WHY DO WE NEED A PRIVACY ELITE?

The watchdogs that should be keeping an eye on Google and Meta are in their thrall instead

Andrew Orlowski

OVER A DECADE AGO, THE PRIME MINISTER, David Cameron, appointed an ambassador to a road junction. No.10’s publicity stunt gave “Silicon Roundabout” — the name given to what the Government hoped would become a booming cluster of technology startups at London’s Old Street (right) — a make-believe diplomatic status. It was a surreal time. New Media gurus asked “What Would Google Do?” — consciously echoing the Imitatio Christi. The editor of Wired magazine, Chris Anderson, proposed in his book Free that we should consider abolishing the price of digital goods. Subtitled The Future of a Radical Price, the book was available in hardback for $29.99. All this malarkey served a strategic purpose, however. It was brilliant propaganda, and an exhibition of Californian passive aggression. The world would have to conform…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, August/September 2024

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