Silicon Valley’s Vast Data Collection Should Worry You More Than TikTok
When Google starts to have any inclination to put a bag over my head if I search the wrong thing, sure.<p>When Google starts having an interest in being able to blackmail people to get them to spy on their country or give up IP, then sure.<p>When the US Government can unilaterally demand security cooperation from Google in any way, shape, or form like the Chinese government can, then sure.<p>When the tech companies actually start censoring aggressively and hunting people down(rather than just removing enough to satisfy angry people), then sure.<p>One problem is the data. The other (larger) problem is how each controlling entity wants to use the data.<p>Google wants to sell ads. They don’t care about your porn preferences, whether you have a mistress, or whether you do drugs. Maybe the ads approach is obnoxious, but that is all it is. They want to sell stuff, not take over the world.<p>The Government of China wants power. They want influence. They want information. They want control. And no Chinese company is allowed to refuse its pursuit of those.<p>And even if both countries required the same absolute cooperation from their tech companies, governments In the West are very limited in their ability to take the kind of actions against their citizens that the Government of China can.<p>The US Government isn’t even allowed to tax a newspaper excessively, yet alone throw the editor in jail for running critical content.