Big Tech's Power Over Our Privacy
There is an urgency to reclaim privacy from tech. companies that offer few options for users to decide how their data is collected and used. The monopolistic power of large tech. companies contributes to the perpetuation of this problem. Furthermore, the increasing digitisation of everyday tasks have made people reliant on the services provided by a handful of tech. companies, and consent for data collection becomes coerced as soon as the users realise the lack of comporable alternatives.
What we urgently require is a rebalancing of power between data subjects and tech. companies, and besides forcibly breaking up tech. companies, the task can be done by the establishment of a powerful representative committee that can do tasks such as but not limited to co-authoring privacy terms with tech companies, collectively bargaining to secure better and safer use of data, provide a means for users with data to be paid in exchange for consenting to provide data to corporations, to push government officials to modernize and reform privacy laws, among other decisions that can be taken.
The relations between such a Privacy Union and tech. companies would resemble those between a trade union and employers. Where a trade union uses its collective bargaining power to secure decent wages and working conditions, a Privacy Union may borrow power from data subjects’ solidarity to curb tech companies’ insatiable quest for data. The fight to retake privacy must not take the form of powerless individuals protesting against the powerful — data subjects must negotiate with tech companies on equal terms. Therefore, to mitigate the power of large corporations over our data and our lives there is ultimately a need for a Privacy Union to fight for our privacy.