Social Connections

How individuals connect to others, buy wanted products, and work to achieve shared goals determine their opportunities for health and life success. In this century, companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft now decide how people can connect with others. By collecting data on purchases, behavior, and beliefs from their customers’ hardware, digital and cellphone use, Big Tech companies have created surveillance capitalism where personal data is a commodity to buy and sell. By targeting users for digital ads for unhealthy products; giving bullies access to a global audience; using likes and dislike to polarize people into opposing factions; or selling personal information to advertisers and special interests, these companies have compromised health, democracy, and privacy. In response, tech workers, social media users, privacy groups, and anti-monopoly reformers have challenged the domination of Big Tech companies and forged ways to use technology for human well-being instead of corporate profit.