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Justice Department to Open Broad, New Antitrust Review of Big Tech Companies

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by TheresTheDagger, Jul 23, 2019.

  1. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    Harvesting our information to inject into the data profile they already have on every single American to profit.
     
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  2. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    How? How are they profiting of this besides being contracted to do work?
     
  3. Andre0087

    Andre0087 Member

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    It's hard to trust a company with sensitive data such as medical records when they make most of their money from advertisements. Seems like a major conflict of interest to me.
     
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  4. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    Okay but selling this data to advertisers would be a blatant violation of HIPAA and be very difficult to hide.

    Ascension contracted Google to use their server infrustrcture and indexing expertise to create alogirthms to better serve their patients.

    Tech news can be often hyperbolic and misleading for click bait.
     
  5. Amiga

    Amiga I get vaunted sacred revelations from social media
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    "secret" probably got some eyebrows up. Every project at Google started out as a secret project.
     
  6. Amiga

    Amiga I get vaunted sacred revelations from social media
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    So they used learned data to predict health for every single American? That was already happening but not automatic or on a large scale. The potential for abuse is great but the potential for social benefits is also great. I don't want to see innovation stiffen just because, GOOGLE... but safeguards and concerns should be raised early and often.

    More reasons why we need Congress and the Admin to be technologically advance - that means new young blood.
     
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  7. Amiga

    Amiga I get vaunted sacred revelations from social media
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    The project itself is.. pretty lame, relatively. Not really AI.

    https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/11...records-project-nightingale-privacy-ascension

    https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/inside-google-cloud/our-partnership-with-ascension

    Our work with Ascension focuses on three things:

    • Shifting Ascension’s infrastructure to the cloud: The partnership will modernize Ascension’s infrastructure, enabling them to migrate their on-premise data warehouse and analytics environments to their own private and secure Google Cloud environment. Key elements of this work will focus on network and system connectivity, data integration, privacy and security, and compliance.

    • Using G Suite productivity tools: This will enhance Ascension employees’ ability to communicate and collaborate securely in real time, supporting interdisciplinary care and operations teams across Ascension sites of care.

    • Extending tools to doctors and nurses to improve care: We aim to provide tools that Ascension could use to support improvements in clinical quality and patient safety.
     
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  8. Amiga

    Amiga I get vaunted sacred revelations from social media
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    Facebook Antitrust Suit: FTC, 48 States Claim Illegal Monopoly (gizmodo.com)

    Dozens of attorney generals, as well as the Federal Trade Commission, filed two separate lawsuits against Facebook on Wednesday which attempt to break the social media giant into its component parts: specifically, the divestiture of WhatsApp and Instagram.

    The lawsuits claim Facebook illegally suppressed competition by purchasing rival companies that challenged its dominance. This includes its purchase of Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, and its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014. Facebook’s aggressive acquisitions of competing companies, which helped bring the company’s total value to more than $800 billion, violates the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act, the lawsuits claim.

    “Facebook has used its monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the effort, said in a statement posted to Twitter. “Instead of improving its own product, Facebook took advantage of consumers and made billions of dollars converting their personal data into a cash cow.”

    Deleware Attorney General Kathy Jennings echoed James, comparing Facebook to the railroad and telecom monopolies of the past.

    “Whether it’s railroads, telecom, or social media, monopolies undermine our economy’s foundation of consumer choice,” Jennings said in a statement. “Facebook knowingly, openly, and illegally made digital hostages of its users and developers over a decade of unfair acquisitions and mistreatment of developers. We are suing not just to hold this company accountable for its conduct, but to release consumers from a monopoly and to allow Delawareans the choice and freedom they deserve.”

    In much the same vein, the FTC is seeking a permanent injunction in federal court that could, among other things: require divestitures of assets, including Instagram and WhatsApp; prohibit Facebook from imposing anticompetitive conditions on software developers; and require Facebook to seek prior notice and approval for future mergers and acquisitions.

    “Personal social networking is central to the lives of millions of Americans,” Ian Conner, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. “Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition. Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive.”

    In a statement, Facebook’s VP and general counsel, Jennifer Newstead, claimed the lawsuits were “revisionist history” because it received regulatory approval to purchase WhatsApp and Instagram in the first place. This, of course, ignores the fact that approving an acquisition in no way insulates a company from future legal or regulatory scrutiny. Facebook further asserted that its products are good for users and small businesses “because our apps and services deliver the most value.”

    “This is revisionist history. Antitrust laws exist to protect consumers and promote innovation, not to punish successful businesses. Instagram and WhatsApp became the incredible products they are today because Facebook invested billions of dollars, and years of innovation and expertise, to develop new features and better experiences for the millions who enjoy those products,” Newstead said. “The most important fact in this case, which the Commission does not mention in its 53-page complaint, is that it cleared these acquisitions years ago. The government now wants a do-over, sending a chilling warning to American business that no sale is ever final. People and small businesses don’t choose to use Facebook’s free services and advertising because they have to, they use them because our apps and services deliver the most value. We are going to vigorously defend people’s ability to continue making that choice.”

    The FTC began looking into Facebook’s anticompetitive practices last summer, while several states began a similar investigation several months after.

    In addition to New York, Delaware, plaintiffs in the state lawsuit include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, the territory of Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
     
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  9. Andre0087

    Andre0087 Member

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    Glad to see a bipartisan group of states hit Facebook with this suit. While Congress still has its thumb up its ass at least the states are trying to get something done.
     
  10. tinman

    tinman Contributing Member
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    How are they going to beat Facebook? when Facebook can just point to TikTok and say there's our competition.
     
  11. Andre0087

    Andre0087 Member

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    Go back in time and tell that to standard oil.
     
  12. tinman

    tinman Contributing Member
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    I got my money on facebook, they can afford the better lawyers
     
  13. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    Elizabeth Warren wants to break up big tech so they'll stop sending her snotty tweets

     
  14. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    Isn't it because of attempts at union busting and horizontal and vertical integration?

    Oh you are trying to be funny. Nevermind. Sometimes poorly executed humor doesn't come through text well.
     
  15. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    free speech issue. Big Tech has a constitutional right to heckle U.S. Senators with snotty tweets
     
  16. London'sBurning

    London'sBurning Contributing Member

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