Bill Gates issued a warning on technology giants Apple, Facebook and Alphabet’s Google to stop empowering a “small group of people” that cause damage as Government regulations presence becomes more and more noticed in Silicon Valley regarding privacy terms and violations based on suspicions.
Gates expressed his concern due to the tech giant’s constant supremacy competition in which, according to him, human values are neglected. Many see failure in these companies due to their lack of self-regulation towards the negative effects they’ve caused on society. This, however, has been the subject of many criticisms of the industry.
Another subject related to the lack of self-regulation addressed by Gates was the struggle of major tech companies to keep hateful or inappropriate content off from their platforms, especially when today’s era has been developing extra sensitivity when it comes to delicate subjects. Gates spoke about the importance of integrity in Silicon Valley when it comes to avoiding this.
Gates’s big picture about tech in his own words
Microsoft’s co-founder pointed out that companies should be careful when it comes to preventing the government from doing their job using inappropriate policies. Firms fear exposure of millions of users because of an investigation of one particular person of interest.
According to Gates, tech companies must advocate for the consumer’s privacy and warned that this government related behavior could bring a “nightmarish” new way on how intimacy is handled in the new technological era and that it could ultimately backfire on tech companies since resisting legitimate oversight could bring unimaginable problems to the industry.
One of Microsoft’s headman predictions is based on the development of law enforcement and writing throughout history. Technology as a pillar for the modern age and part of mankind will become part of a new imminent surveillance system for government’s law enforcement and development.
This could have a drastic impact on the way the consumer is involved with major companies’ devices if government surveillance through smartphones or computers keeps increasing; either because of growing discontent and lack of trust towards these companies or because of the way the government would cling to technology control as it evolves.
However, Gates also stated that a smaller group may not always be specifically the government. The philanthropist’s concern is also directed at the larger-scale damage that technology can do, for example, how terrorist groups might employ basic tech to spread “bioterror or cyber terror”
He stated that “the tech companies have to be … careful that they’re not trying to think their view is more important than the government’s view, or than the government being able to function in some key areas.”
Source: Axios