Naomi Klein: How big tech plans to profit from the pandemic

As the coronavirus continues to kill thousands each day, tech companies are seizing the opportunity to extend their reach and power. 

China zooms ahead with its big tech private public partnerships, where its private sector receives an enormous amount of public money from the government. But the US is falling behind, say the industrial military complex and the Silicon Valley, who are asking for massive amounts of public money to catch up.

But big tech are putting everyone into low paids jobs - maybe driverless vans and drones delivering packages soon - where even teachers and doctors may be affected some day, in other words, all of us, one way or another.

Millions of people work in very low paid jobs in warehouses and call centres who never ever get to see a customer. And they are tagged and monitored so that interaction with other colleagues is very low, which isn't healthy as we are social creatures.

And can big tech companies be allowed to keep so much information on us, which they would like to share with other companies? Big Data is worth a fortune. What if companies end up with access to your health records or Internet history?

With so much public money going into Big Tech, there won't be anything left for public services, says Naomi Klein.

The Guardian


Naomi Klein: How big tech plans to profit from the pandemic