There is an abiding dream in the tech world that when all the planet’s people and data are connected it will be a better place. Equifax , the credit reporting bureau, became brilliant at vacuuming up all your personal credit data — without your permission — and selling it to companies that wanted to lend you money. I’m with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who told CNBC, “So long as there is no personal responsibility when these big companies breach consumers’ trust, let their data get stolen, cheat their consumers ... then nothing is going to change.”Facebook, Google and Twitter are different animals in my mind. It’s already started.These companies make billions selling our data, but they’re ambivalent about taking responsibility “for the uses, and abuses, of their platforms,” argued Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel. But when they allow our personal data — or elections — to be hacked, there’s not much we can do about it.”“A century ago, we found ways to rein in the unaccountable power associated with the Industrial Revolution," Sandel concluded.

Source: Economic Times October 11, 2017 07:52 UTC