Google's damage control continues to fail
Even as board completes clean sweep of Alphabet C-suite after patient-data debacle
And now Google’s chief legal officer is out — capping a C-suite sweep that’s also seen the ouster of the company’s cofounders and the reassignment of Deep Mind’s cofounder. This is unprecedented at a successful Silicon Valley company.
Although it’s tempting to focus on the sex scandal aspects of the Alphabet Four, that behavior continued for decades unchecked. No, this is happening in the wake of (seemingly endless) revelations that the company illegally acquires and then mishandles fully-identifiable patient data. A whistleblower even came forward in the final days of 2019 warning about still-secret infractions.
In the latest example that the company’s rap sheet of misusing patient data shows no sign of stopping: The Wall Street Journal added two more over the weekend — incredibly within a story meant to be Google’s latest attempt at damage control.
This time, the company tried to trade on the personal and professional reputation of once-lauded Geisinger CEO David Feinberg, who now heads the company’s healthcare ambitions. One has to wonder how much longer Feinberg will stick around this train wreck.
In the meantime, Google continues to build a commanding lead in the race to be the lowest-hanging fruit for the #BreakUpBigTech brigade. Mark Zuckerberg might want to send them a nice fruit basket.
TODAY IN…
Deep Tech:
Calling it: 2020’s fiercest AI debate will be Supervised vs. Unsupervised “Learning” for machine learning
The Army Futures Command is the multi-billion-dollar tech VC you didn’t know existed
Media & Telecom:
Samsung + Microsoft take a page from Nextel — and it’s more bad news for carriers pitching ultra-expensive 5g for indoor networks
Healthcare Tech:
As the massive JP Morgan Healthcare conference opens in San Francisco, doctors are warning that Big Tech is hyping AI…
Separately, the NY Times sounds a related alarm: The F.D.A. Is in Trouble. Here’s How to Fix It. … See also: FDA’s Amy Abernathy tries to explain FDA’s struggle with ‘digital health’ regulation
Finance:
The American Bar Association is coming for ETFs … See also: ETFs top $6.3 trillion globally on 2019 inflow of $570 billion
Amid a year of records, news that Vanguard today accounts for more than 25% of the entire U.S. mutual fund market. Its $6 trillion purse is almost as big as Fidelity, BlackRock and Capital Group put together — and it’s one of the biggest shareholders in virtually every major company listed in the U.S.
What if you could help move millions of dollars out of climate-polluting stocks with a change to your workplace retirement plan?
Public Policy:
It’s official: The majority of Americans favor a wealth tax on the very rich (new Reuters/Ipsos poll)
Global government debt now totals $69 trillion — and, with the largest debt in absolute terms, the U.S. also makes up nearly 1/3 of the whole
And finally, here’s the right lesson to take from MIT’s self-investigation of its Jeffrey Epstein relationship…