Tech is fond of its mantras, especially in Silicon Valley, and the latest seems to be, ‘It’s You, Not Us.”

23andMe tells victims it’s their fault that their data was breached, TechCrunch reported. In December, 23andMe admitted that hackers had stolen the genetic and ancestry data of 6.9 million users, nearly half of all its customers.” Since users “had opted-in to 23andMe’s DNA Relatives feature, an optional feature allows customers to automatically share some of their data with people who are considered their relatives on the platform,” the hackers were able to scrape personal data from another 6.9 million customers whose accounts were not directly hacked.

The original hack had been to some 14,000 accounts.

“But in a letter sent to a group of hundreds of 23andMe users who are now suing the company, 23andMe said that “users negligently recycled and failed to update their passwords following these past security incidents, which are unrelated to 23andMe.”

So, the platform is seemingly easily hacked – yet their data being breached is the users’ fault? Says a lot about the DNA of the company, what, eh?

Self-driving cars have been responsible for a number of accidents and deaths, the first one having been in 2018 when Self-driving Uber kills Arizona woman in first fatal crash involving pedestrian. “The self-driving technology is supposed to detect pedestrians, cyclists and others and prevent crashes,” wrote The Guardian. “John M Simpson, privacy and technology project director with Consumer Watchdog, said the collision highlighted the need for tighter regulations of the nascent technology.”

Even some would be helpful. This just in: In California, Self-Driving Cars Are ‘Untouchable’ From Traffic Laws. “…An internal memo from San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott has brought this limitation to light, explicitly stating that “no citation for a moving violation can be issued if the [autonomous vehicle] is being operated in a driverless mode,” wrote MSN, despite the numerous traffic violations that have resulted in the loss of life and limb. But what can you do? Oh, wait! “While California grapples with this issue, other states like Texas and Arizona have adapted their traffic laws:…the owner of a driverless car is considered the operator and can be cited for traffic violations, irrespective of their physical presence in the vehicle.”

Well, that was hard!

In California’s case, is this agenda policy? When you’re dealing with tech, which, let’s face it, is one of California’s chief industries, tech always seems to get the benefit of the doubt. As if there is any, in this case, but no matter.

From the Blame It on the Bossa Nova department, Cruise, the self-driving car subsidiary of General Motors, tried to send a 45-second video to regulators of an incident in which one of its driverless cars dragged a pedestrian 20 feet but was hampered by “internet connectivity issues,” according to a report compiled by a law firm (hired by Cruise) investigating the incident.

“In the immediate hours after the incident, some Cruise employees were unaware that the vehicle dragged the pedestrian while attempting to pull over and issued a press statement and began sharing an early video with journalists.”

That was before the video was pulled and the talking points changed. “Cruise’s leadership was “fixated” on correcting the media narrative that the Cruise vehicle, and not the hit-and-run driver, had caused the accident. This “myopic focus” led the company to omit details about the role its own vehicle played in injuring the pedestrian. Cruise’s failure to correct the record led regulators and the media to accuse the company of misleading them, the firm states.”

Taking a page from the 23andMe defense, in the case of Cruise, it seems it was the internet’s fault and considering the laws enacted in Texas and Arizona, always good to get ahead of potential problems.

We can’t say that that defense would work in Texas, who, for the record, was way ahead of the curve in Enact(ing) Regulations for Self-Driving Cars – in 2017. California has removed the Cruise cars from the road, at least for now, but the regulations haven’t been altered one iota.

Just goes to show you, tech et al: don’t mess with Texas.

The mantras that had distinguished Silicon Valley – ask forgiveness, not permission, move fast and break things – and moved the needle in days gone by seemed to have worked for just so long.  Time will tell if the “anyone-but-us is at fault” defense we’re seeing in the cases of both 23andMe and Cruise will be the replacement any time soon.

Silicon Valley is not the reigning hub of tech it once was, as even Aileen Lee pointed out in her ten-year retrospective on unicorns (“The Bay Area is still the largest unicorn pasture, but lost a lot of ground”); given the shift in companies off-loading the blame to users, and the fact that other tech hubs have risen and/or are rising in the wake of Silicon Valley’s seemingly persistent demise, keep in mind, founders, that times are changing. Tech doesn’t get the get out of jail free card they formerly did, we’re not in Kansas anymore, and things change when you reach the point where the rubber literally meets the road. Onward and forward.