# Some interesting links about technology and the world.

* [Thinking through the “What should we do about Facebook?” question by Cory
  Doctorow](https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/thinking-through-the-what-should-we-do-about-facebook-question/119752)

> This is  an interesting take on recent events involving the collision of the
> issues of the privacy of personal information, monetization of that private
> information, and the monopolistic tendencies of tech companies. Doctorow
> sketches out a different way to address the issues that continually come up by
> regulating outcomes rather than methods. That is, give companies the opportunity
> remedy situations rather than dictate how they must remedy situations? It's not clear
> what Doctorow means by this...But he goes on to outline his motivation, that creating
> complex regulations for how facebook operates with personal information would only serve
> to preserve the monopoly that facebook enjoys on the social networking front by stifling
> competition, which may not be able to comply with new regulations.
> But this is merely the way things are done, isn't it? Think, for example, of food safety 
> regulations, or of how biotechnological products are currently regulated...as of ten years
> ago, one could expect a biotech product to take several years and $30,000,000+ to go from
> conception to distribution and adoption.
> Doctorow is suggesting a different kind of approach that opens up the field for healthy
> competition by weakening the monopoly that has not been respected.