The world’s digital giants are in rude financial health. In August 2018 Apple became the first ever trillion-dollar company; since then Amazon and Microsoft have taken turns holding the title of the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.
But this remarkable economic growth is matched by an equally remarkable track record of questionable practices. Facebook is under fire for its role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal last year, which exposed millions of users’ personal data. More recently it was shown to be monitoring smartphone app usage of people who were not even Facebook users. Google, criticized for promoting self-harm videos to teenagers via YouTube (which it owns), also forgot to tell people it had installed a microphone into their Nest Security System. Other lowlights include Uber being fined a combined $150 million for a mass data breach and sexual harassment of staff, and WhatsApp’s failure to tackle misinformation leading to mob killings in India and Myanmar. Another day, another dollar – earned from another depressing breach of trust.
