From: Petter Reinholdtsen Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2020 09:43:38 +0000 (+0200) Subject: Extract texts into POT format. X-Git-Tag: nb-printed-2021-01-24~482 X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/text-destroy-surveillance.git/commitdiff_plain/bde5ce5ec9640142d07f80f5cc630314766ce182 Extract texts into POT format. --- diff --git a/po/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.pot b/po/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.pot new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bd4abe --- /dev/null +++ b/po/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism.pot @@ -0,0 +1,4701 @@ +# SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE +# Copyright (C) YEAR Free Software Foundation, Inc. +# This file is distributed under the same license as the PACKAGE package. +# FIRST AUTHOR , YEAR. +# +#, fuzzy +msgid "" +msgstr "" +"Project-Id-Version: PACKAGE VERSION\n" +"POT-Creation-Date: 2020-09-06 11:38+0200\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: +#: complete-book.xml:4 +msgid "en" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: +#: complete-book.xml:6 +msgid "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo> +#: complete-book.xml:8 +msgid "<pubdate>2020-??-??</pubdate> <edition>1</edition>" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><releaseinfo> +#: complete-book.xml:10 +msgid "git-utgaven" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><authorgroup><author><firstname> +#: complete-book.xml:13 +msgid "Cory" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><authorgroup><author><surname> +#: complete-book.xml:14 +msgid "Doctorow" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><publisher><address> +#: complete-book.xml:19 +#, no-wrap +msgid "<city>Oslo</city>" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo> +#: complete-book.xml:17 +msgid "" +"<publisher> <publishername>Petter Reinholdtsen</publishername> <placeholder " +"type=\"address\" id=\"0\"/> </publisher>" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject> +#: complete-book.xml:25 +msgid "" +"<imageobject> <imagedata fileref=\"images/cc.png\" contentdepth=\"3em\" " +"width=\"100%\" align=\"center\"/> </imageobject> <imageobject> <imagedata " +"fileref=\"images/cc.svg\" contentdepth=\"3em\" width=\"100%\" " +"align=\"center\"/> </imageobject>" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject><textobject><phrase> +#: complete-book.xml:32 +msgid "Creative Commons, Some rights reserved" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para> +#: complete-book.xml:24 +msgid "<placeholder type=\"inlinemediaobject\" id=\"0\"/>" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para> +#: complete-book.xml:38 +msgid "" +"This book is licensed under a Creative Commons license. This license permits " +"any use of this work, so long as attribution is given. For more information " +"about the license visit <ulink " +"url=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/\"/>." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:46 +msgid "The net of a thousand lies" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:48 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:56 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:63 +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, “race science” " +"has never been easier to refute." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:69 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:75 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:88 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:95 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:104 +msgid "" +"So can these far-fetched conspiracy theorists really be succeeding on the " +"basis of superior arguments?" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:108 +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 “radicalization”</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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:124 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:129 +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 " +"“corruption”) — is making people vulnerable to conspiracy theories?" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:139 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:147 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:159 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:165 +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 “extremist” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:176 +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 " +"“solutions” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:186 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:194 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:198 +msgid "Digital rights activism, a quarter-century on" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:200 +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 “clicktivism”</ulink>). But as tech has grown more central to our daily " +"lives, these accusations of irrelevance have given way first to accusations " +"of insincerity (“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>”) to accusations of negligence (“Why didn’t you " +"foresee that tech could be such a destructive force?”). 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:221 +msgid "" +"The latest version of this critique comes in the form of “surveillance " +"capitalism,” 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 “surveillance capitalism” is a unique creature of the tech " +"industry and that it is unlike any other abusive commercial practice in " +"history, one that is “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.” It is a new and deadly form of capitalism, a “rogue " +"capitalism,” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:242 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:248 +msgid "Tech exceptionalism, then and now" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:250 +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 “tech exceptionalism.” Around the turn of the millennium, serious " +"people ridiculed any claim that tech policy mattered in the “real world.” " +"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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:265 +msgid "" +"In the decades since, accusations of “tech exceptionalism” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:273 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:284 +msgid "" +"The “surveillance capitalism” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:292 +msgid "But tech exceptionalism is a sin no matter who practices it." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:295 +msgid "Don’t believe the hype" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:297 +msgid "" +"You’ve probably heard that “if you’re not paying for the product, you’re the " +"product.” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:307 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:319 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:326 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:340 +msgid "What is persuasion?" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:342 +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 “persuasion.”" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:348 +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: <book><chapter><blockquote><para> +#: complete-book.xml:357 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:362 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><title> +#: complete-book.xml:369 +msgid "1. Segmenting" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:371 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:382 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:396 +msgid "This is seriously creepy." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:399 +msgid "But it’s not mind control." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:402 +msgid "It doesn’t deprive you of your free will. It doesn’t trick you." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:405 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:416 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:426 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:437 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:446 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><title> +#: complete-book.xml:455 +msgid "2. Deception" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:457 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:469 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:479 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:486 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:497 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><title> +#: complete-book.xml:514 +msgid "3. Domination" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:516 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:525 +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 “How long is the Brooklyn Bridge?” 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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:538 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:550 +msgid "" +"Zuboff calls surveillance capitalism a “rogue capitalism” 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: <book><chapter><sect1><title> +#: complete-book.xml:565 +msgid "4. Bypassing our rational faculties" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:567 +msgid "" +"<emphasis>This</emphasis> is the good stuff: using machine learning, “dark " +"patterns,” 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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:573 +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 “social proof” 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 " +"“own” something because we bid on it, thus encouraging us to bid again when " +"we are outbid to ensure that “our” things stay ours." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:586 +msgid "" +"Games are extraordinarily good at this. “Free to play” 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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:597 +msgid "" +"Companies have risen and fallen on these techniques, and the “fallen” 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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:607 +msgid "" +"That’s why behavioral conditioning uses “intermittent reinforcement " +"schedules.” 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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:615 +msgid "" +"Intermittent reinforcement is a powerful behavioral tool, but it also " +"represents a collective action problem for surveillance capitalism. The " +"“engagement techniques” 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 " +"“pull to refresh” 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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:630 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:645 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:653 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:663 +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: <book><chapter><sect1><para> +#: complete-book.xml:681 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:688 +msgid "If data is the new oil, then surveillance capitalism’s engine has a leak" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:691 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:698 +msgid "" +"Zuboff observes this phenomenon and concludes that data must be very " +"valuable if surveillance capitalism is so hungry for it. (In her words: " +"“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.”) " +"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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:713 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:718 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:732 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:739 +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 “races,” sticking instead to " +"conspiratorial secret histories of “demographic replacement” and the like." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:746 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:756 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:771 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:779 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:790 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:804 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:812 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:817 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:826 +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 “voter " +"suppression” if you can convince your marks to confine their search terms to " +"“voter fraud,” which throws up a very different set of search results." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:835 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:842 +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 " +"“neurolinguistic programming” phrases, body language techniques, and " +"psychological manipulation tactics like “negging” — offering unsolicited " +"negative feedback to women to lower their self-esteem and prick their " +"interest." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:850 +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’ “success” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:861 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:870 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:888 +msgid "" +"Department store pioneer John Wanamaker is said to have lamented, “Half the " +"money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which " +"half.” 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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:898 +msgid "What is Facebook?" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:900 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:912 +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 “Like” 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: <book><chapter><blockquote><para> +#: complete-book.xml:926 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:931 +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 “loyalty” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:942 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:954 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:965 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:970 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:985 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1001 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1009 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1022 +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 “brand " +"recognition.” This means that the price per ad is very low in nearly every " +"case." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1033 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1041 +msgid "" +"With nothing but “organic” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1047 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1058 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1069 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1079 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:1091 +msgid "Monopoly and the right to the future tense" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1093 +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 “the right to the future tense” — that is, " +"the right to decide for yourself what you will do in the future." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1100 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1111 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1119 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1125 +msgid "" +"Start with “digital rights management.” 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 “anti-circumvention” rule." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1131 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1139 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1151 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1159 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1166 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1174 +msgid "" +"That’s where Section 1201 of the DMCA comes in: By banning tampering with an " +"“access control,” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1181 +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: <book><chapter><itemizedlist><listitem><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1189 +msgid "" +"Any device with software in it contains a “copyrighted work” — i.e., the " +"software." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><itemizedlist><listitem><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1195 +msgid "" +"A device can be designed so that reconfiguring the software requires " +"bypassing an “access control for copyrighted works,” which is a potential " +"felony under Section 1201." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><itemizedlist><listitem><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1202 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1210 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1215 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1224 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1237 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1247 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1260 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1274 +msgid "" +"Zuboff calls surveillance capitalism a “rogue capitalism.” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1285 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:1294 +msgid "Search order and the right to the future tense" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1296 +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, “I don’t care who does the electing, so " +"long as I get to do the nominating.” A monopolized market is an election " +"whose candidates are chosen by the monopolist." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1308 +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 “Are vaccines dangerous?” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1320 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1326 +msgid "" +"This is true whether the search is for “Are vaccines dangerous?” or “best " +"restaurants near me.” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1337 +msgid "" +"Many of the questions we ask search engines have no empirically correct " +"answers: “Where should I eat dinner?” is not an objective question. Even " +"questions that do have correct answers (“Are vaccines dangerous?”) 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1348 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1364 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1374 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1389 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1404 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:1416 +msgid "Monopolists can afford sleeping pills for watchdogs" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1418 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1428 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1434 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1440 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1449 +msgid "" +"But still, firms continue to over-collect and over-retain our data for three " +"reasons:" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1453 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1465 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1478 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1489 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1499 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1506 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1514 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1520 +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 “free” and autocratic states — is to suborn commercial services." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1528 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1546 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1555 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1569 +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: <book><chapter><blockquote><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1578 +msgid "" +"While surveillance doesn’t cause monopolies, monopolies certainly abet " +"surveillance." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1583 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1591 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1599 +msgid "But that threat grows out of monopoly." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1602 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1610 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1619 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1629 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1637 +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 (“circumventing”) them, and these statutes have been " +"used to threaten security researchers who make disclosures about " +"vulnerabilities without permission from manufacturers." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1645 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1653 +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 “rogue capitalism” 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 " +"“rogue capitalism” than surveillance capitalism’s influence campaigns." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1663 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1672 +msgid "" +"In software design, “technology debt” 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 “pay off " +"the debt” once and for all." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1690 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1701 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:1713 +msgid "Privacy and monopoly" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1715 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1727 +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 “respectable” 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 “cure” gay people, history is littered with the formerly respectable " +"titans of discredited industries." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1739 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1745 +msgid "" +"There’s real irony here. The belief in surveillance capitalism as a “rogue " +"capitalism” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1752 +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 “fully hedged” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1767 +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 “Like” button is that Facebook dominates the internet’s " +"social media referrals — and every one of those “Like” buttons spies on " +"everyone who lands on a page that contains them (see also: Google Analytics " +"embeds, Twitter buttons, etc.)." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1776 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1784 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1789 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1795 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1806 +msgid "" +"In other words, while surveillance doesn’t cause monopolies, monopolies " +"certainly abet surveillance." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:1810 +msgid "Ronald Reagan, pioneer of tech monopolism" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1812 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1824 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1836 +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 " +"“diseconomies of scale” (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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1845 +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 “consumer harm” — in the form of higher " +"prices." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1855 +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 “monopoly rents” (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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1863 +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 “borked” to refer to any catastrophically bad political " +"performance)." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1872 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1882 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1894 +msgid "" +"Today, many fear that machine learning allows surveillance capitalism to " +"sell “Bork-as-a-Service,” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1907 +msgid "" +"The idea that tech forms “natural monopolies” (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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1919 +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 “curation” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1933 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1945 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1960 +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 (“It was the " +"environmental toxins”), true believers in unregulated markets have a whole " +"suite of unconvincing explanations for monopoly in tech that leave " +"capitalism intact." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:1972 +msgid "Steering with the windshield wipers" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1974 +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 “delicate and dainty” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1984 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:1992 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2002 +msgid "" +"It’s like a 1960s science-fiction plot come to life: People stuck in a " +"“generation ship,” 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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:2012 +msgid "Surveillance still matters" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2014 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2021 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2028 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2037 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2058 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2066 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2073 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2081 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2090 +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 “suspicious characters.” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2106 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2118 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2126 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:2137 +msgid "Dignity and sanctuary" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2139 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2144 +msgid "" +"This is an area where Zuboff shines. Her chapter on “sanctuary” — the " +"feeling of being unobserved — is a beautiful hymn to introspection, " +"calmness, mindfulness, and tranquility." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2149 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2165 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2173 +msgid "" +"To be observed in these activities is to lose the sanctuary of your " +"authentic self." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2177 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2188 +msgid "" +"Our devices and services are “general purpose” 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 “running late can " +"you get the kid?” to “doctor gave me bad news and I need to talk to you " +"RIGHT NOW”) as well as ads for refrigerators and recruiting messages from " +"Nazis." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2198 +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 “sleep deprivation torture,” 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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:2207 +msgid "Afflicting the afflicted" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2209 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2216 +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 “free " +"societies” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2226 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2231 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2244 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2251 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2258 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2270 +msgid "A private realm is necessary for human progress." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:2273 +msgid "Any data you collect and retain will eventually leak" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2275 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2281 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2289 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2301 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2314 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2319 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2327 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:2335 +msgid "Critical tech exceptionalism is still tech exceptionalism" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2338 +msgid "" +"Big Tech has long practiced technology exceptionalism: the idea that it " +"should not be subject to the mundane laws and norms of “meatspace.” Mottoes " +"like Facebook’s “move fast and break things” attracted justifiable scorn of " +"the companies’ self-serving rhetoric." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2344 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2348 +msgid "" +"Big Tech is not a “rogue capitalism” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2358 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2364 +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 “50% of my advertising budget is " +"wasted, I just don’t know which 50%” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2374 +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 " +"“artificial intelligence” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2386 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2400 +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 “Big Five” personality traits</ulink> as a primary means of " +"influencing people even though the “Big Five” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2410 +msgid "" +"Big Tech’s promotional materials also claim that their algorithms can " +"accurately perform “sentiment analysis” or detect peoples’ moods based on " +"their “microexpressions,” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2423 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2435 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2445 +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 “invention” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2460 +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 “invention” that you haven’t actually " +"made and that you don’t know how to make." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2466 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2473 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2483 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2494 +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 “collects as much data as possible” might realize a bigger return " +"on investment than “collects a business-appropriate quantity of data.”" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2503 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:2517 +msgid "" +"How monopolies, not mind control, drive surveillance capitalism: The " +"Snapchat story" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2520 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2530 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2542 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2550 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2558 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2570 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:2582 +msgid "A monopoly over your friends" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2584 +msgid "" +"A decentralization movement has tried to erode the dominance of Facebook and " +"other Big Tech companies by fielding “indieweb” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2591 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2601 +msgid "" +"All of this has conspired to make Facebook — and other dominant platforms — " +"into “kill zones” that investors will not fund new entrants for." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2606 +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: <book><chapter><blockquote><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2613 +msgid "The hard problem of our species is coordination." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2617 +msgid "" +"“Interoperability” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2626 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2641 +msgid "" +"“Interoperability” is often used interchangeably with “standardization,” " +"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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2649 +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 “neutral interoperability.”" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2660 +msgid "" +"Beyond neutral interoperability, there is “adversarial interoperability.” " +"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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2668 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2677 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2690 +msgid "" +"Adversarial interoperability has played an outsized role in the history of " +"the tech industry: from the founding of the “alt.*” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2704 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2719 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2729 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2737 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2742 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2754 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2764 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:2776 +msgid "Fake news is an epistemological crisis" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2778 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2785 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2791 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2799 +msgid "" +"That means that whenever a regulator asks a question with an obvious, " +"empirical answer (“Are humans causing climate change?” or “Should we let " +"companies conduct commercial mass surveillance?” or “Does society benefit " +"from allowing network neutrality violations?”), 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2808 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2817 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2826 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2833 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2845 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2856 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2862 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2876 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2893 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2902 +msgid "Right now, it’s obviously not." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2905 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2913 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2924 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2933 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2950 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2958 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2967 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2975 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2980 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2985 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:2996 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3001 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:3010 +msgid "Tech is different" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3012 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3020 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3025 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3036 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3041 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3047 +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, “Turing complete” computer that can run every program we " +"can express in symbolic logic." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3056 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3065 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3070 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3076 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:3084 +msgid "Ownership of facts" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3086 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3093 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3100 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3107 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3114 +msgid "" +"But the phone numbers Facebook nonconsensually acquires in this transaction " +"are not the “property” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3123 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3136 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3145 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3154 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3165 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3180 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3194 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:3204 +msgid "Persuasion works… slowly" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3206 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3215 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3226 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3236 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3245 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:3264 +msgid "Paying won’t help" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3266 +msgid "" +"As the old saw goes, “If you’re not paying for the product, you’re the " +"product.”" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3270 +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 “compete with free” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3282 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3295 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3305 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3324 +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 “engage” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3335 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3342 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3347 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3358 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3363 +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 “house rules” " +"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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3377 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3390 +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 “rogue " +"capitalism” 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 “rogue capitalism.”" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3402 +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 “choosing” their services regardless of " +"whether they want them — it’s fine to be terrible when there is no " +"alternative." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3412 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:3427 +msgid "An “ecology” moment for trustbusting" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3429 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3436 +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 “consumer benefits” of large companies with massive efficiencies " +"of scale." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3444 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3452 +msgid "Could we find that political will again?" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3455 +msgid "" +"Copyright scholar James Boyle has described how the term “ecology” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3463 +msgid "" +"But the term “ecology” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3474 +msgid "" +"I believe we are on the verge of a new “ecology” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3480 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3490 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3496 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3501 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3513 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3522 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3531 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3543 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3553 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:3561 +msgid "Make Big Tech small again" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3563 +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: <book><chapter><blockquote><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3573 +msgid "" +"A future U.S. president could simply direct their attorney general to " +"enforce the law as it was written." +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3578 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3586 +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 " +"“education” 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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3595 +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, “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>.” 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 " +"“consumer harm” in the form of higher prices, but also, <emphasis>get rid of " +"other monopolies, too.</emphasis>" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3609 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3618 +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: “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.”" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:3635 +msgid "20 GOTO 10" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3637 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3644 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3651 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3656 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3668 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3682 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3691 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3702 +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: <book><chapter><title> +#: complete-book.xml:3711 +msgid "Up and through" +msgstr "" + +#. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3713 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3718 +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: <book><chapter><para> +#: complete-book.xml:3728 +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 “economies of scale” 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 ""