H.ypocrisy, ”wrote Somerset Maugham,“ is the hardest and most horrible interest that anyone can pursue; it requires constant vigilance and rare spirit separation. Cannot be used, as adultery or gossip, at times; it’s a full-time job. ” In fact, that ‘s why it seems that many corporate leaders find it difficult to find time for their day – to – day jobs – to become senior executives.
Here for example Mark Zuckerberg the other day is on a regular call with stock market analysts. “Our aim,” he said, “is to provide every individual entrepreneur and small business with access to the same tools that only the big companies would have access to. historical. One of the things I am most proud of is that we are building the tools so that we can offer the same capabilities to small businesses, often for free. So when you hear people say that we have a lot of data, that is because there are hundreds of millions of businesses that would have to have done this on their own and it would not have been easy to do that. -now using our services to help them reach customers. Hearing people say that we are linking data from multiple sources means to help small businesses reach customers more efficiently. ”
Awww, shucks. Facebook maintains gazillions of exabytes of data just so it can help mom-and-pop businesses. Who knew? But now here’s Tim Cook, Apple’s boss, who doesn’t buy it. Speaking at this year’s Computers, Confidentiality and Data Protection conference on January 28, he said “At a moment of rampant misinterpretation and conspiracy theories put down by algorithms, we can no longer look turn a blind to a technology theory that says overall participation is good communication – at best – and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible. Too many still ask the question, ‘How far can we get away? ‘, When they have to ask,’ What ‘s the effect? What is the impact not only on tolerable, but beneficial content that weakens public confidence in life – saving vaccines? ”
Cook doesn’t mention Facebook or Google, of course, though those are the companies he’s referring to. But keep it up – isn’t Apple accepting between $ 8bn and $ 12bn a year from Google for the benefit of making Google the default search engine on iPhones and iPads? In other words, as Ben Thompson points out in his Stratechery newsletter, he accepts “money that comes from the very kind of advertising that Cook rejects in his speech. ”
And so on. Zuckerberg (owner of WhatsApp) ran about “competitors who make claims about privacy that are often deceptive”. What are the competitors? Ah: Apple, which has “iMessage storing encrypted backup of your messages by default unless you turn off iCloud, so Apple and governments have the ability to access most people’s messages. So when it comes to the most important things – protecting people’s messages, I think WhatsApp is much better. ”Which seems strange with the recent exodus from WhatsApp since Facebook announced some changes in the way data would be handled in the future. Cook retorts by celebrating how he stood up to the FBI after the 2015 San Bernardino shooting.
These types of exchanges have matured for the tech course as public dissatisfaction about the power of the companies has grown. In that context, the self-serving guff that senior executives typically exaggerate looks awful as a hypocritical cant. Zuckerberg and Cook may not be hypocrites for all I know, but looking at them through that moral lens is infertile: it directs our attention to their personalities rather than forwards. to the big corporations they run. And it is these corporations that are at the heart of our digital technology problems.
A few years ago, at a time when there was much concern about “ambition” and the prospects for humanity in a world where machines are under control, political theorist David Runciman calmly pointed out that stay under high-minded AIs for a couple. centuries. These are so-called corporations: sociopathic, socio-technical devices that will hard-pressed to try to fulfill any purpose set for them, which in our day is to “increase shareholder value”. Or, as Milton Friedman quickly put it: “The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to increase its profits.”
With that said, it doesn’t matter if those sitting at the top of big tech corporations are saints, sinners or just liars and hypocrites. Facebook could be completely staffed with clones of St. Francis of Assisi and would remain a poisonous group, pushing hard to fulfill the purpose assigned to it by Professor Friedman. So if we are to make things better, our focus must be on changing the purpose and duties of the machine, not on trying to get its leader to be present at the angels. better than nature.
What I read
John Naughton’s Recommendations
Home comforts
Airbnb listing Written by My Mom to Me is a beautiful spoof by Jenny Crowley on McSweeney’s.
Fake views
Great essay in NOEMA with philosopher Onora O’Neill on why the age of romantic romances is coming to an end.
Irresponsible adult
Nowhere in the US constitution are idiots barred from being members of Congress. Who knew? Column Nice Politico by Jack Shafer.