Silicon Valley Communications

There is a good article today in the Wall Street Journal a about a communications problem prevelant in technical issues on the Hill in Washington.  The Silicon Valley crowd seems hard-pressed to understand how Congressmen could so misunderstand their apps and how they are used, that legislation might be misdirected.  That might actually happen, but it won’t be the fault of Congress if it does.  Their real problem is those techies in the Valley do not understand what legislators actually do, and they are about to find out.

My first published article was in Computerworld in 1980.  It was about communications between security and operations of computer systems.  I said then, communications between groups depends on several things, but they first is a common understanding of what they are talking about.   Congress and the Valley are not even close on some of the issues.

It didn’t take the Facebook CEO to make Congress understand how apps are used.  They are users, and all users make mistakes, just as all technical development people do.  They have a user’s perceptions of what computers do and how they work.  But, don’t underestimate them because of a few who know next to nothing about technology.  They know a lot about other things that the Valley seems to not understand.  They didn’t get elected because they were as smart as Elon Musk, but there are few of them that can come close on the issues, and the rest of them listen to those people.  Congressmen are smart enough to know what they don’t know.

Let’s ask ourselves if we can say the same for Silicon Valley.  They sell data about us, making decisions about what we have “consented to” as if that were a legal issue that could be settled with a EULA.  Congress was surprised by how much data was being sold, and to whom.  Congress was surprised that tech companies were tacitly allowing third parties to have that data.  And, OMG, they allowed political parties and apparently some foreigners to buy data about US citizens.  They were surprised that ads were run by foreign intelligence services.  They were surprised that some companies had business models that didn’t allow for defacto privacy.  Look at all the changes Facebook has made in the last few weeks leading up to Zuckerberg speaking on the Hill. Didn’t the Valley know that elected officials would be really perturbed if they found out all the tech companies were doing?  One big note for all of you:  Congress Does Not Like Surprises.

Wait for it.  Legislation is coming, and all the changes in apps and data handling will not change that. Congressmen know what their constituents actually care about, unlike those in the Valley who treat users all the same - like data.  They are not customers; they are the product, and get treated accordingly.  Ever get a human at Google, Facebook or Twitter to talk to you about a problem?  Ever wonder why?