Worrying about the ethics of venture capitalists is a lot like testing the acoustics of outer space. But you'd think the moneyed white men of Silicon Valley would act with a little class when they get turned down—it's just business, right? Not this time.
When it comes to contemporary tech IPOs, profits don't matter. "Many of these tech issuers—particularly the enterprise tech ones—could be profitable if it was somehow required. They'd probably shrivel up and eventually die, but it technically could be done (as opposed to investing into future growth)."
Mark Zuckerberg's $2 billion buyout of Oculus Rift is just the latest step in Big Tech's creepy march from software to sci-fi: Google and Facebook have dumped billions into companies that have nothing to do with their original projects in search or social. Relentlessly, the two companies are pushing toward a dystopian future in which privacy is null and we wear social networks on our faces.
Over the past few weeks, I've heard a few stories about Google or Twitter employees letting it slip that they can check your email or read your DMs—the kind of hushed anecdotes that are hard to prove. But, somehow, Google's statement denying recent allegations makes that NSA-fueled paranoia feel more concrete.
There is a standing presumption when one backs a Kickstarter project: you may lose your money. But there's a new—or at least now proven—angle to consider, in light of Facebook's acquisition of the virtual reality company Oculus: people may use your money to make a lot more money without ever properly starting a successful company in the first place.
Instagram is experimenting with using Facebook Places for location rather than Foursquare. This is bad for Foursquare's chance to make money by being the "location layer" for the internet, although Pinterest, Vine, and Flickr use Foursquare for free. It's bad for Instagram users because Facebook Places blows.
