Containing Big Tech

How to Protect Our CIVIL RIGHTS, ECONOMY, and DEMOCRACY

containing big tech

Tom Kemp’s Containing Big Tech provides an insightful look at the threats of Big Tech and the path forward to rein in online surveillance, AI, and tech monopolies.  Experts and political leaders are calling Containing Big Tech “a must-read,” “prescient,” “truly eye-opening,” “brilliant,” and “impressive.”

Executive Summary

Technology is a gift and a curse. The five big tech companies—Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google—have built innovative products that improve many aspects of our lives. But their intrusiveness and our dependence on them have created pressing threats to our civil rights, economy, and democracy.

Coming from an extensive background building Silicon Valley-based tech startups, Tom Kemp eloquently and precisely weaves together the threats posed by Big Tech:

  • The overcollection and weaponization of our most sensitive data

  • The problematic ways Big Tech uses AI to process and act upon our data

  • The stifling of competition and entrepreneurship due to Big Tech’s dominant market positions

This richly detailed book exposes the consequences of Big Tech’s digital surveillance, exploitative use of AI, and monopolistic and anticompetitive practices. It offers actionable solutions to these problems and a clear path forward for individuals and policymakers to advocate for change. By containing the excesses of Big Tech, we will ensure our civil rights are respected and preserved, our economy is competitive, and our democracy is protected.

Praise for Containing Big Tech

  • It is very timely to see Tom Kemp’s book Containing Big Tech lay out a clear and comprehensive vision for the reforms needed to bring accountability to the tech sector.

    Ro Khanna, Member of Congress

  • Tom Kemp’s Containing Big Tech skillfully shows how Big Tech’s overriding focus on maximizing user engagement has led us to a world of wide-scale algorithmic amplification of disinformation and extremism. If you want to know how Big Tech is threatening our democracy and contributing to society’s hyper-polarization, Kemp’s book should be at the top of your reading list.

    Alexander Vindman, Former Director for European Affairs for the United States National Security Council

  • Tom Kemp is a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur who was on the front lines with me in helping get the California Privacy Rights Act passed in 2020 — the most comprehensive privacy law in the United States. Anyone looking to take action against Big Tech’s often insidious reach will learn much from Kemp’s timely analysis of technology’s impact on our freedoms, society, and democracy.

    Alastair Mactaggart, Co-Author of the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and chairman of Californians for Consumer Privacy

  • Tom Kemp’s prescient Containing Big Tech arrives just as AI threatens to amplify all of the excesses of the tech industry — the consolidation of markets, the manipulation of people, the assault on privacy, and the loss of control over the technologies deployed. Containing Big Tech is essential reading to understand the challenges ahead and the solutions to pursue.

    Marc Rotenberg, President and Founder of the Center for AI and Digital Policy

  • A brilliant look at where the prominent tech vendors are going with Artificial Intelligence and the emerging risks with AI.

    Adriano Koshiyama, CEO of Holistic AI

  • In Containing Big Tech, Tom Kemp presents a compelling case for reining in big tech, illustrating through powerful facts and narratives the unique threats from surveillance, to privacy, addiction and exploitation of users, and the impact on competition and innovation. The impact on all of us, and our children, is both chilling and profound. A must-read to understand the threats and challenges posed by Big Tech on society.

    Nita Farahany, author, The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology, Robinson O. Everett Professor of Law & Philosophy at Duke University

  • Tom Kemp is a highly regarded tech entrepreneur and prolific Silicon Valley angel investor. I can’t think of anyone better to lift the curtain on the damage that tech giants are causing to our society and economy.

    Steve Tout, Host of the Nonconformist Innovation podcast

  • From digital surveillance to data brokers to AI, Kemp examines Big Tech and their ecosystem with brilliant clarity and provides opportunities for individuals and legislators to rein in tech monopolies. A truly eye-opening read.

    Jeff Jockisch, Host of the Your Bytes, Your Rights podcast

  • Tom Kemp is an expert in cybersecurity and privacy. His eloquent writing and detailed knowledge of the tech space provide a clear road map to protect against the over-collection and misuse of your data.

    Debbie Reynolds, host of the Data Diva Talks Privacy podcast

  • Tom Kemp’s Containing Big Tech is a refreshing and insightful look at how Big Tech is over-collecting our data, using AI in problematic ways, and dominating key digital markets. If you want to learn more about the impact of Big Tech on our society, read this book.

    Christopher A. Smith, author of The Privacy Pandemic

  • Tom Kemp does an impressive job of comprehensively looking at the policy issues associated with Big Tech and comparing and contrasting how European and US regulators are desperately trying to play catchup. This book could not be timelier.

    Lydia de la Torre, Board Member at the California Privacy Protection Agency, Adjunct Professor at UC Davis Law School, and Founding Partner of Golden Data Law, Public Benefit Corporation

  • Concerned about violations to your online privacy and the impact of AI on society? Tom Kemp’s Containing Big Tech will demystify what the large tech players are doing with your personal information and how you can better protect yourself and your kids.

    Debra J. Farber, Host of The Shifting Privacy Left Podcast

  • Tom Kemp’s probing analysis of the interlocking issues of data privacy and digital surveillance is especially timely. Containing Big Tech is a compelling must-read for government policymakers and all those concerned with our collective online futures.

    Stuart N. Brotman, Distinguished Fellow, The Media Institute and author of Privacy’s Perfect Storm

  • Tom Kemp's Containing Big Tech is very eloquently written and explains how we got to the point where our precise location and movements are constantly tracked and sold to unknown players globally. Kemp's thoughtful and detailed book shows us a clear path forward to ensure consumers have the right to privacy and how the excesses of today's technology behemoths can be contained and reined in.

    Rick Arney, Co-Author of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Proposition 24, The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA)

  • Tom Kemp’s Containing Big Tech carefully directs the reader to the real problem of tech. Not the easy narrative of predators and child victims but a business model whose features and norms routinely expose children to personal and commercial exploitation. His analysis that privacy equals child safety is one that I applaud, and both businesses and politicians should take urgent action. The sector cannot build its new world order on the backs of children. Instead, we need respectful and detoxified systems that put children’s well-being at the heart of design.

    Baroness Beeban Kidron, chair of the 5Rights Foundation

  • Privacy is one of the most critical issues of our time. Tom Kemp's Containing Big Tech not only further raises awareness of the severity of the issue but provides a roadmap for how different stakeholders can better govern and protect the use of our most sensitive personal data.

    — Lourdes M. Turrecha, Founder of the Rise of Privacy Tech (TROPT), privacy tech Angel investor and board advisor, and startup Chief Privacy Officer

Chapter Synopsis

Tom Kemp has combined his Silicon Valley experience and policy work to comprehensively identify and correlate all the significant issues associated with Big Tech and provide straightforward guidance on how to fix the problems. In the book he has identified eight central and interlocking topics that are covered in a chapter. These topics share common themes, including the overcollection of our data, the often-problematic ways Big Tech uses AI to process and act upon our data, and the adverse side effects of Big Tech’s dominant market positions.

The Overcollection of Our Data

The first three chapters focus on the mining and collecting of our data and the negative consequences that have emerged because of this.

Chapter 1 looks at what Big Tech’s digital surveillance–based business model means for us, including the impact of the overturn of Roe.

Chapter 2 then covers data brokers—shadowy participants in the digital advertising ecosystem that much of Big Tech facilitates—that is an equal source of concern regarding privacy in post–abortion America.

Finally, chapter 3 examines the impact of having so much information collected about us that it increases the chances of data breaches and our identity being stolen.

The Problematic Ways Big Tech Uses AI

Chapters 4 through 7 analyze how Big Tech consumes and processes this data via AI and how that has created its own unique threats.

Chapter 4 will describe what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is, why Big Tech is placing significant bets on it, how bias can seep into AI, and how it can be used for exploitative purposes.

Chapter 5 discusses the harmful effects of how Big Tech’s AI-based persuasive technologies attempt to change our behavior and can facilitate screen addiction.

Chapter 6 examines the impact of Big Tech’s use of AI on kids’ online safety.

Finally, chapter 7 considers how Big Tech’s use of AI has enabled extremism and disinformation on their platforms, which has exacerbated polarization and weakened our democracy.

The Adverse Side Effects of Big Tech’s Dominant Market Positions

Chapter 8 examines competition and how Big Tech’s dominant market positions have harmed entrepreneurship and innovation and undermined journalism and a vibrant free press. This chapter will also show how Big Tech’s monopoly positions have worsened the above issues of privacy, data protection, screen addiction, disinformation, etc.

Roadmap for Change

Each chapter will conclude with a companion road map for that topic that recommends how together we might rein in the negatives of Big Tech. Tom Kemp’s goal with each chapter is to offer solutions and provide a clear path forward to help individuals and policymakers advocate for change. In that vein, he has included two appendices that should also be useful to consumers and lawmakers. Appendix 1 provides step-by-step instructions for individuals to protect their online privacy. Appendix 2 provides some suggested ingredients that should be part of a comprehensive US privacy law to protect against the digital surveillance we see from Big Tech.