank account, and/or cryptocurrency wallets." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2352 msgid "" "Attackers are endlessly inventive in the pursuit of creative ways to " "weaponize leaked data. One common use of leaked data is to penetrate " "companies in order to access <emphasis>more</emphasis> data." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2357 msgid "" "Like spies, online fraudsters are totally dependent on companies " "over-collecting and over-retaining our data. Spy agencies sometimes pay " "companies for access to their data or intimidate them into giving it up, but " "sometimes they work just like criminals do — by <ulink " "url=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-24751821\">sneaking data out " "of companies’ databases</ulink>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2365 msgid "" "The over-collection of data has a host of terrible social consequences, from " "the erosion of our authentic selves to the undermining of social progress, " "from state surveillance to an epidemic of online crime. Commercial " "surveillance is also a boon to people running influence campaigns, but " "that’s the least of our troubles." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2373 msgid "Critical tech exceptionalism is still tech exceptionalism" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2376 msgid "" "Big Tech has long practiced technology exceptionalism: the idea that it " "should not be subject to the mundane laws and norms of " "<quote>meatspace.</quote> Mottoes like Facebook’s <quote>move fast and break " "things</quote> attracted justifiable scorn of the companies’ self-serving " "rhetoric." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2382 msgid "" "Tech exceptionalism got us all into a lot of trouble, so it’s ironic and " "distressing to see Big Tech’s critics committing the same sin." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2386 msgid "" "Big Tech is not a <quote>rogue capitalism</quote> that cannot be cured " "through the traditional anti-monopoly remedies of trustbusting (forcing " "companies to divest of competitors they have acquired) and bans on mergers " "to monopoly and other anti-competitive tactics. Big Tech does not have the " "power to use machine learning to influence our behavior so thoroughly that " "markets lose the ability to punish bad actors and reward superior " "competitors. Big Tech has no rule-writing mind-control ray that necessitates " "ditching our old toolbox." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2396 msgid "" "The thing is, people have been claiming to have perfected mind-control rays " "for centuries, and every time, it turned out to be a con — though sometimes " "the con artists were also conning themselves." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2402 msgid "" "For generations, the advertising industry has been steadily improving its " "ability to sell advertising services to businesses while only making " "marginal gains in selling those businesses’ products to prospective " "customers. John Wanamaker’s lament that <quote>50% of my advertising budget " "is wasted, I just don’t know which 50%</quote> is a testament to the triumph " "of <emphasis>ad executives</emphasis>, who successfully convinced Wanamaker " "that only half of the money he spent went to waste." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2412 msgid "" "The tech industry has made enormous improvements in the science of " "convincing businesses that they’re good at advertising while their actual " "improvements to advertising — as opposed to targeting — have been pretty " "ho-hum. The vogue for machine learning — and the mystical invocation of " "<quote>artificial intelligence</quote> as a synonym for straightforward " "statistical inference techniques — has greatly boosted the efficacy of Big " "Tech’s sales pitch as marketers have exploited potential customers’ lack of " "technical sophistication to get away with breathtaking acts of overpromising " "and underdelivering." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2424 msgid "" "It’s tempting to think that if businesses are willing to pour billions into " "a venture that the venture must be a good one. Yet there are plenty of times " "when this rule of thumb has led us astray. For example, it’s virtually " "unheard of for managed investment funds to outperform simple index funds, " "and investors who put their money into the hands of expert money managers " "overwhelmingly fare worse than those who entrust their savings to index " "funds. But managed funds still account for the majority of the money " "invested in the markets, and they are patronized by some of the richest, " "most sophisticated investors in the world. Their vote of confidence in an " "underperforming sector is a parable about the role of luck in wealth " "accumulation, not a sign that managed funds are a good buy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2438 msgid "" "The claims of Big Tech’s mind-control system are full of tells that the " "enterprise is a con. For example, <ulink " "url=\"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01415/full\">the " "reliance on the <quote>Big Five</quote> personality traits</ulink> as a " "primary means of influencing people even though the <quote>Big Five</quote> " "theory is unsupported by any large-scale, peer-reviewed studies and is " "<ulink " "url=\"https://www.wired.com/story/the-noisy-fallacies-of-psychographic-targeting/\">mostly " "the realm of marketing hucksters and pop psych</ulink>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2448 msgid "" "Big Tech’s promotional materials also claim that their algorithms can " "accurately perform <quote>sentiment analysis</quote> or detect peoples’ " "moods based on their <quote>microexpressions,</quote> but <ulink " "url=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/09/12/647040758/advertising-on-facebook-is-it-worth-it\">these " "are marketing claims, not scientific ones</ulink>. These methods are largely " "untested by independent scientific experts, and where they have been tested, " "they’ve been found sorely wanting. Microexpressions are particularly " "suspect as the companies that specialize in training people to detect them " "<ulink " "url=\"https://theintercept.com/2017/02/08/tsas-own-files-show-doubtful-science-behind-its-behavior-screening-program/\">have " "been shown</ulink> to underperform relative to random chance." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2461 msgid "" "Big Tech has been so good at marketing its own supposed superpowers that " "it’s easy to believe that they can market everything else with similar " "acumen, but it’s a mistake to believe the hype. Any statement a company " "makes about the quality of its products is clearly not impartial. The fact " "that we distrust all the things that Big Tech says about its data handling, " "compliance with privacy laws, etc., is only reasonable — but why on Earth " "would we treat Big Tech’s marketing literature as the gospel truth? Big Tech " "lies about just about <emphasis>everything</emphasis>, including how well " "its machine-learning fueled persuasion systems work." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2473 msgid "" "That skepticism should infuse all of our evaluations of Big Tech and its " "supposed abilities, including our perusal of its patents. Zuboff vests these " "patents with enormous significance, pointing out that Google claimed " "extensive new persuasion capabilities in <ulink " "url=\"https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050131762A1/en\">its patent " "filings</ulink>. These claims are doubly suspect: first, because they are so " "self-serving, and second, because the patent itself is so notoriously an " "invitation to exaggeration." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2483 msgid "" "Patent applications take the form of a series of claims and range from broad " "to narrow. A typical patent starts out by claiming that its authors have " "invented a method or system for doing every conceivable thing that anyone " "might do, ever, with any tool or device. Then it narrows that claim in " "successive stages until we get to the actual <quote>invention</quote> that " "is the true subject of the patent. The hope is that the patent examiner — " "who is almost certainly overworked and underinformed — will miss the fact " "that some or all of these claims are ridiculous, or at least suspect, and " "grant the patent’s broader claims. Patents for unpatentable things are still " "incredibly useful because they can be wielded against competitors who might " "license that patent or steer clear of its claims rather than endure the " "lengthy, expensive process of contesting it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2498 msgid "" "What’s more, software patents are routinely granted even though the filer " "doesn’t have any evidence that they can do the thing claimed by the " "patent. That is, you can patent an <quote>invention</quote> that you haven’t " "actually made and that you don’t know how to make." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2504 msgid "" "With these considerations in hand, it becomes obvious that the fact that a " "Big Tech company has patented what it <emphasis>says</emphasis> is an " "effective mind-control ray is largely irrelevant to whether Big Tech can in " "fact control our minds." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2511 msgid "" "Big Tech collects our data for many reasons, including the diminishing " "returns on existing stores of data. But many tech companies also collect " "data out of a mistaken tech exceptionalist belief in the network effects of " "data. Network effects occur when each new user in a system increases its " "value. The classic example is fax machines: A single fax machine is of no " "use, two fax machines are of limited use, but every new fax machine that’s " "put to use after the first doubles the number of possible fax-to-fax links." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2521 msgid "" "Data mined for predictive systems doesn’t necessarily produce these " "dividends. Think of Netflix: The predictive value of the data mined from a " "million English-speaking Netflix viewers is hardly improved by the addition " "of one more user’s viewing data. Most of the data Netflix acquires after " "that first minimum viable sample duplicates existing data and produces only " "minimal gains. Meanwhile, retraining models with new data gets progressively " "more expensive as the number of data points increases, and manual tasks like " "labeling and validating data do not get cheaper at scale." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2532 msgid "" "Businesses pursue fads to the detriment of their profits all the time, " "especially when the businesses and their investors are not motivated by the " "prospect of becoming profitable but rather by the prospect of being acquired " "by a Big Tech giant or by having an IPO. For these firms, ticking faddish " "boxes like <quote>collects as much data as possible</quote> might realize a " "bigger return on investment than <quote>collects a business-appropriate " "quantity of data.</quote>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2541 msgid "" "This is another harm of tech exceptionalism: The belief that more data " "always produces more profits in the form of more insights that can be " "translated into better mind-control rays drives firms to over-collect and " "over-retain data beyond all rationality. And since the firms are behaving " "irrationally, a good number of them will go out of business and become ghost " "ships whose cargo holds are stuffed full of data that can harm people in " "myriad ways — but which no one is responsible for antey longer. Even if the " "companies don’t go under, the data they collect is maintained behind the " "minimum viable security — just enough security to keep the company viable " "while it waits to get bought out by a tech giant, an amount calculated to " "spend not one penny more than is necessary on protecting data." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2555 msgid "" "How monopolies, not mind control, drive surveillance capitalism: The " "Snapchat story" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2558 msgid "" "For the first decade of its existence, Facebook competed with the social " "media giants of the day (Myspace, Orkut, etc.) by presenting itself as the " "pro-privacy alternative. Indeed, Facebook justified its walled garden — " "which let users bring in data from the web but blocked web services like " "Google Search from indexing and caching Facebook pages — as a pro-privacy " "measure that protected users from the surveillance-happy winners of the " "social media wars like Myspace." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2568 msgid "" "Despite frequent promises that it would never collect or analyze its users’ " "data, Facebook periodically created initiatives that did just that, like the " "creepy, ham-fisted Beacon tool, which spied on you as you moved around the " "web and then added your online activities to your public timeline, allowing " "your friends to monitor your browsing habits. Beacon sparked a user " "revolt. Every time, Facebook backed off from its surveillance initiative, " "but not all the way; inevitably, the new Facebook would be more surveilling " "than the old Facebook, though not quite as surveilling as the intermediate " "Facebook following the launch of the new product or service." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2580 msgid "" "The pace at which Facebook ramped up its surveillance efforts seems to have " "been set by Facebook’s competitive landscape. The more competitors Facebook " "had, the better it behaved. Every time a major competitor foundered, " "Facebook’s behavior <ulink " "url=\"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362\">got " "markedly worse</ulink>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2588 msgid "" "All the while, Facebook was prodigiously acquiring companies, including a " "company called Onavo. Nominally, Onavo made a battery-monitoring mobile " "app. But the permissions that Onavo required were so expansive that the app " "was able to gather fine-grained telemetry on everything users did with their " "phones, including which apps they used and how they were using them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2596 msgid "" "Through Onavo, Facebook discovered that it was losing market share to " "Snapchat, an app that — like Facebook a decade before — billed itself as the " "pro-privacy alternative to the status quo. Through Onavo, Facebook was able " "to mine data from the devices of Snapchat users, including both current and " "former Snapchat users. This spurred Facebook to acquire Instagram — some " "features of which competed with Snapchat — and then allowed Facebook to " "fine-tune Instagram’s features and sales pitch to erode Snapchat’s gains and " "ensure that Facebook would not have to face the kinds of competitive " "pressures it had earlier inflicted on Myspace and Orkut." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2608 msgid "" "The story of how Facebook crushed Snapchat reveals the relationship between " "monopoly and surveillance capitalism. Facebook combined surveillance with " "lax antitrust enforcement to spot the competitive threat of Snapchat on its " "horizon and then take decisive action against it. Facebook’s surveillance " "capitalism let it avert competitive pressure with anti-competitive " "tactics. Facebook users still want privacy — Facebook hasn’t used " "surveillance to brainwash them out of it — but they can’t get it because " "Facebook’s surveillance lets it destroy any hope of a rival service emerging " "that competes on privacy features." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2620 msgid "A monopoly over your friends" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2622 msgid "" "A decentralization movement has tried to erode the dominance of Facebook and " "other Big Tech companies by fielding <quote>indieweb</quote> alternatives — " "Mastodon as a Twitter alternative, Diaspora as a Facebook alternative, " "etc. — but these efforts have failed to attain any kind of liftoff." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2629 msgid "" "Fundamentally, each of these services is hamstrung by the same problem: " "Every potential user for a Facebook or Twitter alternative has to convince " "all their friends to follow them to a decentralized web alternative in order " "to continue to realize the benefit of social media. For many of us, the only " "reason to have a Facebook account is that our friends have Facebook " "accounts, and the reason they have Facebook accounts is that " "<emphasis>we</emphasis> have Facebook accounts." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2639 msgid "" "All of this has conspired to make Facebook — and other dominant platforms — " "into <quote>kill zones</quote> that investors will not fund new entrants " "for." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2644 msgid "" "And yet, all of today’s tech giants came into existence despite the " "entrenched advantage of the companies that came before them. To understand " "how that happened, you have to understand both interoperability and " "adversarial interoperability." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><blockquote><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2651 msgid "The hard problem of our species is coordination." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2655 msgid "" "<quote>Interoperability</quote> is the ability of two technologies to work " "with one another: Anyone can make an LP that will play on any record player, " "anyone can make a filter you can install in your stove’s extractor fan, " "anyone can make gasoline for your car, anyone can make a USB phone charger " "that fits in your car’s cigarette lighter receptacle, anyone can make a " "light bulb that works in your light socket, anyone can make bread that will " "toast in your toaster." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2664 msgid "" "Interoperability is often a source of innovation and consumer benefit: Apple " "made the first commercially successful PC, but millions of independent " "software vendors made interoperable programs that ran on the Apple II " "Plus. The simple analog antenna inputs on the back of TVs first allowed " "cable operators to connect directly to TVs, then they allowed game console " "companies and then personal computer companies to use standard televisions " "as displays. Standard RJ-11 telephone jacks allowed for the production of " "phones from a variety of vendors in a variety of forms, from the free " "football-shaped phone that came with a <emphasis>Sports " "Illustrated</emphasis> subscription to business phones with speakers, hold " "functions, and so on and then answering machines and finally modems, paving " "the way for the internet revolution." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2679 msgid "" "<quote>Interoperability</quote> is often used interchangeably with " "<quote>standardization,</quote> which is the process when manufacturers and " "other stakeholders hammer out a set of agreed-upon rules for implementing a " "technology, such as the electrical plug on your wall, the CAN bus used by " "your car’s computer systems, or the HTML instructions that your browser " "interprets." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2687 msgid "" "But interoperability doesn’t require standardization — indeed, " "standardization often proceeds from the chaos of ad hoc interoperability " "measures. The inventor of the cigarette-lighter USB charger didn’t need to " "get permission from car manufacturers or even the manufacturers of the " "dashboard lighter subcomponent. The automakers didn’t take any " "countermeasures to prevent the use of these aftermarket accessories by their " "customers, but they also didn’t do anything to make life easier for the " "chargers’ manufacturers. This is a kind of <quote>neutral " "interoperability.</quote>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2698 msgid "" "Beyond neutral interoperability, there is <quote>adversarial " "interoperability.</quote> That’s when a manufacturer makes a product that " "interoperates with another manufacturer’s product <emphasis>despite the " "second manufacturer’s objections</emphasis> and <emphasis>even if that means " "bypassing a security system designed to prevent interoperability</emphasis>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2706 msgid "" "Probably the most familiar form of adversarial interoperability is " "third-party printer ink. Printer manufacturers claim that they sell printers " "below cost and that the only way they can recoup the losses they incur is by " "charging high markups on ink. To prevent the owners of printers from buying " "ink elsewhere, the printer companies deploy a suite of anti-customer " "security systems that detect and reject both refilled and third-party " "cartridges." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2715 msgid "" "Owners of printers take the position that HP and Epson and Brother are not " "charities and that customers for their wares have no obligation to help them " "survive, and so if the companies choose to sell their products at a loss, " "that’s their foolish choice and their consequences to live with. Likewise, " "competitors who make ink or refill kits observe that they don’t owe printer " "companies anything, and their erosion of printer companies’ margins are the " "printer companies’ problems, not their competitors’. After all, the printer " "companies shed no tears when they drive a refiller out of business, so why " "should the refillers concern themselves with the economic fortunes of the " "printer companies?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2728 msgid "" "Adversarial interoperability has played an outsized role in the history of " "the tech industry: from the founding of the <quote>alt.*</quote> Usenet " "hierarchy (which was started against the wishes of Usenet’s maintainers and " "which grew to be bigger than all of Usenet combined) to the browser wars " "(when Netscape and Microsoft devoted massive engineering efforts to making " "their browsers incompatible with the other’s special commands and " "peccadilloes) to Facebook (whose success was built in part by helping its " "new users stay in touch with friends they’d left behind on Myspace because " "Facebook supplied them with a tool that scraped waiting messages from " "Myspace and imported them into Facebook, effectively creating an " "Facebook-based Myspace reader)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2742 msgid "" "Today, incumbency is seen as an unassailable advantage. Facebook is where " "all of your friends are, so no one can start a Facebook competitor. But " "adversarial compatibility reverses the competitive advantage: If you were " "allowed to compete with Facebook by providing a tool that imported all your " "users’ waiting Facebook messages into an environment that competed on lines " "that Facebook couldn’t cross, like eliminating surveillance and ads, then " "Facebook would be at a huge disadvantage. It would have assembled all " "possible ex-Facebook users into a single, easy-to-find service; it would " "have educated them on how a Facebook-like service worked and what its " "potential benefits were; and it would have provided an easy means for " "disgruntled Facebook users to tell their friends where they might expect " "better treatment." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2757 msgid "" "Adversarial interoperability was once the norm and a key contributor to the " "dynamic, vibrant tech scene, but now it is stuck behind a thicket of laws " "and regulations that add legal risks to the tried-and-true tactics of " "adversarial interoperability. New rules and new interpretations of existing " "rules mean that a would-be adversarial interoperator needs to steer clear of " "claims under copyright, terms of service, trade secrecy, tortious " "interference, and patent." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2767 msgid "" "In the absence of a competitive market, lawmakers have resorted to assigning " "expensive, state-like duties to Big Tech firms, such as automatically " "filtering user contributions for copyright infringement or terrorist and " "extremist content or detecting and preventing harassment in real time or " "controlling access to sexual material." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2775 msgid "" "These measures put a floor under how small we can make Big Tech because only " "the very largest companies can afford the humans and automated filters " "needed to perform these duties." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2780 msgid "" "But that’s not the only way in which making platforms responsible for " "policing their users undermines competition. A platform that is expected to " "police its users’ conduct must prevent many vital adversarial " "interoperability techniques lest these subvert its policing measures. For " "example, if someone using a Twitter replacement like Mastodon is able to " "push messages into Twitter and read messages out of Twitter, they could " "avoid being caught by automated systems that detect and prevent harassment " "(such as systems that use the timing of messages or IP-based rules to make " "guesses about whether someone is a harasser)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2792 msgid "" "To the extent that we are willing to let Big Tech police itself — rather " "than making Big Tech small enough that users can leave bad platforms for " "better ones and small enough that a regulation that simply puts a platform " "out of business will not destroy billions of users’ access to their " "communities and data — we build the case that Big Tech should be able to " "block its competitors and make it easier for Big Tech to demand legal " "enforcement tools to ban and punish attempts at adversarial " "interoperability." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2802 msgid "" "Ultimately, we can try to fix Big Tech by making it responsible for bad acts " "by its users, or we can try to fix the internet by cutting Big Tech down to " "size. But we can’t do both. To replace today’s giant products with " "pluralistic protocols, we need to clear the legal thicket that prevents " "adversarial interoperability so that tomorrow’s nimble, personal, " "small-scale products can federate themselves with giants like Facebook, " "allowing the users who’ve left to continue to communicate with users who " "haven’t left yet, reaching tendrils over Facebook’s garden wall that " "Facebook’s trapped users can use to scale the walls and escape to the " "global, open web." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2814 msgid "Fake news is an epistemological crisis" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2816 msgid "" "Tech is not the only industry that has undergone massive concentration since " "the Reagan era. Virtually every major industry — from oil to newspapers to " "meatpacking to sea freight to eyewear to online pornography — has become a " "clubby oligarchy that just a few players dominate." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2823 msgid "" "At the same time, every industry has become something of a tech industry as " "general-purpose computers and general-purpose networks and the promise of " "efficiencies through data-driven analysis infuse every device, process, and " "firm with tech." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2829 msgid "" "This phenomenon of industrial concentration is part of a wider story about " "wealth concentration overall as a smaller and smaller number of people own " "more and more of our world. This concentration of both wealth and industries " "means that our political outcomes are increasingly beholden to the parochial " "interests of the people and companies with all the money." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2837 msgid "" "That means that whenever a regulator asks a question with an obvious, " "empirical answer (<quote>Are humans causing climate change?</quote> or " "<quote>Should we let companies conduct commercial mass surveillance?</quote> " "or <quote>Does society benefit from allowing network neutrality " "violations?</quote>), the answer that comes out is only correct if that " "correctness meets with the approval of rich people and the industries that " "made them so wealthy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2846 msgid "" "Rich people have always played an outsized role in politics and more so " "since the Supreme Court’s <emphasis>Citizens United</emphasis> decision " "eliminated key controls over political spending. Widening inequality and " "wealth concentration means that the very richest people are now a lot richer " "and can afford to spend a lot more money on political projects than ever " "before. Think of the Koch brothers or George Soros or Bill Gates." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2855 msgid "" "But the policy distortions of rich individuals pale in comparison to the " "policy distortions that concentrated industries are capable of. The " "companies in highly concentrated industries are much more profitable than " "companies in competitive industries — no competition means not having to " "reduce prices or improve quality to win customers — leaving them with bigger " "capital surpluses to spend on lobbying." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2864 msgid "" "Concentrated industries also find it easier to collaborate on policy " "objectives than competitive ones. When all the top execs from your industry " "can fit around a single boardroom table, they often do. And " "<emphasis>when</emphasis> they do, they can forge a consensus position on " "regulation." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2871 msgid "" "Rising through the ranks in a concentrated industry generally means working " "at two or three of the big companies. When there are only relatively few " "companies in a given industry, each company has a more ossified executive " "rank, leaving ambitious execs with fewer paths to higher positions unless " "they are recruited to a rival. This means that the top execs in concentrated " "industries are likely to have been colleagues at some point and socialize in " "the same circles — connected through social ties or, say, serving as " "trustees for each others’ estates. These tight social bonds foster a " "collegial, rather than competitive, attitude." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2883 msgid "" "Highly concentrated industries also present a regulatory conundrum. When an " "industry is dominated by just four or five companies, the only people who " "are likely to truly understand the industry’s practices are its veteran " "executives. This means that top regulators are often former execs of the " "companies they are supposed to be regulating. These turns in government are " "often tacitly understood to be leaves of absence from industry, with former " "employers welcoming their erstwhile watchdogs back into their executive " "ranks once their terms have expired." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2894 msgid "" "All this is to say that the tight social bonds, small number of firms, and " "regulatory capture of concentrated industries give the companies that " "comprise them the power to dictate many, if not all, of the regulations that " "bind them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2900 msgid "" "This is increasingly obvious. Whether it’s payday lenders <ulink " "url=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/02/25/how-payday-lending-industry-insider-tilted-academic-research-its-favor/\">winning " "the right to practice predatory lending</ulink> or Apple <ulink " "url=\"https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mgxayp/source-apple-will-fight-right-to-repair-legislation\">winning " "the right to decide who can fix your phone</ulink> or Google and Facebook " "winning the right to breach your private data without suffering meaningful " "consequences or victories for pipeline companies or impunity for opioid " "manufacturers or massive tax subsidies for incredibly profitable dominant " "businesses, it’s increasingly apparent that many of our official, " "evidence-based truth-seeking processes are, in fact, auctions for sale to " "the highest bidder." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2914 msgid "" "It’s really impossible to overstate what a terrifying prospect this is. We " "live in an incredibly high-tech society, and none of us could acquire the " "expertise to evaluate every technological proposition that stands between us " "and our untimely, horrible deaths. You might devote your life to acquiring " "the media literacy to distinguish good scientific journals from corrupt " "pay-for-play lookalikes and the statistical literacy to evaluate the quality " "of the analysis in the journals as well as the microbiology and epidemiology " "knowledge to determine whether you can trust claims about the safety of " "vaccines — but that would still leave you unqualified to judge whether the " "wiring in your home will give you a lethal shock <emphasis>and</emphasis> " "whether your car’s brakes’ software will cause them to fail unpredictably " "<emphasis>and</emphasis> whether the hygiene standards at your butcher are " "sufficient to keep you from dying after you finish your dinner." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2931 msgid "" "In a world as complex as this one, we have to defer to authorities, and we " "keep them honest by making those authorities accountable to us and binding " "them with rules to prevent conflicts of interest. We can’t possibly acquire " "the expertise to adjudicate conflicting claims about the best way to make " "the world safe and prosperous, but we <emphasis>can</emphasis> determine " "whether the adjudication process itself is trustworthy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2940 msgid "Right now, it’s obviously not." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2943 msgid "" "The past 40 years of rising inequality and industry concentration, together " "with increasingly weak accountability and transparency for expert agencies, " "has created an increasingly urgent sense of impending doom, the sense that " "there are vast conspiracies afoot that operate with tacit official approval " "despite the likelihood they are working to better themselves by ruining the " "rest of us." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2951 msgid "" "For example, it’s been decades since Exxon’s own scientists concluded that " "its products would render the Earth uninhabitable by humans. And yet those " "decades were lost to us, in large part because Exxon lobbied governments and " "sowed doubt about the dangers of its products and did so with the " "cooperation of many public officials. When the survival of you and everyone " "you love is threatened by conspiracies, it’s not unreasonable to start " "questioning the things you think you know in an attempt to determine whether " "they, too, are the outcome of another conspiracy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2962 msgid "" "The collapse of the credibility of our systems for divining and upholding " "truths has left us in a state of epistemological chaos. Once, most of us " "might have assumed that the system was working and that our regulations " "reflected our best understanding of the empirical truths of the world as " "they were best understood — now we have to find our own experts to help us " "sort the true from the false." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2971 msgid "" "If you’re like me, you probably believe that vaccines are safe, but you " "(like me) probably also can’t explain the microbiology or statistics. Few of " "us have the math skills to review the literature on vaccine safety and " "describe why their statistical reasoning is sound. Likewise, few of us can " "review the stats in the (now discredited) literature on opioid safety and " "explain how those stats were manipulated. Both vaccines and opioids were " "embraced by medical authorities, after all, and one is safe while the other " "could ruin your life. You’re left with a kind of inchoate constellation of " "rules of thumb about which experts you trust to fact-check controversial " "claims and then to explain how all those respectable doctors with their " "peer-reviewed research on opioid safety <emphasis>were</emphasis> an " "aberration and then how you know that the doctors writing about vaccine " "safety are <emphasis>not</emphasis> an aberration." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2988 msgid "" "I’m 100% certain that vaccinating is safe and effective, but I’m also at " "something of a loss to explain exactly, <emphasis>precisely,</emphasis> why " "I believe this, given all the corruption I know about and the many times the " "stamp of certainty has turned out to be a parochial lie told to further " "enrich the super rich." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:2996 msgid "" "Fake news — conspiracy theories, racist ideologies, scientific denialism — " "has always been with us. What’s changed today is not the mix of ideas in the " "public discourse but the popularity of the worst ideas in that " "mix. Conspiracy and denial have skyrocketed in lockstep with the growth of " "Big Inequality, which has also tracked the rise of Big Tech and Big Pharma " "and Big Wrestling and Big Car and Big Movie Theater and Big Everything Else." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3005 msgid "" "No one can say for certain why this has happened, but the two dominant camps " "are idealism (the belief that the people who argue for these conspiracies " "have gotten better at explaining them, maybe with the help of " "machine-learning tools) or materialism (the ideas have become more " "attractive because of material conditions in the world)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3013 msgid "" "I’m a materialist. I’ve been exposed to the arguments of conspiracy " "theorists all my life, and I have not experienced any qualitative leap in " "the quality of those arguments." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3018 msgid "" "The major difference is in the world, not the arguments. In a time where " "actual conspiracies are commonplace, conspiracy theories acquire a ring of " "plausibility." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3023 msgid "" "We have always had disagreements about what’s true, but today, we have a " "disagreement over how we know whether something is true. This is an " "epistemological crisis, not a crisis over belief. It’s a crisis over the " "credibility of our truth-seeking exercises, from scientific journals (in an " "era where the biggest journal publishers have been caught producing " "pay-to-play journals for junk science) to regulations (in an era where " "regulators are routinely cycling in and out of business) to education (in an " "era where universities are dependent on corporate donations to keep their " "lights on)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3034 msgid "" "Targeting — surveillance capitalism — makes it easier to find people who are " "undergoing this epistemological crisis, but it doesn’t create the " "crisis. For that, you need to look to corruption." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3039 msgid "" "And, conveniently enough, it’s corruption that allows surveillance " "capitalism to grow by dismantling monopoly protections, by permitting " "reckless collection and retention of personal data, by allowing ads to be " "targeted in secret, and by foreclosing on the possibility of going somewhere " "else where you might continue to enjoy your friends without subjecting " "yourself to commercial surveillance." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3048 msgid "Tech is different" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3050 msgid "" "I reject both iterations of technological exceptionalism. I reject the idea " "that tech is uniquely terrible and led by people who are greedier or worse " "than the leaders of other industries, and I reject the idea that tech is so " "good — or so intrinsically prone to concentration — that it can’t be blamed " "for its present-day monopolistic status." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3058 msgid "" "I think tech is just another industry, albeit one that grew up in the " "absence of real monopoly constraints. It may have been first, but it isn’t " "the worst nor will it be the last." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3063 msgid "" "But there’s one way in which I <emphasis>am</emphasis> a tech " "exceptionalist. I believe that online tools are the key to overcoming " "problems that are much more urgent than tech monopolization: climate change, " "inequality, misogyny, and discrimination on the basis of race, gender " "identity, and other factors. The internet is how we will recruit people to " "fight those fights, and how we will coordinate their labor. Tech is not a " "substitute for democratic accountability, the rule of law, fairness, or " "stability — but it’s a means to achieve these things." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3074 msgid "" "The hard problem of our species is coordination. Everything from climate " "change to social change to running a business to making a family work can be " "viewed as a collective action problem." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3079 msgid "" "The internet makes it easier than at any time before to find people who want " "to work on a project with you — hence the success of free and open-source " "software, crowdfunding, and racist terror groups — and easier than ever to " "coordinate the work you do." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3085 msgid "" "The internet and the computers we connect to it also possess an exceptional " "quality: general-purposeness. The internet is designed to allow any two " "parties to communicate any data, using any protocol, without permission from " "anyone else. The only production design we have for computers is the " "general-purpose, <quote>Turing complete</quote> computer that can run every " "program we can express in symbolic logic." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3094 msgid "" "This means that every time someone with a special communications need " "invests in infrastructure and techniques to make the internet faster, " "cheaper, and more robust, this benefit redounds to everyone else who is " "using the internet to communicate. And this also means that every time " "someone with a special computing need invests to make computers faster, " "cheaper, and more robust, every other computing application is a potential " "beneficiary of this work." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3103 msgid "" "For these reasons, every type of communication is gradually absorbed into " "the internet, and every type of device — from airplanes to pacemakers — " "eventually becomes a computer in a fancy case." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3108 msgid "" "While these considerations don’t preclude regulating networks and computers, " "they do call for gravitas and caution when doing so because changes to " "regulatory frameworks could ripple out to have unintended consequences in " "many, many other domains." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3114 msgid "" "The upshot of this is that our best hope of solving the big coordination " "problems — climate change, inequality, etc. — is with free, fair, and open " "tech. Our best hope of keeping tech free, fair, and open is to exercise " "caution in how we regulate tech and to attend closely to the ways in which " "interventions to solve one problem might create problems in other domains." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3122 msgid "Ownership of facts" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3124 msgid "" "Big Tech has a funny relationship with information. When you’re generating " "information — anything from the location data streaming off your mobile " "device to the private messages you send to friends on a social network — it " "claims the rights to make unlimited use of that data." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3131 msgid "" "But when you have the audacity to turn the tables — to use a tool that " "blocks ads or slurps your waiting updates out of a social network and puts " "them in another app that lets you set your own priorities and suggestions or " "crawls their system to allow you to start a rival business — they claim that " "you’re stealing from them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3138 msgid "" "The thing is, information is a very bad fit for any kind of private property " "regime. Property rights are useful for establishing markets that can lead to " "the effective development of fallow assets. These markets depend on clear " "titles to ensure that the things being bought and sold in them can, in fact, " "be bought and sold." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3145 msgid "" "Information rarely has such a clear title. Take phone numbers: There’s " "clearly something going wrong when Facebook slurps up millions of users’ " "address books and uses the phone numbers it finds in them to plot out social " "graphs and fill in missing information about other users." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3152 msgid "" "But the phone numbers Facebook nonconsensually acquires in this transaction " "are not the <quote>property</quote> of the users they’re taken from nor do " "they belong to the people whose phones ring when you dial those numbers. The " "numbers are mere integers, 10 digits in the U.S. and Canada, and they " "appear in millions of places, including somewhere deep in pi as well as " "numerous other contexts. Giving people ownership titles to integers is an " "obviously terrible idea." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3161 msgid "" "Likewise for the facts that Facebook and other commercial surveillance " "operators acquire about us, like that we are the children of our parents or " "the parents to our children or that we had a conversation with someone else " "or went to a public place. These data points can’t be property in the sense " "that your house or your shirt is your property because the title to them is " "intrinsically muddy: Does your mom own the fact that she is your mother? Do " "you? Do both of you? What about your dad — does he own this fact too, or " "does he have to license the fact from you (or your mom or both of you) in " "order to use this fact? What about the hundreds or thousands of other people " "who know these facts?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3174 msgid "" "If you go to a Black Lives Matter demonstration, do the other demonstrators " "need your permission to post their photos from the event? The online fights " "over <ulink " "url=\"https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-take-photos-at-protests/\">when and " "how to post photos from demonstrations</ulink> reveal a nuanced, complex " "issue that cannot be easily hand-waved away by giving one party a property " "right that everyone else in the mix has to respect." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3183 msgid "" "The fact that information isn’t a good fit with property and markets doesn’t " "mean that it’s not valuable. Babies aren’t property, but they’re inarguably " "valuable. In fact, we have a whole set of rules just for babies as well as a " "subset of those rules that apply to humans more generally. Someone who " "argues that babies won’t be truly valuable until they can be bought and sold " "like loaves of bread would be instantly and rightfully condemned as a " "monster." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3192 msgid "" "It’s tempting to reach for the property hammer when Big Tech treats your " "information like a nail — not least because Big Tech are such prolific " "abusers of property hammers when it comes to <emphasis>their</emphasis> " "information. But this is a mistake. If we allow markets to dictate the use " "of our information, then we’ll find that we’re sellers in a buyers’ market " "where the Big Tech monopolies set a price for our data that is so low as to " "be insignificant or, more likely, set at a nonnegotiable price of zero in a " "click-through agreement that you don’t have the opportunity to modify." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3203 msgid "" "Meanwhile, establishing property rights over information will create " "insurmountable barriers to independent data processing. Imagine that we " "require a license to be negotiated when a translated document is compared " "with its original, something Google has done and continues to do billions of " "times to train its automated language translation tools. Google can afford " "this, but independent third parties cannot. Google can staff a clearances " "department to negotiate one-time payments to the likes of the EU (one of the " "major repositories of translated documents) while independent watchdogs " "wanting to verify that the translations are well-prepared, or to root out " "bias in translations, will find themselves needing a staffed-up legal " "department and millions for licenses before they can even get started." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3218 msgid "" "The same goes for things like search indexes of the web or photos of " "peoples’ houses, which have become contentious thanks to Google’s Street " "View project. Whatever problems may exist with Google’s photographing of " "street scenes, resolving them by letting people decide who can take pictures " "of the facades of their homes from a public street will surely create even " "worse ones. Think of how street photography is important for newsgathering — " "including informal newsgathering, like photographing abuses of authority — " "and how being able to document housing and street life are important for " "contesting eminent domain, advocating for social aid, reporting planning and " "zoning violations, documenting discriminatory and unequal living conditions, " "and more." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3232 msgid "" "The ownership of facts is antithetical to many kinds of human progress. It’s " "hard to imagine a rule that limits Big Tech’s exploitation of our collective " "labors without inadvertently banning people from gathering data on online " "harassment or compiling indexes of changes in language or simply " "investigating how the platforms are shaping our discourse — all of which " "require scraping data that other people have created and subjecting it to " "scrutiny and analysis." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3242 msgid "Persuasion works… slowly" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3244 msgid "" "The platforms may oversell their ability to persuade people, but obviously, " "persuasion works sometimes. Whether it’s the private realm that LGBTQ people " "used to recruit allies and normalize sexual diversity or the decadeslong " "project to convince people that markets are the only efficient way to solve " "complicated resource allocation problems, it’s clear that our societal " "attitudes <emphasis>can</emphasis> change." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3253 msgid "" "The project of shifting societal attitudes is a game of inches and " "years. For centuries, svengalis have purported to be able to accelerate this " "process, but even the most brutal forms of propaganda have struggled to make " "permanent changes. Joseph Goebbels was able to subject Germans to daily, " "mandatory, hourslong radio broadcasts, to round up and torture and murder " "dissidents, and to seize full control over their children’s education while " "banning any literature, broadcasts, or films that did not comport with his " "worldview." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3264 msgid "" "Yet, after 12 years of terror, once the war ended, Nazi ideology was largely " "discredited in both East and West Germany, and a program of national truth " "and reconciliation was put in its place. Racism and authoritarianism were " "never fully abolished in Germany, but neither were the majority of Germans " "irrevocably convinced of Nazism — and the rise of racist authoritarianism in " "Germany today tells us that the liberal attitudes that replaced Nazism were " "no more permanent than Nazism itself." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3274 msgid "" "Racism and authoritarianism have also always been with us. Anyone who’s " "reviewed the kind of messages and arguments that racists put forward today " "would be hard-pressed to say that they have gotten better at presenting " "their ideas. The same pseudoscience, appeals to fear, and circular logic " "that racists presented in the 1980s, when the cause of white supremacy was " "on the wane, are to be found in the communications of leading white " "nationalists today." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3283 msgid "" "If racists haven’t gotten more convincing in the past decade, then how is it " "that more people were convinced to be openly racist at that time? I believe " "that the answer lies in the material world, not the world of ideas. The " "ideas haven’t gotten more convincing, but people have become more " "afraid. Afraid that the state can’t be trusted to act as an honest broker in " "life-or-death decisions, from those regarding the management of the economy " "to the regulation of painkillers to the rules for handling private " "information. Afraid that the world has become a game of musical chairs in " "which the chairs are being taken away at a never-before-seen rate. Afraid " "that justice for others will come at their expense. Monopolism isn’t the " "cause of these fears, but the inequality and material desperation and policy " "malpractice that monopolism contributes to is a significant contributor to " "these conditions. Inequality creates the conditions for both conspiracies " "and violent racist ideologies, and then surveillance capitalism lets " "opportunists target the fearful and the conspiracy-minded." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3302 msgid "Paying won’t help" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3304 msgid "" "As the old saw goes, <quote>If you’re not paying for the product, you’re the " "product.</quote>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3308 msgid "" "It’s a commonplace belief today that the advent of free, ad-supported media " "was the original sin of surveillance capitalism. The reasoning is that the " "companies that charged for access couldn’t <quote>compete with free</quote> " "and so they were driven out of business. Their ad-supported competitors, " "meanwhile, declared open season on their users’ data in a bid to improve " "their ad targeting and make more money and then resorted to the most " "sensationalist tactics to generate clicks on those ads. If only we’d pay for " "media again, we’d have a better, more responsible, more sober discourse that " "would be better for democracy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3320 msgid "" "But the degradation of news products long precedes the advent of " "ad-supported online news. Long before newspapers were online, lax antitrust " "enforcement had opened the door for unprecedented waves of consolidation and " "roll-ups in newsrooms. Rival newspapers were merged, reporters and ad sales " "staff were laid off, physical plants were sold and leased back, leaving the " "companies loaded up with debt through leveraged buyouts and subsequent " "profit-taking by the new owners. In other words, it wasn’t merely shifts in " "the classified advertising market, which was long held to be the primary " "driver in the decline of the traditional newsroom, that made news companies " "unable to adapt to the internet — it was monopolism." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3333 msgid "" "Then, as news companies <emphasis>did</emphasis> come online, the ad " "revenues they commanded dropped even as the number of internet users (and " "thus potential online readers) increased. That shift was a function of " "consolidation in the ad sales market, with Google and Facebook emerging as " "duopolists who made more money every year from advertising while paying less " "and less of it to the publishers whose work the ads appeared " "alongside. Monopolism created a buyer’s market for ad inventory with " "Facebook and Google acting as gatekeepers." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3343 msgid "" "Paid services continue to exist alongside free ones, and often it is these " "paid services — anxious to prevent people from bypassing their paywalls or " "sharing paid media with freeloaders — that exert the most control over their " "customers. Apple’s iTunes and App Stores are paid services, but to maximize " "their profitability, Apple has to lock its platforms so that third parties " "can’t make compatible software without permission. These locks allow the " "company to exercise both editorial control (enabling it to exclude <ulink " "url=\"https://ncac.org/news/blog/does-apples-strict-app-store-content-policy-limit-freedom-of-expression\">controversial " "political material</ulink>) and technological control, including control " "over who can repair the devices it makes. If we’re worried that ad-supported " "products deprive people of their right to self-determination by using " "persuasion techniques to nudge their purchase decisions a few degrees in one " "direction or the other, then the near-total control a single company holds " "over the decision of who gets to sell you software, parts, and service for " "your iPhone should have us very worried indeed." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3362 msgid "" "We shouldn’t just be concerned about payment and control: The idea that " "paying will improve discourse is also dangerously wrong. The poor success " "rate of targeted advertising means that the platforms have to incentivize " "you to <quote>engage</quote> with posts at extremely high levels to generate " "enough pageviews to safeguard their profits. As discussed earlier, to " "increase engagement, platforms like Facebook use machine learning to guess " "which messages will be most inflammatory and make a point of shoving those " "into your eyeballs at every turn so that you will hate-click and argue with " "people." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3373 msgid "" "Perhaps paying would fix this, the reasoning goes. If platforms could be " "economically viable even if you stopped clicking on them once your " "intellectual and social curiosity had been slaked, then they would have no " "reason to algorithmically enrage you to get more clicks out of you, right?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3380 msgid "" "There may be something to that argument, but it still ignores the wider " "economic and political context of the platforms and the world that allowed " "them to grow so dominant." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3385 msgid "" "Platforms are world-spanning and all-encompassing because they are " "monopolies, and they are monopolies because we have gutted our most " "important and reliable anti-monopoly rules. Antitrust was neutered as a key " "part of the project to make the wealthy wealthier, and that project has " "worked. The vast majority of people on Earth have a negative net worth, and " "even the dwindling middle class is in a precarious state, undersaved for " "retirement, underinsured for medical disasters, and undersecured against " "climate and technology shocks." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3396 msgid "" "In this wildly unequal world, paying doesn’t improve the discourse; it " "simply prices discourse out of the range of the majority of people. Paying " "for the product is dandy, if you can afford it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3401 msgid "" "If you think today’s filter bubbles are a problem for our discourse, imagine " "what they’d be like if rich people inhabited free-flowing Athenian " "marketplaces of ideas where you have to pay for admission while everyone " "else lives in online spaces that are subsidized by wealthy benefactors who " "relish the chance to establish conversational spaces where the <quote>house " "rules</quote> forbid questioning the status quo. That is, imagine if the " "rich seceded from Facebook, and then, instead of running ads that made money " "for shareholders, Facebook became a billionaire’s vanity project that also " "happened to ensure that nobody talked about whether it was fair that only " "billionaires could afford to hang out in the rarified corners of the " "internet." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3415 msgid "" "Behind the idea of paying for access is a belief that free markets will " "address Big Tech’s dysfunction. After all, to the extent that people have a " "view of surveillance at all, it is generally an unfavorable one, and the " "longer and more thoroughly one is surveilled, the less one tends to like " "it. Same goes for lock-in: If HP’s ink or Apple’s App Store were really " "obviously fantastic, they wouldn’t need technical measures to prevent users " "from choosing a rival’s product. The only reason these technical " "countermeasures exist is that the companies don’t believe their customers " "would <emphasis>voluntarily</emphasis> submit to their terms, and they want " "to deprive them of the choice to take their business elsewhere." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3428 msgid "" "Advocates for markets laud their ability to aggregate the diffused knowledge " "of buyers and sellers across a whole society through demand signals, price " "signals, and so on. The argument for surveillance capitalism being a " "<quote>rogue capitalism</quote> is that machine-learning-driven persuasion " "techniques distort decision-making by consumers, leading to incorrect " "signals — consumers don’t buy what they prefer, they buy what they’re " "tricked into preferring. It follows that the monopolistic practices of " "lock-in, which do far more to constrain consumers’ free choices, are even " "more of a <quote>rogue capitalism.</quote>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3440 msgid "" "The profitability of any business is constrained by the possibility that its " "customers will take their business elsewhere. Both surveillance and lock-in " "are anti-features that no customer wants. But monopolies can capture their " "regulators, crush their competitors, insert themselves into their customers’ " "lives, and corral people into <quote>choosing</quote> their services " "regardless of whether they want them — it’s fine to be terrible when there " "is no alternative." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3450 msgid "" "Ultimately, surveillance and lock-in are both simply business strategies " "that monopolists can choose. Surveillance companies like Google are " "perfectly capable of deploying lock-in technologies — just look at the " "onerous Android licensing terms that require device-makers to bundle in " "Google’s suite of applications. And lock-in companies like Apple are " "perfectly capable of subjecting their users to surveillance if it means " "keeping the Chinese government happy and preserving ongoing access to " "Chinese markets. Monopolies may be made up of good, ethical people, but as " "institutions, they are not your friend — they will do whatever they can get " "away with to maximize their profits, and the more monopolistic they are, the " "more they <emphasis>can</emphasis> get away with." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3465 msgid "An <quote>ecology</quote> moment for trustbusting" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3467 msgid "" "If we’re going to break Big Tech’s death grip on our digital lives, we’re " "going to have to fight monopolies. That may sound pretty mundane and " "old-fashioned, something out of the New Deal era, while ending the use of " "automated behavioral modification feels like the plotline of a really cool " "cyberpunk novel." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3474 msgid "" "Meanwhile, breaking up monopolies is something we seem to have forgotten how " "to do. There is a bipartisan, trans-Atlantic consensus that breaking up " "companies is a fool’s errand at best — liable to mire your federal " "prosecutors in decades of litigation — and counterproductive at worst, " "eroding the <quote>consumer benefits</quote> of large companies with massive " "efficiencies of scale." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3482 msgid "" "But trustbusters once strode the nation, brandishing law books, terrorizing " "robber barons, and shattering the illusion of monopolies’ all-powerful grip " "on our society. The trustbusting era could not begin until we found the " "political will — until the people convinced politicians they’d have their " "backs when they went up against the richest, most powerful men in the world." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3490 msgid "Could we find that political will again?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3493 msgid "" "Copyright scholar James Boyle has described how the term " "<quote>ecology</quote> marked a turning point in environmental " "activism. Prior to the adoption of this term, people who wanted to preserve " "whale populations didn’t necessarily see themselves as fighting the same " "battle as people who wanted to protect the ozone layer or fight freshwater " "pollution or beat back smog or acid rain." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3501 msgid "" "But the term <quote>ecology</quote> welded these disparate causes together " "into a single movement, and the members of this movement found solidarity " "with one another. The people who cared about smog signed petitions " "circulated by the people who wanted to end whaling, and the anti-whalers " "marched alongside the people demanding action on acid rain. This uniting " "behind a common cause completely changed the dynamics of environmentalism, " "setting the stage for today’s climate activism and the sense that preserving " "the habitability of the planet Earth is a shared duty among all people." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3512 msgid "" "I believe we are on the verge of a new <quote>ecology</quote> moment " "dedicated to combating monopolies. After all, tech isn’t the only " "concentrated industry nor is it even the <emphasis>most</emphasis> " "concentrated of industries." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3518 msgid "" "You can find partisans for trustbusting in every sector of the " "economy. Everywhere you look, you can find people who’ve been wronged by " "monopolists who’ve trashed their finances, their health, their privacy, " "their educations, and the lives of people they love. Those people have the " "same cause as the people who want to break up Big Tech and the same " "enemies. When most of the world’s wealth is in the hands of a very few, it " "follows that nearly every large company will have overlapping shareholders." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3528 msgid "" "That’s the good news: With a little bit of work and a little bit of " "coalition building, we have more than enough political will to break up Big " "Tech and every other concentrated industry besides. First we take Facebook, " "then we take AT&T/WarnerMedia." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3534 msgid "" "But here’s the bad news: Much of what we’re doing to tame Big Tech " "<emphasis>instead</emphasis> of breaking up the big companies also " "forecloses on the possibility of breaking them up later." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3539 msgid "" "Big Tech’s concentration currently means that their inaction on harassment, " "for example, leaves users with an impossible choice: absent themselves from " "public discourse by, say, quitting Twitter or endure vile, constant " "abuse. Big Tech’s over-collection and over-retention of data results in " "horrific identity theft. And their inaction on extremist recruitment means " "that white supremacists who livestream their shooting rampages can reach an " "audience of billions. The combination of tech concentration and media " "concentration means that artists’ incomes are falling even as the revenue " "generated by their creations are increasing." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3551 msgid "" "Yet governments confronting all of these problems all inevitably converge on " "the same solution: deputize the Big Tech giants to police their users and " "render them liable for their users’ bad actions. The drive to force Big Tech " "to use automated filters to block everything from copyright infringement to " "sex-trafficking to violent extremism means that tech companies will have to " "allocate hundreds of millions to run these compliance systems." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3560 msgid "" "These rules — the EU’s new Directive on Copyright, Australia’s new terror " "regulation, America’s FOSTA/SESTA sex-trafficking law and more — are not " "just death warrants for small, upstart competitors that might challenge Big " "Tech’s dominance but who lack the deep pockets of established incumbents to " "pay for all these automated systems. Worse still, these rules put a floor " "under how small we can hope to make Big Tech." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3569 msgid "" "That’s because any move to break up Big Tech and cut it down to size will " "have to cope with the hard limit of not making these companies so small that " "they can no longer afford to perform these duties — and it’s " "<emphasis>expensive</emphasis> to invest in those automated filters and " "outsource content moderation. It’s already going to be hard to unwind these " "deeply concentrated, chimeric behemoths that have been welded together in " "the pursuit of monopoly profits. Doing so while simultaneously finding some " "way to fill the regulatory void that will be left behind if these " "self-policing rulers were forced to suddenly abdicate will be much, much " "harder." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3581 msgid "" "Allowing the platforms to grow to their present size has given them a " "dominance that is nearly insurmountable — deputizing them with public duties " "to redress the pathologies created by their size makes it virtually " "impossible to reduce that size. Lather, rinse, repeat: If the platforms " "don’t get smaller, they will get larger, and as they get larger, they will " "create more problems, which will give rise to more public duties for the " "companies, which will make them bigger still." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3591 msgid "" "We can work to fix the internet by breaking up Big Tech and depriving them " "of monopoly profits, or we can work to fix Big Tech by making them spend " "their monopoly profits on governance. But we can’t do both. We have to " "choose between a vibrant, open internet or a dominated, monopolized internet " "commanded by Big Tech giants that we struggle with constantly to get them to " "behave themselves." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3599 msgid "Make Big Tech small again" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3601 msgid "" "Trustbusting is hard. Breaking big companies into smaller ones is expensive " "and time-consuming. So time-consuming that by the time you’re done, the " "world has often moved on and rendered years of litigation irrelevant. From " "1969 to 1982, the U.S. government pursued an antitrust case against IBM over " "its dominance of mainframe computing — but the case collapsed in 1982 " "because mainframes were being speedily replaced by PCs." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><blockquote><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3611 msgid "" "A future U.S. president could simply direct their attorney general to " "enforce the law as it was written." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3616 msgid "" "It’s far easier to prevent concentration than to fix it, and reinstating the " "traditional contours of U.S. antitrust enforcement will, at the very least, " "prevent further concentration. That means bans on mergers between large " "companies, on big companies acquiring nascent competitors, and on platform " "companies competing directly with the companies that rely on the platforms." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3624 msgid "" "These powers are all in the plain language of U.S. antitrust laws, so in " "theory, a future U.S. president could simply direct their attorney general " "to enforce the law as it was written. But after decades of judicial " "<quote>education</quote> in the benefits of monopolies, after multiple " "administrations that have packed the federal courts with lifetime-appointed " "monopoly cheerleaders, it’s not clear that mere administrative action would " "do the trick." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3633 msgid "" "If the courts frustrate the Justice Department and the president, the next " "stop would be Congress, which could eliminate any doubt about how antitrust " "law should be enforced in the U.S. by passing new laws that boil down to " "saying, <quote>Knock it off. We all know what the Sherman Act says. Robert " "Bork was a deranged fantasist. For avoidance of doubt, <emphasis>fuck that " "guy</emphasis>.</quote> In other words, the problem with monopolies is " "<emphasis>monopolism</emphasis> — the concentration of power into too few " "hands, which erodes our right to self-determination. If there is a monopoly, " "the law wants it gone, period. Sure, get rid of monopolies that create " "<quote>consumer harm</quote> in the form of higher prices, but also, " "<emphasis>get rid of other monopolies, too</emphasis>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3647 msgid "" "But this only prevents things from getting worse. To help them get better, " "we will have to build coalitions with other activists in the anti-monopoly " "ecology movement — a pluralism movement or a self-determination movement — " "and target existing monopolies in every industry for breakup and structural " "separation rules that prevent, for example, the giant eyewear monopolist " "Luxottica from dominating both the sale and the manufacture of spectacles." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3656 msgid "" "In an important sense, it doesn’t matter which industry the breakups begin " "in. Once they start, shareholders in <emphasis>every</emphasis> industry " "will start to eye their investments in monopolists skeptically. As " "trustbusters ride into town and start making lives miserable for " "monopolists, the debate around every corporate boardroom’s table will " "shift. People within corporations who’ve always felt uneasy about monopolism " "will gain a powerful new argument to fend off their evil rivals in the " "corporate hierarchy: <quote>If we do it my way, we make less money; if we do " "it your way, a judge will fine us billions and expose us to ridicule and " "public disapprobation. So even though I get that it would be really cool to " "do that merger, lock out that competitor, or buy that little company and " "kill it before it can threaten it, we really shouldn’t — not if we don’t " "want to get tied to the DOJ’s bumper and get dragged up and down Trustbuster " "Road for the next 10 years.</quote>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3673 msgid "20 GOTO 10" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3675 msgid "" "Fixing Big Tech will require a lot of iteration. As cyber lawyer Lawrence " "Lessig wrote in his 1999 book, <emphasis>Code and Other Laws of " "Cyberspace</emphasis>, our lives are regulated by four forces: law (what’s " "legal), code (what’s technologically possible), norms (what’s socially " "acceptable), and markets (what’s profitable)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3682 msgid "" "If you could wave a wand and get Congress to pass a law that re-fanged the " "Sherman Act tomorrow, you could use the impending breakups to convince " "venture capitalists to fund competitors to Facebook, Google, Twitter, and " "Apple that would be waiting in the wings after they were cut down to size." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3689 msgid "" "But getting Congress to act will require a massive normative shift, a mass " "movement of people who care about monopolies — and pulling them apart." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3694 msgid "" "Getting people to care about monopolies will take technological " "interventions that help them to see what a world free from Big Tech might " "look like. Imagine if someone could make a beloved (but unauthorized) " "third-party Facebook or Twitter client that dampens the anxiety-producing " "algorithmic drumbeat and still lets you talk to your friends without being " "spied upon — something that made social media more sociable and less " "toxic. Now imagine that it gets shut down in a brutal legal battle. It’s " "always easier to convince people that something must be done to save a thing " "they love than it is to excite them about something that doesn’t even exist " "yet." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3706 msgid "" "Neither tech nor law nor code nor markets are sufficient to reform Big " "Tech. But a profitable competitor to Big Tech could bankroll a legislative " "push; legal reform can embolden a toolsmith to make a better tool; the tool " "can create customers for a potential business who value the benefits of the " "internet but want them delivered without Big Tech; and that business can get " "funded and divert some of its profits to legal reform. 20 GOTO 10 (or " "lather, rinse, repeat). Do it again, but this time, get farther! After all, " "this time you’re starting with weaker Big Tech adversaries, a constituency " "that understands things can be better, Big Tech rivals who’ll help ensure " "their own future by bankrolling reform, and code that other programmers can " "build on to weaken Big Tech even further." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3720 msgid "" "The surveillance capitalism hypothesis — that Big Tech’s products really " "work as well as they say they do and that’s why everything is so screwed up " "— is way too easy on surveillance and even easier on capitalism. Companies " "spy because they believe their own BS, and companies spy because governments " "let them, and companies spy because any advantage from spying is so " "short-lived and minor that they have to do more and more of it just to stay " "in place." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3729 msgid "" "As to why things are so screwed up? Capitalism. Specifically, the monopolism " "that creates inequality and the inequality that creates monopolism. It’s a " "form of capitalism that rewards sociopaths who destroy the real economy to " "inflate the bottom line, and they get away with it for the same reason " "companies get away with spying: because our governments are in thrall to " "both the ideology that says monopolies are actually just fine and in thrall " "to the ideology that says that in a monopolistic world, you’d better not " "piss off the monopolists." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3740 msgid "" "Surveillance doesn’t make capitalism rogue. Capitalism’s unchecked rule " "begets surveillance. Surveillance isn’t bad because it lets people " "manipulate us. It’s bad because it crushes our ability to be our authentic " "selves — and because it lets the rich and powerful figure out who might be " "thinking of building guillotines and what dirt they can use to discredit " "those embryonic guillotine-builders before they can even get to the " "lumberyard." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><title> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3749 msgid "Up and through" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3751 msgid "" "With all the problems of Big Tech, it’s tempting to imagine solving the " "problem by returning to a world without tech at all. Resist that temptation." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3756 msgid "" "The only way out of our Big Tech problem is up and through. If our future is " "not reliant upon high tech, it will be because civilization has fallen. Big " "Tech wired together a planetary, species-wide nervous system that, with the " "proper reforms and course corrections, is capable of seeing us through the " "existential challenge of our species and planet. Now it’s up to us to seize " "the means of computation, putting that electronic nervous system under " "democratic, accountable control." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <article><sect1><para> #: how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.xml:3766 msgid "" "I am, secretly, despite what I have said earlier, a tech exceptionalist. Not " "in the sense of thinking that tech should be given a free pass to monopolize " "because it has <quote>economies of scale</quote> or some other nebulous " "feature. I’m a tech exceptionalist because I believe that getting tech right " "matters and that getting it wrong will be an unmitigated catastrophe — and " "doing it right can give us the power to work together to save our " "civilization, our species, and our planet." msgstr ""