Senator opposes breaking up big tech, says Chinese firms will fill the void
After Wednesday's antitrust hearing examining Apple and other tech companies, one U.S. senator says he's hesitant to break up big tech companies in favor of China-based alternatives.
Credit: The Daily Beast
On Wednesday, Apple's Tim Cook and the chief executives of Amazon, Facebook and Google testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. During the hearing, they all defended their companies against accusations of anticompetitive behavior and political bias.
Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee and a former telecom executive, told CNBC Thursday that he's not in the "break-'em'-up category -- yet."
"These are all global companies. Frankly, to have them replaced by Alibaba or Baidu or Tencent - Chinese companies may not be the better alternative," Warner said.
The senator didn't take breaking up the companies off the table completely, saying that "what I would rather start with, keeping break-up as a reserve option, is, what can we do to add more competition? I think there are a series of pro-competition rules of the road that I would much rather use first before I immediately default to the break-up camp."
On the hearing itself, Sen. Warner noted that "some of the CEOs' testimony was a little bit self serving." Apple wasn't the primary focus of the grilling Wednesday, but Tim Cook did speak about various App Store policies and controversies.
Apple's practices also seemed to dodge Warner's other comments on Thursday, since the senator floated the idea of increasing transparency and flexibility surrounding how large companies handle data.
"I think we ought to have more transparency. I think you ought to be able to know what your data is worth on an either monthly or quarterly basis, so we get rid of this misnomer that somehow these services are free," Warner said. "They take your data, they monetize it - there's nothing wrong with that, but we ought to at least know as consumers how much that data is worth."
Apple, for its part, collects relatively little user data compared to companies like Google or Facebook, and takes steps to anonymize or secure the information it does gather.
Credit: The Daily Beast
On Wednesday, Apple's Tim Cook and the chief executives of Amazon, Facebook and Google testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. During the hearing, they all defended their companies against accusations of anticompetitive behavior and political bias.
Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee and a former telecom executive, told CNBC Thursday that he's not in the "break-'em'-up category -- yet."
"These are all global companies. Frankly, to have them replaced by Alibaba or Baidu or Tencent - Chinese companies may not be the better alternative," Warner said.
The senator didn't take breaking up the companies off the table completely, saying that "what I would rather start with, keeping break-up as a reserve option, is, what can we do to add more competition? I think there are a series of pro-competition rules of the road that I would much rather use first before I immediately default to the break-up camp."
On the hearing itself, Sen. Warner noted that "some of the CEOs' testimony was a little bit self serving." Apple wasn't the primary focus of the grilling Wednesday, but Tim Cook did speak about various App Store policies and controversies.
Apple's practices also seemed to dodge Warner's other comments on Thursday, since the senator floated the idea of increasing transparency and flexibility surrounding how large companies handle data.
"I think we ought to have more transparency. I think you ought to be able to know what your data is worth on an either monthly or quarterly basis, so we get rid of this misnomer that somehow these services are free," Warner said. "They take your data, they monetize it - there's nothing wrong with that, but we ought to at least know as consumers how much that data is worth."
Apple, for its part, collects relatively little user data compared to companies like Google or Facebook, and takes steps to anonymize or secure the information it does gather.
Comments
The most important reason I have sought out Apple computers for the past 40 years has been this ideology. While I am by no means a great programmer, I am a devoted follower and user because of the philosophy that Steve Jobs instilled in Apple, it aligns with my conception of a gainful prosperous life, that insists on giving back and being honest. There, I’ve written it down. And I challenge any serious Apple devotee to make an argument with that. Cheers to your day.
Just my humble opinion. No disrespect intended.
That is shocking! Someone needs to remind these highly-paid executives that, in the interests of their shareholders their testimony should be entirely self serving. Let the academics and retired execs offer the unbiased testimony.
I have made this point several times on here: a lot of the ways this issue gets viewed and covered is due to the undeniable fact that 95+% of the media is A) left-liberal or progressive and
But here is the reality:
A) data gathering and analytics and ad-targeting are all perfectly legal and have been for ages
C) there are tons of companies and entities whose gathering and use of data are far "less ethical" and come much closer to skirting legality than does Google and Facebook
All 3 of those points are unimpeachable. But because Apple has said "we are good because we sell hardware and Google/Facebook are bad because they give you free products that you pay for with your data and privacy" everyone buys it hook line and sinker. Why? Because Apple says so! It has nothing to do with Apple preferring that you buy their products and not a competitor's! No! Apple has been fighting the establishment ever since the 70s - remember that Super Bowl commercial against IBM? - so they're not big business! They're progressive like us!
And ... without any critical thinking either. Google and Facebook "make you the product" while on Apple hardware! They collect pretty much the data on you from an iPhone or MacBook that they do from an Android phone or Chromebook. Yet Apple doesn't stop them or block them. Instead they take Google's billions and direct search traffic to there instead of to GoDuckGo!
You love Apple. That is great. But lots of people love Facebook/Instagram. Lots of people love the fact that Amazon doesn't force them to rely on whatever inventory their local store in their medium-sized town happens to have on hand. And yes, lots of people like Google. Well even people who don't like "Google" certainly do like Gmail, YouTube, Chrome and even Android (if only because they love the fact that their iPhone and iPad adopts so many Android features!) making their disdain for Google every bit the cognitive dissonance of continuing to view Apple as the counterculture underdog little guy taking on the repressive right wing Wall Street private equity and fossil fuel suits.
Leave everybody alone? Fine. Go after everybody? Fine too. Go after everybody else and leave my company alone? Not gonna happen, nor should it.
There's clearly an agenda. Taking away Apple's power from the App Store will open the gates to more sh** like the government telling you that you don't own your company or telling you what you can sell and you're "Anti-competitive" if you don't sell X brand.
I'm thinking the U.S. wants to replace successful companies with Chinese services and Chinese knockoff Apple products. This hard-on that the U.S. and it's citizens have for communist China is something I don't understand. I've LITERALLY seen iKnockoff users say they hope the U.S. economy burns down so that Chinese companies like Huawei and Xiaomi take over Apple.
That post was so stupid I took it as sarcasm. If it isn't, help us God.
Google makes knockoff Apple products which selfishly put them in the same category. Despicable scum company. Now Apple has to deal with all their garbage as seen here.
You also misuse the term NIMBY, but we get the meaning.
The you go on to defend both FaceBook and Google even though you are positioning yourself as non-partisan, by saying that data gathering has gone on for a long time. This isn't any kind of argument, as data gathering is probably worse now given the range of these services, and because something hasn't been legislated against in the past doesn't mean it was legit.
Then there is a straw-man argument that Apple says "we are good because we sell hardware and Google/Facebook are bad because they give you free products that you pay for with your data and privacy". Apple doesn't say this explicitly as far as I can see. However it is true. Apple doesn't need to sell your data in the same way and in fact makes it very difficult to get information about people, to the extent of locking down local networks. Google lives off search. As does facebook. They need data.
Then you say:
"They collect pretty much the data on you from an iPhone or MacBook that they do from an Android phone or Chromebook. "
Which is empirically untrue. The Android phone is phoning home to Google all the time, location as well. Of course if people choose to download facebook, Facebook is going to extract some data, however iOS makes it harder for them. As was acknowledged by facebook recently and posted here:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/07/30/facebook-says-apples-ios-14-could-hinder-ad-revenue
"Facebook CFO David Wehner on Thursday said changes in the way Apple's iOS handles ad tracking tools will impact the social network's bottom line starting in the third quarter of 2020."