Why we need to nationalize Facebook, Amazon, and Google?

[kentuck]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/30/nationalise-google-facebook-amazon-data-monopoly-platform-public-interest

<snip>
A crisis is looming. These monopoly platforms hoovering up our data have no competition: they’re too big to serve the public interest

<snip>
For the briefest moment in March 2014, Facebook’s dominance looked under threat. Ello, amid much hype, presented itself as the non-corporate alternative to Facebook. According to the manifesto accompanying its public launch, Ello would never sell your data to third parties, rely on advertising to fund its service, or require you to use your real name.

The hype fizzled out as Facebook continued to expand. Yet Ello’s rapid rise and fall is symptomatic of our contemporary digital world and the monopoly-style power accruing to the 21st century’s new “platform” companies, such as Facebook, Google and Amazon. Their business model lets them siphon off revenues and data at an incredible pace, and consolidate themselves as the new masters of the economy. Monday brought another giant leap as Amazon raised the prospect of an international grocery price war by slashing prices on its first day in charge of the organic retailer Whole Foods.

<snip>
As a result, we have witnessed the rise of increasingly formidable platform monopolies. Google, Facebook and Amazon are the most important in the west. (China has its own tech ecosystem.) Google controls search, Facebook rules social media, and Amazon leads in e-commerce. And they are now exerting their power over non-platform companies – a tension likely to be exacerbated in the coming decades. Look at the state of journalism: Google and Facebook rake in record ad revenues through sophisticated algorithms; newspapers and magazines see advertisers flee, mass layoffs, the shuttering of expensive investigative journalism, and the collapse of major print titles like the Independent. A similar phenomenon is happening in retail, with Amazon’s dominance undermining old department stores.

[fescuerescue]

1. Well that would be interesting.

Maybe merge Amazon with USPS.

Merge Facebook with the US Census. Talk about your synergies!

And naturally, Google should just be department under the NSA or CIA.

Sounds like a plan.

[msongs]

2. wrong. FB and @mazon are completely avoidable. only google applies here

because it is so tied into accessing the internet itself. associating with FB and amazon are just preferences and both are easily avoided

[Cal Carpenter]

4. Wrong. Look up Amazon Web Services

That is a huge part of what they do. Ties into the accessing of the internet as well.

A quick google search got me to this article fwiw, which will give you some info:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/03/01/amazon-control-internet-aws-cloud-services-outage/98548762/

[msongs]

5. not using any amazon services. by choice. nt

[Cal Carpenter]

6. LOL you didn't even look at it, did you? n/t

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Every website you visit is collecting your data, both personal information you provide and

behavioral data regarding how long you spend on a page, what you click on, what makes your interest flag or rise. Large employers are doing it too -- not just tracking your web browsing, but correlating your reported experience and sentiment with different levers such as managers, pay levels, benefits, working conditions, etc. Focusing on three brands misses the bigger issue.

[yallerdawg]

8. I use a free 'blocker.'

I get no ads at DU - Star Member - but just clicking on this OP and your comment, 4 forms of tracking including information collectors were blocked.

Same for social media - sometimes I get over 150 blocks on one page!

[moondust]

7. Wall Street luuuuuuuvs a monopoly!

Just ask Bill Gates.

And now Jeff Bezos, who makes as much in a minute as the average millenial does in a year.

https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-net-worth-2017-10

[CozyMystery]

9. I go on the internet for a couple of hours, and have

to clean up between 75 (if I'm only at DU) and 500 tracking files. This despite using NoScript and uBlock.

Every couple of hours, I clean my computer using BleachBit, CCleaner, AVG PC Tuneup, Malwarebytes, and Wise Registry Cleaner. At the end of the day, I run all of these twice, and still get lots of tracking files (allegedly) deleted.

Meanwhile, using my paid VPN, no matter which country and level of security I'm signed in to, if I click on an amazon link, amazon shows my account sign-in. How does Amazon know it's me? I don't use my VPN when I shop at amazon and I don't stay signed in there. I shop there because so many things I use are available there and not here (rural area), plus I have my Kindle to feed.

I deleted my FB and Twitter accounts, and use DuckDuckGo instead of Google. I bought a second Paperwhite to use only for Amazon-related material. When the primary unconnected Paperwhite needs to be updated, I move its contents to Calibre (special library for that), update it, and then disconnect it from the web and put my books back on.

All this to say I am really pissed off about the lack of privacy protection when I use my computer, phone, or Kindle. I don't want my personal data vacuumed by anyone for any reason, without my permission. I don't want my expensive cell phone to be hostage to whatever the provider wants to put on it without me having to jump through hoops to get the stuff off or to live with apps I don't want or need, but cannot remove.

I don't care if all this data is anonymized. It's mine. And I don't want it to be used to make rich people richer, or for any other reason.

James Patterson has a thriller out about Amazon -- called The Store. Not so far-fetched any more. And perhaps a subplot of a modern day take-off on a segment of George Orwell's 1984.