EARL OF HUNTINGDON said:[May 6,2016 4.36pm]
Asking these companies to self-regulate or to cease capturing behavioral surplus data voluntarily, to paraphrase Zuboff, would be like asking them to commit business suicide.
So perhaps their customers should insist upon it, even if they have to use harsh language.
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Prof SHOSHANA ZUBOFF in her earlier work, also carried by the FRANFURTER ALLEMEIGNE ZEITUNG in its Feuilleton/FEATURES section dated 30 April 2014 “
Response to Mathias Döpfner: DARK GOOGLE” had said:
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“Things are moving fast. This is why the world now looks to the E.U. – not to Google – to reverse the growing menace of absolutism and the monopoly of rights. The EU can stand for the double movement. It can represent the future and assert the dominion of democratic rights and the principles of a fair marketplace. These are the precious victories of a centuries-long struggle, and we dare not abandon them now”
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I SAY:
Thank you EARL OF HUNTINGDON for highlighting Prof. Zuboff’s cautions regarding some of the implications of allowing the B2C companies [Business-to-Consumers] Google and Facebook –and their equivalents capturing/stealing data about their users personality and selling the resulting data & the resulting computations/algorithms based on knowledge of their users personality as evidenced through their websites.
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Prof Zuboff was correct [in 2014] in looking towards the Institutions & the 510m peoples of the EU with their attitudes to Data Privacy and also correct in hoping that the other countries that align their Data Privacy attitudes, laws & practices with the EU will be able to “tame the evil beast”.
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Since 2014 we have seen the following be reported through the pages of the FRANFURTER ALLEMEIGNE ZEITUNG and other media:
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In fairness to the readers of the FRANFURTER ALLEMEIGNE ZEITUNG they will be aware that Frankfurt has been the Commercial Capital and also the Financing Capital of the German-speaking countries for at least 400 years now.
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They will be very well aware that it was the German Constitutional Court that pioneered the way for ALL EU National Supreme Courts to allow the EU Court System to decide what EU-wide “Rights & Privileges” might be—- by “referring” the question—in the deciding German case concerning the Bundesbank’s argument about the powers of the ECB[European Central Bank] in creating financing instruments in Euro’s that competent German authorities felt was “ultra vires”[beyond the powers of]the ECB as explained here.
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They will have been very well aware that the legal technique of “referral” was cited by the Irish Supreme Court in the Case Schrem vs Facebook [with the Republic of Eire being the legal home of the EU Division of both Facebook & also Apple (both US -originated B2C companies having an attitude that “lying to your users/customers” is perfectly acceptable conduct because you will never be punished—“cheating is for winners, honesty is for losers.”)].
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Max Schrems is from Wien/Vienna & speaks German & you can see his continuing efforts [in English] to punish Facebook here
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They will have been very well aware that the President of the EU Parliament Martin Schulz [USA= Speaker of the US House of Representatives+ Majority Leader,US Senate, combined position] in his keynote speech setting out the mission of the newly appointed EUROPEAN DATA SUPERVISOR [created to unify all 26-27 EU nations Data Privacy laws & Practices into one single EU-wide law & practice] insisted that “technological determinism” ought to have NO PLACE in the lives of the EU’s people’s—and with the laws of the EU routinely including a provision for “encouraging” other nations to “come up to” EU standards & practices—these philosophies will likely go easily to other European-heritage countries [e.g.non-USA countries in the America’s, Australia has already insisted in the proposed TPP agreement that it will follow European Data Privacy laws].His official speech is here and The Guardian’s version is here
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They will have been aware that the [newly empowered] European Data Supervisor has started by insisting on the need for a philosophical framework to what Data Privacy Rights & Privileges might be need by creating a DATA ETHICS Group as explained here. [.pdf] The argument is bigger than Prof Zuboff’s argument—-it is more akin to the arguments in the 1960’s & 1970s about advances in medical & biological knowledge—how to decide what should or not be prohibited—if I can grow a human child outside the womb of its natural mother & “give the child the gift” of three[3] arms on its right side and 0/zero arms on its left [always “its” never “her” or “his”]—I should be allowed to—right?. I’m “advancing medical knowledge” aren’t I? It is my democratic right—no?
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Because Frankfurt is the Financing Capital of Germany and the City of London is the EU’s Financing Capital—they will likely have been aware that the British Parliament has suggested , and the Cameron Administration has agreed , that Britain also should have a [National] Data Ethics Group with suggestion that Britain will gain if they create their “Code of Conduct” and such, faster than Brussels could do.
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Many American companies settle their EU Divisions Head Offices in English speaking countries, with so much of the World’s Financing Needs & Software [“FinTech”] already coming out of Britain & Ireland, with the Commercial Court in London settling so much of the world’s cross-border Business litigation– the belief at Westminster and in Whitehall is that Britain would gain more if it was “firstest with the mostest” when it comes to the direction of Data Privacy laws & practices.
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They MAY have been aware of the example of “technological determinism” reported on by the World News section of the BBC [itself a 2015 winner of yet another Peabody Award for Excellence in Journalism *] when they analyzed Apple’s latest Global Transparency report showing that while American police forces “receive assistance” from Apple in extracting data from Apple’s devices & accounts in as much 80% of the time—the Rest-of-the-World’s police forces “received assistance” less than 60% of the time”—& the senior management of Apple have explained to Europol & will have explained to various German police forces—“There is nothing we can do—it is all in the software you know”
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Finally, any English speaking readers of the FRANKFURTER ALLEMEIGNE ZEITUNG who are also readers of [English-language only] THE ECONOMIST will know that in the March 26,2016 edition [www.economist.com] after analyzing 900 different sectors of the profit-seeking section of the USA’s economy noted with some alarm that:
i)the “concentration” [very few competitors actually competing] level of numerous industries has increased significantly in the last 20 years
ii)that has produced historically very high levels of profits for corporations &
iii)that historically high level of profits has occurred ONLY in the USA divisions of such industries—NOT in the European or Asian divisions &
iv)the companies that dominated their industries 20 years ago –in the USA— are exactly the same companies that dominated those industries/sectors 20 years ago.
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Inevitably THE ECONOMIST advised that: a) this country should look towards the EU for guidance on how to organize a “New Approach” to Anti-Trust [aka Mandatory Competition]—-something the good folks at Google will tell you all about here .
The Economist Editorial can be seen here and the detailed analysis can be seen here
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* [snip] The BBC reminded us why it’s the gold standard of electronic-media news with its wide-ranging, richly detailed, deeply humane television and radio reporting …………………

With link.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/07/sports/baseball/turinabol-dopers-new-drug-is-an-old-one-used-by-east-germany.html