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more on Realities of Skype and eBay
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:12:50 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org> Date: September 13, 2005 12:54:26 PM EDT To: dave () farber net, Ip Ip <ip () v2 listbox com> Subject: Re: [IP] more on Realities of Skype and eBay At 08:59 AM 9/13/2005, Bruce Krulwich wrote:
If people are concerned about privacy and security, why is everone concerned only about big companies?
Because big companies, historically, have been the most flagrant abusers of customers' personal data. Witness the flap over customers' calling records (which the Bells, not long ago, wanted to sell to third parties). Had a small company done that, its customers likely would have fled in a moment. But when a monopolist (and eBay/Paypal has a virtual monopoly on both online auctions and online auction payments) abuses its position, there is far less that consumers can do. So, a large company, and especially a monopolist, is more likely to commit abuses. eBay, for example, allows advertisers which plant tracking cookies on visitors' machines to advertise on its site. And eBay itself tracks users' progress through its site. If it owns Skype, it would -- like the Bells -- have records of your calls. Would it abuse that information? Would it sell it? The larger it gets, and the more confident it is that consumers will put up with such behavior, the more likely it is to do so.
Let's also be sure not to consider people suspect just because they're successful.
Alas, companies -- once they grow beyond sole proprietorships or very closely held corporations -- cease to be, or even resemble, "people." Worse still, they are not held by our current system to the same ethical standards as are people, even though they have more power to abuse and thus are more likely to abuse it. And because our corporate system values profit over all (in fact, a corporation can be sued for pursuing virtually ANY policy that does not return maximum profit to stockholders), the pressure on such entities to commit abuses where there is something to be gained is enormous. Were our system set up so that larger entities were more accountable rather than being less accountable (which, in general, they are due to their ability to hire lawyers and lobby), if their interests were aligned with those of the public, and/or if their power was more strictly limited, it would be prudent to trust them. But in our world as it exists today, it is not. In fact, it is exceedingly unwise to do so. Any large or publicly held corporation must be considered suspect -- and monopolists most of all. --Brett Glass ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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