Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. In our shift to a digital future, we need alternatives to Big Tech. Homepage: techtonic.fm

Also available as an MP3 podcast. More info at our Podcast Central page.

November 26, 2018: Jonathan Tepper, author, "The Myth of Capitalism"

Listen to this show:  Pop-up player!

This week: Jonathan Tepper, author of The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition

Relevant links:

• Twitter: @jtepper2

• Book site: mythofcapitalism.com

• Author site: jonathan-tepper.com

• See also: The Monopolization of America (NYT, Nov 25)

Recent News



• In the aftermath of Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis (NYT, Nov 14), Sandberg first categorically denied any knowledge or involvement in Facebook's anti-Semitic smear campaign against George Soros. Then, as the NYT's Nick Confessore, put it,...

On Thanksgiving eve, Fb dumps the internal memo version of a hostage video.
1) Outgoing Sandberg deputy Shrage takes fall for Definers.
2) Sandberg, who denied knowing Fb hired them, now acknowledges that Definers work product crossed her desk.

More in On Thanksgiving Eve, Facebook Acknowledges Details of Times Investigation (NYT, Nov 22).

• Jason Kint points out Facebook's PR strategy of dumping bad news before holidays:

11/21/18 Thxgiving eve - Soros memo dump
11/5/18 Election eve - Myanmar Report
12/22/17 Fri before Xmas - launches Russia propaganda check tool
11/22/17 Thxgiving eve - announces Russia check tool
4/14/17 Fri before Easter - disclose purge millions of fake accounts

• Break up Facebook (and while we're at it, Google, Apple and Amazon), writes Robert Reich (Guardian, Nov 20): "America responded to the Gilded Age’s abuses of corporate power with antitrust laws that allowed the government to break up the largest concentrations. ... It is time to use antitrust again. We should break up the hi-tech behemoths, or at least require they make their proprietary technology and data publicly available and share their platforms with smaller competitors."

• Easiest Fix for Facebook: Break It Up, writes Joe Nocera (Bloomberg.com, Nov 21): Facebook is "a monopoly, having either bought or crushed most potential competitors. It stifles innovation; as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Noah Smith noted recently, potential startups can’t get capital if venture capitalists think they might wind up as Facebook roadkill. (Such companies are said to be in Facebook’s 'kill zone.')"

• Embattled and in over his head, Mark Zuckerberg should — at least — step down as Facebook chairman (Washington Post, Nov 19): "Although Zuckerberg often says the right words ('I started this place, I run it. I’m responsible for what happened here'), his behind-the-scenes behavior tells another story: The buck never seems to stop with Zuckerberg, despite his immense and closely held power."

• Here’s How To Finally Fix Facebook: Barry Lynn of the Open Markets Institute writes (Nov 16): "It’s vital for the U.S. government to begin immediately to restructure the corporation. This is not a matter simply of replacing Mark Zuckerberg as CEO. Nor a matter only of adopting new national privacy rules, as Europe did earlier this year. What the government must do now is fundamentally alter how Facebook earns its money. The advertising-based revenue model must go."

• This would be a good day to delete your Facebook account, writes Keith Olbermann, reacting to this Guardian piece about Parliament seizing Facebook documents at a London hotel.

• Do You Have a Moral Duty to Leave Facebook? (NYT, Nov 24): Yes. "Facebook can be time-consuming and addictive... Facebook use can worsen depression and anxiety... Facebook has played a significant role in undermining democratic values around the world. For example, Facebook has been used to spread white supremacist propaganda and anti-Semitic messages in and outside the United States. The United Nations has blamed Facebook for the dissemination of hate speech against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar that resulted in their ethnic cleansing. Facebook also enabled the political data firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest the personal information of millions of voters in the United States... Some people might think that because they mostly share photos of their cats on Facebook, such concerns do not apply to them. But this is not so."

To delete your Facebook account, go to deletefacebook.com. While you're at it, get off of Gmail and Google Search, too! See nomoregoogle.com.

• Wanted: The ‘perfect babysitter.’ Must pass AI scan for respect and attitude. (Washington Post, Nov 23): "Predictim, an online service that uses 'advanced artificial intelligence' to assess a babysitter’s personality, aimed its scanners at one candidate’s thousands of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts. The system offered an automated 'risk rating' of the 24-year-old woman, saying she was at a 'very low risk' of being a drug abuser. But it gave a slightly higher risk assessment — a 2 out of 5 — for bullying, harassment, being 'disrespectful' and having a 'bad attitude.' The system didn’t explain why it had made that decision."

• Data could be what Ford sells next as it looks for new revenue (Nov 13): "Ford CEO Jim Hackett gave a glimpse into what sounds like a potentially massive data mining plan... 'We have 100 million people in vehicles today that are sitting in Ford blue-oval vehicles. That’s the case for monetizing opportunity versus an upstart who maybe has, I don’t know, what, they got 120, or 200,000 vehicles in place now. And so just compare the two stacks: Which one would you like to have the data from? ... 'The issue in the vehicle, see, is: We already know and have data on our customers. By the way, we protect this securely; they trust us... We know what people make. How do we know that? It’s because they borrow money from us. And when you ask somebody what they make, we know where they work, you know. We know if they’re married. We know how long they’ve lived in their house because these are all on the credit applications. We’ve never ever been challenged on how we use that. And that’s the leverage we got here with the data."

• You Snooze, You Lose: Insurers Make The Old Adage Literally True (ProPublica, Nov 21): "Millions of sleep apnea patients rely on CPAP breathing machines to get a good night’s rest. Health insurers use a variety of tactics, including surveillance, to make patients bear the costs. Experts say it’s part of the insurance industry playbook."

• The Next Data Mine Is Your Bedroom: Google wants to scan your clothing and listen to you brush your teeth (The Atlantic, Nov 17): In a new Google patent, "Google imagines devices that would scan and analyze the surroundings of your home, then offer you content based on what they detect. According to the patent, the smart cameras in such a device could, for example, recognize Will Smith’s face on a T-shirt on the floor of a user’s closet. After matching this analysis against your browser history, the device might then say aloud, 'You seem to like Will Smith. His new movie is playing in a theater near you.'"
... but it's not just Google: "Just this month, the insurance company United Healthcare began partnering with employers to offer free Apple Watches to those who hit certain fitness goals. Insurers might also offer benefits to residents whose homes prove their fitness or brand loyalty—and punish those who don’t. Health insurers could use data from the kitchen as a proxy for eating habits, and adjust their rates accordingly. Landlords could use occupancy sensors to see who comes and goes, or watch for photo evidence of pets. Life-insurance companies could penalize smokers caught on camera. Online and in person, consumers are often asked to weigh privacy against convenience and personalization: A kickback on utilities or insurance payments may thumb the scales in Google’s favor."

• Facebook Filed A Patent To Predict Your Household's Demographics Based On Family Photos (BuzzFeed News, Nov 15): "The social media giant didn’t specify exactly what kind of demographic information its proposed system would predict, other than the number of people in a household, but its data policy specifies that demographics could include gender and age. The application makes clear that the information is intended to help Facebook target advertising more effectively: 'Existing solutions of content delivery to a target household are not effective ... Without such knowledge of a user’s household features, most of the content items that are sent to the user are poorly tailored to the user and are likely ignored by the user.'"

- - -

PODCAST: Subscribe to the Techtonic podcast