{"id":523,"date":"2017-12-12T03:40:42","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T03:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/?p=523"},"modified":"2017-12-12T03:40:42","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T03:40:42","slug":"uks-digital-economy-act-is-a-fight-for-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/2017\/12\/12\/uks-digital-economy-act-is-a-fight-for-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"UK’s Digital Economy Act Is a Fight for Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Ayn Rand\u2019s piece on the UK\u2019s Digital Economy Act,<\/a> Rand argues in favor of a free market economy, stating that the new law wrongly inhibits private companies and gives people data that arguably does not belong to them. Honestly, I believe Rand is sadly mistaken. To think that a free market economy is what is necessary to excel is just outdated and untrue. What Rand and other liberalists in the past have failed to understand is that \u201csocial control of economic forces is equally necessary if anything approaching economic equality and liberty is to be realized.\u201d For this reason, I believe that this law is vital and important to protect the public\u2019s liberty and to secure economic equality for a collectively intelligent society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While Rand foolishly believes that a free market economy can cater to our current digital age, I believe that we must create a cooperative institutional order that handle the social and economical implications of today\u2019s technology. With mobile transportation apps like Uber where the corporations and its customers are interacting mostly digitally, there must be acts put in place that protect consumers. In fact, according to Rand\u2019s report, Uber\u2019s access to data that revealed the battery life of customers\u2019s phones is what ultimately caused the UK to establish the Digital Economy Act. In her article, Rand explains that although the company admitted knowledge of this information, they claimed that they hadn\u2019t utilized this information to increase pricing. Still, the accusations stirred discussion that tech companies had formed \u201ca monopoly on data\u201d and people expressed their grievances, stating that this \u201cdata belongs to the people.\u201d Rand, however, claimed that people had given their permission for their data to be used when they signed up for various services. I, however, think that it is unfair for customers to remain in the dark about how their data is being used. All issues that concern the public, including how one\u2019s data is being utilized, must be made known. This new act secures that corporations must reveal how they use their consumers data so unlike Rand, I fully support it and its goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, Rand doesn\u2019t acknowledge how detrimental it is to society to have monopolies in our economy. We need to stop allowing the majority of decisions and wealth of information to be owned by the minority aka private businesses. We must, instead, enact laws like the UK\u2019s Digital Economy Act to protect the wealth and liberty of the greater public. These laws keep businesses in check and prevent them from using technological advances to further their business without public knowledge. To deny consumers the right to know how their data is being utilized is to deny them the liberty to apply reason and emotional intelligence to their choice to use one business over another. <\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, a free market economy with monopolies is a fast track to disparity. Ayn Rand\u2019s desire for such an organization is not ideal for our current political sphere and the digital age. In today\u2019s digital age, it\u2019s easy for capitalism to help corporations find loopholes that benefit them at the cost of consumer\u2019s liberty. Laws like the UK\u2019s Digital Economy Act are important to secure the liberty of knowledge and equality that the public deserves. There\u2019s a difference between \u201cplaying it fair\u201d and fostering an economical environment where corporations thrive at the expense of the public. The public deserves to know the implications of using a digital app like Uber, and I fully support governmental intervention to secure such knowledge for the greater good of the public. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Ayn Rand\u2019s piece on the UK\u2019s Digital Economy Act, Rand argues in favor of a free market economy, stating that the new law wrongly inhibits private companies and gives people data that arguably does not belong to them. Honestly, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":313,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dewey","category-rand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/313"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/liberrimus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}