Big Tech never shrinks from pushing the envelope, or as the motto goes, ask forgiveness, not permission. We suppose that when you get away with it long enough and often enough, the lines don’t blur. They simply cease to exist.

Ask forgiveness is really understating the sentiment. In reality, their true approach is ‘why stop there?’

TikTok’s troubles just got worse: The FTC could sue them, too, Politico reported.

“A privacy case against TikTok would add fuel to the bipartisan chorus of criticism directed at the company over its ties to China. The commission is weighing allegations that TikTok, and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance, deceived its users by denying that individuals in China had access to their data, and also violated a children’s privacy law, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a confidential matter.  The European Commission opened a probe in February into whether the company breached new online content rules, including its privacy settings. Several Canadian privacy regulators launched their own investigation, and a group of state attorneys general are probing TikTok as well. Last year the company settled a privacy-related class action lawsuit in Illinois for $92 million.”

For the record, we take no sides here with various US government factions attempting to eliminate Tik Tok. How many transgressions by Facebook/Meta et al were committed with no repercussions and Congressional investigations amounted to just so much theater. We realize that the Chinese government is involved, but how long has the US government been surveilling citizens through the social networks?

Speaking of which, “Facebook Secretly Wiretapped Competitors,” said ZeroHedge – et al. “At the request of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook officials developed a program called In-App Action Panel (IAAP) that… utilized cyberattacks to intercept information from Snapchat, YouTube, and Amazon. The program then decrypted the information.

“In one email, Mr. Zuckerberg wrote that there was a need to receive information about Snapchat but that their traffic was encrypted. “Given how quickly they’re growing, it seems important to figure out a new way to get reliable analytics about them… You should figure out how to do this,” he wrote.

“The program initially targeted Snapchat but was later expanded to Google’s YouTube and Amazon, according to the documents.

“The information gained by the program helped inform Facebook’s product designs, according to Facebook employees. Those products “hamper[ed] Snap’s ability to sell ads,” one Snap executive said in a deposition for the case.

Facebook’s actions amounted to wiretapping and violated federal law.

“The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, sometimes known as the Wiretap Act, bars people from intercepting any “wire, oral, or electronic communication” and from intentionally disclosing the contents of information that was illegally intercepted.”

And given how much they’ve gotten away with to date, that would matter to Facebook, why?

“Reed Hastings, chairman of Netflix’s board of directors, also served on Facebook’s board for years… Netflix and Facebook have a yearslong relationship that includes Netflix spending tens of millions of dollars on Facebook advertising and Facebook granting Netflix unique access to its data, the filings noted.”

Speaking of cozy relationships or perhaps in return, Facebook killed its own streaming service to help Netflix, prosecutors say, Quartz reported. “Facebook “Watch” looked like a Netflix killer in 2017, but antitrust prosecutors say it was shut down to protect advertising deals.”

The Crypto World Has a New Villain

Meanwhile, Billionaire Barry Silbert is accused of defrauding thousands of people. Should he get to keep their money anyway? “Victims who had been unfamiliar with him would soon learn that (Silbert) had made his first fortune by studying the ins and outs of the bankruptcy system and using it to his financial advantage,” NY Magazine reported. “…The billionaire investor has been relying on a controversial interpretation of bankruptcy law to stop … victims from getting the bigger payout, the one based on current prices. Instead, to simplify a bit, he would prefer to keep that money himself. “(Digital Currency Group) cannot support a plan that not only deprives DCG of its corporate governance rights but also violates United States bankruptcy code,” a spokeswoman for the company said.

Gotta love it when – let’s just say it – criminality is baked into the business plan.

With software – and the tech uberlords – eating the world more and more every day, has adherence to the law become a ‘nice to have?” Consider: New York City defends AI chatbot that advised entrepreneurs to break laws. Fine print, NYC entrepreneurs: no one said that there wouldn’t be repercussions for doing so. Who do you think you are, Mark Zuckerberg?

Of course, tech has its own version of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and you know it comes down to user data. Google Pledges to Destroy Browsing Data to Settle ‘Incognito’ Lawsuit, said The Wall Street Journal, via MSN. Well, sure, after a “class action, filed in 2020, accused Google of misleading users about how Chrome tracked the activity of anyone who used the private “Incognito” browsing option.” Google has agreed to destroy billions of data points that the lawsuit alleges it improperly collected, to update disclosures about what it collects in private browsing and to give users the option to disable third-party cookies in that setting… “This settlement is an historic step in requiring honesty and accountability from dominant technology companies,” (plaintiffs’ attorney (David) Boies said.”

And to quote Ernest Hemingway, isn’t it pretty to think so.

‘Ask forgiveness’ has brought us to this point where the tech oligarchs have amassed mountains of cash to steel them from or at least fight the many lawsuits, and and note to self: there was no cash settlement in the Chrome Incognito case, and the stock was up three percent after the decision was made, so how was the decision at all a deterrent?

Which has been more or less the case in every case – against all of the major tech companies.

‘Ask forgiveness?’ As we said, why stop there… Onward and forward.