Dying for an iPhone: Apple, Foxconn and the Lives of China’s Workers by Jenny Chan, Mark Selden and Pun Ngai, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2020; pp xvi + 277, $19.95.
The economic power wielded by tech giants has been aided and abetted by the lax enforcement of antitrust regulations by the United States. It has allowed them to create an almost impassable moat around their businesses, while being able to bully, browbeat, and buy out any competitors who look remotely threatening. Calls by politicians to break up these tech giants are more than timely and need to be taken seriously by regulators across the world.
An exploration of the evolving contours of the right to privacy by sketching the trajectory of the saga between Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. By refusing to comply with the FBI's request to create a backdoor into the iPhone, Apple has taken a robust stance that could influence the actions of many other tech firms worldwide. While Apple's stand marks a victory for the privacy lobby, judicial intervention defining this right can facilitate its crystallisation and harmonious coexistence with other objectives such as national security.
