I know that my views on this subject are more like those of Europeans than of Americans. It’s interesting to see the notion that companies like Google and Facebook don’t own the data they collect about you gaining traction. At Bloomberg View Kara Alaimo declaims:
Many people think that it’s an invasion of privacy for companies to gather sensitive data — such as information about our relationships and medical history — and exploit it for commercial purposes. It could also widen social divisions. For example, Facebook determines our political beliefs based upon the pages we like and preferences we list on our profiles. If algorithms peg us as conservative or liberal and we’re targeted with ads accordingly, we may end up never understanding what people of other political persuasions think. Internet activist and author Eli Pariser has argued that America is so politically polarized in part because social media sites leave us in “filter bubbles.†Targeted political advertising could have the same effect.
That’s part of the reason why, in May, a new regulation will go into effect into the European Union giving citizens the “right to object†to “processing of personal data†about them for marketing and other purposes. As Andrus Ansip, the European Commission vice president for the digital single market, tweeted, “Should I not be asked before my emails are accessed and used? Don’t you think the same?†The new law overcame serious opposition from the advertising industry, whose representatives argue that it will disrupt ad revenues needed by the media. Experts say that websites will have to provide more valuable content to users as an incentive for readers to allow them to use their data.
I wonder how long it will be before there’s a more general recognition of how fragile the business models of the Internet titans are? Nobody has a right to a business model. Business models aren’t assets; they’re risks.
