For the first time since 2001, the bulk collection of metadata is set to end Nov. 29. It’s a victory that privacy advocates have long sought. Yet to their chagrin, that power will likely be reallocated to a few private institutions.
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, passed by the Senate on Oct. 27, would grant private companies civil immunity if they violate customer agreements pertaining to data security. One major tech company, Facebook, asserted that it doesn’t have a position on the matter. However, sources on Capitol Hill said the company’s lobbyists supported it in private sessions, because the company would value protection from disgruntled consumers.
Information held by Facebook on 1 billion users around the globe represents a trove of data for the feds, and it’s one reason that “information sharing” is replacing traditional methods of data collection.
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Retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who served as head of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, commented on the power that tech companies wield in September remarks.
“If [Google co-founder] Sergei Brin and [Apple chairman] Eric Schmidt decide to move the line on what defines appropriate privacy,” Hayden said, “that probably has more of an impact in the real sense than [Defense Secretary] Ash Carter trying to make a similar decision.”
And their influence is expected to only grow. Tech stocks have been surging, and their growth has pushed some market indices to levels that haven’t been seen since the tech crash in March 2000. This time, it looks like they could continue to surge instead of crashing back down.
“Investors are still valuing technology as a growth sector, which is appropriate, because the entire world is moving online,” Michael Fertik, a Harvard Law graduate who raised millions in venture capital to create Internet startup Reputation.com, told the Washington Examiner. “So these companies are still growing between 100 and 120 percent per year.”
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On the heels of that assessment, Apple announced in its fourth quarter report that it made the largest annual profit of any company in history. Its iPhones, Apple Watches and newly-released televisions powered the company to $51.5 billion in revenue. That panoply of products give provide the company with the potential to see, hear and locate consumers at all times.
Yet as some companies continue to surpass old limits, others have not done as well. In spite of beating quarterly profit and revenue estimates, Twitter’s stock declined by more than 10 percent after its report due to a less ambitious revenue forecast for the upcoming quarter. The company has stiff competition to contend with, most notably from Facebook, which has sought to incorporate all of Twitter’s services on one platform by rolling back privacy settings and increasing the reach of its search function.
Today’s corporate giants are expected to retain their momentum as they increasingly corner the tech market. Given that dynamic, it’s little wonder the federal government wants to make it a little easier to get in on their data. It’s also why, in spite of ending bulk data collection, federal overseers may ultimately have access to more data than ever before.
