I got email from the New York State Communist Party. How on earth did this unknown party, from a distant continent, find my personal Gmail?
After reading the book The 50 Most Dangerous Companies in the World by journalists Juha-Pekka Raeste and Hannu Sokala, I started to understand how my contact information might have ended up in strange hands.
On the list of dangerous corporations, the Internet giant Google (owner of search engine, YouTube, Gmail, Chrome...) has been raised to number one. Google collects data of its users for example through the Internet searches they make. So Google has followed and saved my activities online and sold my contact information, among others with the same kind of profile, to a suitable buyer.
As Hannu Sokala sums it up: true that Google provides us with a search engine, YouTube and Android free of charge. But in return we give Google our whole digital identities - data on all that we do online.
The loss of privacy is traumatic already in itself. Sokala and Raeste also remind the readers of the frightening - and undemocratic - power of the Internet giants. With the user data obtained from Facebook, both Donald Trump's and the pro-Brexit Vote Leave campaigns were winged to victory, as user data was exploited for campaigning without permission. Everyone can judge whether the results of the campaigns were in the public interest.
Due to their size, the Internet monsters like Google, Facebook / Meta and Microsoft also have direct political power. According to the book's sources, for example, Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt has lobbied decision-makers so that the big companies and the state work together to outsource schools, hospitals and police and other services to private companies.
Threat to Democracy and Justice
As long as the monster corporations like Google, Facebook or Amazon operate in an environment which is at least to a certaint extent democratic, as in the US or in the EU, their actions may be guided, monitored and sanctioned by legislation, to protect citizens from privacy violations and targeted political brainwashing made possible by algorithms. Sadly, the power of legislation and democratic organs in controlling big companies seems quite poor, according to Raeste and Sokala.
But what about the security of citizens of Russia and China, for example? The book gives chilling examples of how unprotected Chinese citizens and especially the Uyghurs are already now when the state administration and operators like Tencent and WeChat work together.
The 50 Most Dangerous Companies in the World is a massive book, but highly recommendable reading for its comprehensibility. Actually, it should be basic information for all citizens.
The book explains what uberization means, what the working conditions are behind the facades of Amazon and Apple; how megabanks, such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan or Deutsche Bank, have destabilized the world economy with their blunders; the power of Saudi Aramco and the murder of journalist Khashoggi; the rise to power of Duterte in the Philippines with the help of fake news on Facebook, among other things.
Those who want to believe in functioning capitalism should read this book to understand what it really means when "the winner takes it all". Global, big companies are like black holes which eat their small, innovative challengers and at the same time destroy genuine competition and local businesses. Who really wants this to happen?
The writers point out that the big companies are eager to discuss megatrends like climate change in public but, having become fabulously, unfathomably rich, they cleverly keep silent about fairer income distribution or the major changes going on in working life. Big companies lean against cheap labour force which deepens economical inequality. Decent working conditions and a sufficient livelihood are vital issues for 99 percent of the world's population.
Even though our shared world is shaped massively by the pursuit of profit and the decision-making by big companies, there is still a lot to be desired in terms of how they bear their responsibilities.
The 50 Most Dangerous Companies in the World. Juha-Pekka Raeste & Hannu Sokala. 2021.
Pictures Pixabay
Comments