I could not agree more. However they really do have astonishing market power. Like the position in Android means that they know where I am at all times. What they can and cannot use that info for in other businesses is an issue - a legit issue.
Writing the rules about it will be hyper hard - and the DOJ are flailing around like idiots.
Most of the lawyers in the government trying to go after Google are really going after one thing. A lucrative position in Google's legal department after this fails and they leave government.
You are mistaking in terms of how the technology works.
i.E if you search for New York bookstores, then it can show you relevant bookstores and ads. It should not show you New York bookstores and ads based on the fact that in Sydney you often searched bookstores and your location is now in New York.
Same with the routes. Google can use that data, and put the duration of the routes into a combined database. It should not (as it now does), retain information about every trip that you took on that route, linked to your identity.
Google is insanely undermining our privacy and given the how many products they killed (killedbygoogle.com) and the fact that many google search results are SEO sites, and Youtube search is absolutely useless now (abusing their monopoly here, to maximise revenues) - the only reason why they have not made all their products worse is that people would complain a lot.
FB is similar. They can go to,say, a short-term accommodation provider in any city, and say 'We know X thousand people who are moving to your city this week - we won't tell who they are: but we CAN guarantee to put your ad in front of every one of them.'
The know because FB users are always saying what they are doing... it's the old IT saying: if it's free, you are the product. But it also enables features, as you say. Apple's percentage of revenue App Store entry ticket is a better example of monopoly rent IMO.
this is market power primarily delivered by user demand, not control of supply. We are generally on it because we like it, not because we are trapped.
I could not agree more. However they really do have astonishing market power. Like the position in Android means that they know where I am at all times. What they can and cannot use that info for in other businesses is an issue - a legit issue.
Writing the rules about it will be hyper hard - and the DOJ are flailing around like idiots.
what you are missing is that google uses their monopoly to suppress competing products.
Most of the lawyers in the government trying to go after Google are really going after one thing. A lucrative position in Google's legal department after this fails and they leave government.
You are mistaking in terms of how the technology works.
i.E if you search for New York bookstores, then it can show you relevant bookstores and ads. It should not show you New York bookstores and ads based on the fact that in Sydney you often searched bookstores and your location is now in New York.
Same with the routes. Google can use that data, and put the duration of the routes into a combined database. It should not (as it now does), retain information about every trip that you took on that route, linked to your identity.
Google is insanely undermining our privacy and given the how many products they killed (killedbygoogle.com) and the fact that many google search results are SEO sites, and Youtube search is absolutely useless now (abusing their monopoly here, to maximise revenues) - the only reason why they have not made all their products worse is that people would complain a lot.
FB is similar. They can go to,say, a short-term accommodation provider in any city, and say 'We know X thousand people who are moving to your city this week - we won't tell who they are: but we CAN guarantee to put your ad in front of every one of them.'
The know because FB users are always saying what they are doing... it's the old IT saying: if it's free, you are the product. But it also enables features, as you say. Apple's percentage of revenue App Store entry ticket is a better example of monopoly rent IMO.