Big Tech has amassed historically unprecedented levels of wealth power by selling American’s personal information in return for “free” access to their respective sites. In short, instead of Americans paying for product, Americans are the product, to the point where they are being tracked and data-mined 24/7/365, at levels of intrusion that make George Orwell’s Big Brother seem benign by comparison.
In Australia, the government considered legislation that would require Facebook and Google to pay to link to Australian news stories. Facebook’s initial response? The company banned users from posting Australian news content. It insisted the proposal “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content,” and that news sites already benefit from Facebook referrals.
Great first step towards reining in these out-of-control platforms
Ultimately both companies folded when Australia added binding arbitration on the costs associated with those payments. The digital platforms will get one month’s notice before they are formally designated under Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, giving those involved more time to broker agreements before they are forced to enter binding arbitration.
It’s a great first step towards reining in these out-of-control platforms. Now, let’s go in for the proverbial kill.
What I’m proposing applies to ordinary Americans who don’t have the kind of clout possessed by government, Google, Facebook or all the other corporate behemoth who traffic in our personal information for profit. And if America's Congress has an ounce of courage, the following could revolutionize the entire data-mining/surveillance landscape:
If one writes a song, a book, etc. and copyrights it, anyone who uses it must pay its creator a royalty.
Congress should pass a law extending such copyright protections to all of one's personal information. Thus, when corporations sell that info, one should get a royalty payment based on some percentage of that sale.
Toward that end, Congress should also give American an opportunity to renegotiate all preexisting agreements that one is forced to sign in order to access Facebook, Twitter, etc., and require that royalty clause to be included in all such user-provider agreements going forward.
At the point one of two things will happen: Americans will make a lot more money—or get a lot more privacy.
It doesn’t get more win-win than that.
Big Tech has amassed historically unprecedented levels of wealth power by selling American’s personal information in return for “free” access to their respective sites. In short, instead of Americans paying for product, Americans are the product, to the point where they are being tracked and data-mined 24/7/365, at levels of intrusion that make George Orwell’s Big Brother seem benign by comparison.
In Australia, the government considered legislation that would require Facebook and Google to pay to link to Australian news stories. Facebook’s initial response? The company banned users from posting Australian news content. It insisted the proposal “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content,” and that news sites already benefit from Facebook referrals.
