a few billionaires get more billions, taxpayer pays the costs via N.S.A. you lose all rights to privacy, Oh, you are told it is free.

but what do you do about an entity as powerful as Google?

From the article, he goes on to say:

And that's to say nothing of the company's newer, fledgling projects that give us plenty of fodder for speculation about Google’s future plans for world domination: its nascent robot army, its fleet of drones, its driverless cars, its race to the moon, its plan for internet expansion with Fiber and Loon, its Internet of Things infiltrating your home and your body, the artificial intelligence development, Glass, and I could go on and on.

"With the exception of biological viruses, there is nothing with such speed, efficiency and aggressiveness that spreads like [Google's] technology platforms, and this also lends its creators, owners and users with new power," wrote Döpfner.

He turned his focus for a bit on the issue of Silicon Valley arrogance more generally. On technolibertarian ideas like seasteading and succession, he wrote, "It does not take a conspiracy theorist to find them disturbing, especially if you listen to the words of Google's founder and major shareholder Larry Page. He dreams of a place with no privacy laws and without democratic accountability."

spying while Google bends over to give them anything they want.

It's just like how we obsess over Wal-Mart while Amazon treats it people worse and is taking over the world.

Priorities, people.

NSA, Google, Walmart, Amazon.

How do we mitigate their power over all of us? It's not enough to say--just don't participate. Helps, but very hard to do and we need protections that go beyond that.

Amazon will sell you this book:



The author mentions the privacy protections that need to happen at govt level. In the current climate in the US, how do we do this? (Questions not directed at you personally, OP poster)

getting that book on Amazon!

Anyway, I have no good ideas on how to stop it all since most of us are complicit in it. Can we create the propaganda that counteracts the propaganda backed by billions?

I think we have to go for laws governing privacy and limits to data mining.

That does take a consensus that we have a problem that needs addressing.

They are not.
They are the heads of the one Hydra,
and they are joined together in Washington.

and nobody touched it because they were too busy taking a victory lap and shining Ed's Pulitzer:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101690498

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-google-is-transforming-power-and-politicsgoogle-once-disdainful-of-lobbying-now-a-master-of-washington-influence/2014/04/12/51648b92-b4d3-11e3-8cb6-284052554d74_story.html

Why are all these tech giants in the United States? Part of this monopoly was created when Europe didn't bother to compete with us. They seem to have nothing comparable to our level of innovation. Think of Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Ebay, why are all these companies in the US? Why doesn't Europe compete with us?

If the Germans don't want so much power held in the hands of so few, then start inventing successful websites that can compete with Google. Don't fall hopelessly behind and then whine that an American company holds all the power.

or a nation in the same way as the US is.

The EU is more like the Tea Party would like America to be: a collection of sovereign countries with a weak federal government.

The EU can't get its act together (to act collectively) because of that.

Britain, France and Germany individually have more weight on the international stage than the EU.

Do you think that Europe or any one country in it--could really compete with American dominance in tech and information-gathering behemoths? American companies are global in scope. They got out ahead for reasons too numerous to list.

It's not just about innovation--it's about the wide open American unregulated market.

It's about the fact that American companies pay no taxes, unlike Europe.

It's about the fact that America is a corporatocracy with power unlike any country in Europe.

We have a government agency--the all seeing NSA--in cahoots with and supporting many of these particular companies.

It's likely that European countries (except for our partner-in-crime England) trusted America to respect individual privacy and assumed we have limits on data-mining. This was before Snowden remember. Now they are struggling to grasp the fact that they too are in the dragnet.

Do you understand--there IS no competition ????????????????????????????????????

You seem to think there is really a likelihood of there being a level playing field in this--the old Libertarian "free market competition, no strings." That's a joke.

Neither tax breaks nor "corporatocracy" made Google or Facebook into tech behemoths. The major European countries can't even compete with the state of California. Hell, I'll put my own small state (Washington) up against anything in Europe. 7 million people and we have Microsoft (biggest software maker), Amazon (biggest online retailer), Valve (biggest digital distributor of games), etc.

Germany has >10x our population. We're saddled with our supposedly failed education system. So where the fuck has Germany been?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Technology_companies_of_Germany

That's pitiful. My tiny state trounces them, and I'll wager we trounce any European country.

We're just the best at technology, hands down.

OK

You have no idea what the difference between America and Europe is.

You illustrate my points--thanks.

but rather than google is a private organization with immense power and access to private information.

i mean, this could just be because the guy heads a similar company, but the complaint isn't necessarily about the country of google's origin

What I'm trying to figure out is, how is that even avoidable? Google is so dominant that those powers are intrinsic due to the nature of the business.

The only way for Google to not have that sort of power is for competitors to steal their market share. Europe is so hopelessly behind it's pretty shocking when you consider their population, wealth and education system.

they never have been.