s0me th0ughts

With companies like Facebook and Google coming under scrutiny for data privacy issues, it begs the question of who should be in control of a user’s data when they use tech-enabled products and services. Against our best judgement, we often click the “agree” button for a product or service’s Terms of Service without even reading it, in turn giving companies the right to use our data in essentially whatever way they please (or whatever way is laid out in their ToS). For example, anything posted to Facebook or Instagram becomes the property of the company — no longer is your photo of your beautiful trip to Hawaii your own; Facebook now owns your creation. It’s quite shocking to think that these behemoths of tech companies essentially control us by owning and using our data at their leisure; however, the argument in favor of consumers owning, controlling, and selling their data has its downfalls as well. On the one hand, if consumers had the ability to control and sell their data as...

Though entrepreneurship has become increasingly prevalent throughout tech hubs such as Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, the creation of new companies remains hindered by high barriers to entry within the market for innovation. Coming up with a life-changing idea feels nearly impossible, and finding your co-founder as well as new hires is incredibly difficult. To further exacerbate the problem, introductions to venture capitalists are hard to come by, given that investors predominantly focus on companies brought to them by trusted sources. These early connections and decisions could impact the longevity of one’s business, and in turn, the innovation we see in our world. If we can create a network of entrepreneurs who are ready to collaborate and build the companies of the future, the market for innovation would become more efficient, in turn driving more value creation in our world. Entrepreneurship is inherently uncertain, and with uncertainty comes many unknowns. The common view...

It is widely known that the advent of social media brought along with it a handful of issues our society continues to grapple with. From instant gratification attributed to the apps’ addictive nature to mental health issues surrounding one’s follower count, social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram inserted themselves in our daily lives, creating problems we never thought would come with such an innovative creation. Though these platforms give us ways to communicate our ancestors never thought would be possible, social media companies need to begin to focus their efforts on the well-being of their users, not just growth of the platform for growth’s sake. Facebook is leading the charge. On September 27th in Australia, Facebook launched an initiative to hide the amount of “likes” someone gets on their post. Commenting on the recent endeavor, TechCrunch Editor Josh Constine says , “Facebook’s goal here is to make people comfortable expressing themselves. It wants users to...