It’s very concerning to see the extent to which user data has been abused by, well, just about every social media site on the planet. I’m a big fan of machine learning technologies. They will allow us to do some amazing things. Unfortunately, as Uncle Ben told Peter Parker: “With great power comes great responsibility”.

Truly concerning is the extent to which large internet companies have been largely unregulated in any serious way, either self-regulated, or otherwise. And there is a large amount of stock market investing in these companies that stands to take a huge hit if, and I’m afraid it’s really closer to “when,” some really substantial leaks of private data occur in a such a way as to negatively affect the users of these platforms. This could have a very serious impact on our economy.

Another big problem is that our own government seems completely incapable of dealing with the problem as our current POTUS seems intent on obstructing any attempts to seriously deal with bad actors, and a congress which seems unable to push forward any substantive plans – seemingly more concerned with politics than they are with the state of our national security.

The practices shown by companies like Cambridge Analytica, are just the tip of the iceberg. Hopefully the current generation and their kids will be much smarter and more vocal about abuses of this kind by companies looking to turn a quick buck and willing to trade in their souls for the privilege.