Saudi princes are some of the largest buyers of PII. I even worked* for a company that would sell data to the US government, and then sell the Saudis the data on what data the US government was using. I have no idea what they are doing with all of it, but they certainly keep a lot of companies profitable.
* I left shortly after the company pivoted into being a PII broker.
Surely they also sold the US government the data on what the Saudis were buying, too? To do otherwise would just be leaving money on the table! /s(ish)
> I even worked* for a company that would sell data to the US government, and then sell [...] the data on what data the US government was using.
That sounds odd, at best.
If the company were considering doing this sketchy-sounding thing, seems like they should've checked with their gov't customer points of contact, or gone straight to the State Dept.
Maybe they did do this, and were operating under permission/instructions, or maybe they didn't.
(Why it's believable that a US tech company would sell out its US gov't customers: many facets of "tech" industry have had such irresponsible, sociopathic practices, since before many current decision-makers entered the workforce, that I think there's no longer much intuitive sense about what's OK and what's not.)
I can imagine that if you see authoritarianism through the lens of the "constrained versus unconstrained" views of human nature a la Sowell, then it makes sense that Silicon Valley, ever so optimistic about the perfectibility of mankind, would tend towards that direction.
Right, but in order to make that increasing profit year after year you need to pose that there is some vast frontier of unaccomplished innovation. There needs to be justification on some level for ever new iPhones and such.
I’m assuming you meant Andreesen but I could be wrong, I just don’t know a famous VC Anderson though I’m sure there is at least one.
I’ve listened to both Andreesen and Thiel and they both seem pretty anti-authoritarian, but perhaps they just espouse one ideology and practice another?
Of course he doesn’t go around openly saying he’s pro fascism. Having listened to many of his speeches it’s not surprising he is though.
For Andreesen it’s not as clear there’s a direct link but after having listened to his Lex Friedman episode, I came of thinking he also thinks democracy won’t work.
* I left shortly after the company pivoted into being a PII broker.