Big Tech is making a bad political miscalculation.
The British government tried in vain to set up a test-and-tracing app. This was to help manage the country’s exit from lockdown. Apparently, Apple refused to allow the government to have details of users’ interactions with others. Obviously, without that, the app would be useless. The fact is that many aspects of today’s technology take the form of utilities, like water or electricity. People must have access to such utilities to live in today’s society. Government has the choice whether to own these utilities or sub-contract them out to the private sector. If it is the latter, then government needs to set up bodies to monitor the privatised utilities to prevent them exploiting their customers.
Big Tech companies seem to want the best of both worlds, to operate as private companies and to avoid government regulation and monitoring. Meanwhile, they peddle the line that they are the ones protecting people from Big Government. No surprise that Apple, Facebook (also named in this article), Amazon and Google are the amongst the most valuable in the world today. If they persist in thwarting the state, which explicitly exists to order and protect people’s lives, then they will be brought to heel at some point.
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