How Big Tech used COVID to pull off one of the biggest grifts in history

After two-plus years of pandemic hell, it is beyond understandable that so many desperately want to forget the horror and havoc of COVID-19 and move on with their lives, but it’s imperative that we learn from catastrophic pandemic policy mistakes and hold accountable the powerful forces that took advantage of this crisis for their own gain. Aided by governments and public-private partnerships, Big Tech has been one of the biggest offenders in this regard. As Kevin Klyman notes in his recent extensive essay for Jacobin, republished here by TRNN, governments partnering with tech companies to battle the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t save lives, but it did put lots of money in the hands of Big Tech and provided a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity for powerful companies to take and control our sensitive data. In this interview for the TRNN podcast, Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Klyman about his essay and about the jaw-dropping grift that Big Tech has been running while the rest of us have struggled to survive over the past two years.

Kevin Klyman is a policy researcher and a data scientist who advocates for responsible uses of technology to reduce poverty and advance peace. He is currently a researcher at Harvard's Kennedy School, where he publishes research on how technology can help prevent war between the United States and China. Before that, Klyman worked at the United Nations Foundation and the UN Secretary General's artificial intelligence lab, where he wrote data protection policies that were adopted by the World Health Organization. His freelance writing has been published by a range of outlets, including South China Morning Post, TechCrunch, and Jacobin.

Pre-Production/Studio: Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: Jules Taylor

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