zlacker

Yes I definitely share the same concerns. But there is a practical need to rank risks and identify what are immediate, first order ones versus second order and broader concerns. In the absence of independent and minimally competent bodies we are in dire straits, effectively in snake-oil-salesmen territory regarding a technology that is considered as central to our future.

I don't think there is or there will ever be perfect regulation. Pick any sector (banking is a prime example) and you can identify recurring failure, capture, complacency and other pathologies on top of the intrinsic difficulty of working out the unknown-unknowns.

Ultimately the only structural mitigation available is to have as many checks-and-balances as possible and transparency about motivations and incentives of all actors involved.

But that is not the immediate problem with "tech". I put the term in quotes because even that is a conceit. The accurate term is probably "random conglomerates that were first movers in adopting digital technologies, with user-data based advertising the overwhelming business model".

The shtick has been that "heavy handed" regulation of said "tech" will stifle innovation and other such drivel. Indeed, if by innovation we mean drifting ever deeper into the black hole. For more a decade now we are trapped in an egregiously suboptimal situation.