Scott Galloway · 32:29
Q and a... Q and A a topic we could figure out a way... Get a bunch of academics to figure out a way. How big an issue is this in our society? And it's x x percent of people are interested in a discourse around this. It's getting 40 x because Right. Because bots run by people who are bad actors are showing up trying to make it a bigger and bigger and bigger conversation.
Kara Swisher · 32:47
Enough signals here. They should be able to regulate these things. And again, they do want claps when they do something right. And I'm giving them a tiny little tiny claps, but it's really like... If if they had read Kevin Roose over the past two years, they could have noticed there was a problem. You know what I mean? Or or it is the journalists actually pointing... And and and civic groups pointing this stuff out when they have plenty of money to do it themselves. Anyway, thanks, Facebook. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Let's let's just say thanks to them and, like, keep it up. But they really do have to focus on more important issues. Alright. Listener mail. Scott, we have a listener mail question from Hawaii.
Scott Galloway · 33:24
You've got you've got I can't believe I'm gonna be a mailman. You've you've got mail.
Speaker · 33:29
Aloha, Kara, Scott, and crew. This is Ruth from Puna on the big island of Hawaii. I have two boys distance learning this year. And with this new experience, there is a lot of communication apps and learning programs like math diagnostic testing. My question is, who is watching out for our children's privacy? Will my children's Google Classroom account follow them for the rest of their lives? Do we know if the data collected by these companies is sold or shared? Are there any structures in place to protect our kids' privacy in this landscape of online schooling? Mahalo for taking the question. I'm looking forward to your answers. Oh,
Kara Swisher · 34:07
love Hawaii.
Scott Galloway · 34:08
Oh, isn't that awesome?
Kara Swisher · 34:09
Oh, I love Hawaii. It was from Hawaii. Oh,
Scott Galloway · 34:11
hello. I
Kara Swisher · 34:13
love Hawaii so much.
Scott Galloway · 34:14
Yeah. You ready?
Kara Swisher · 34:15
Well, let me just tell you, Ruth. I don't know. I think one of the issues is I think very few people have been ready for this much long distance learning, whether it's on Zoom or on Google, the Google Chats or anywhere else. And most of these schools just grab whatever stuff was on the shelf and started using them. Mhmm. So there are things you can put in place during the features area to protect things and everything else, but I think it's a big, we don't know what they're using. Presumably, these companies are aware when they're being used by schools and have put structures in place to protect the privacy. But I don't... I think this has just been foisted upon us and everybody has been scrambling. Mhmm. So good question, and I will ask Google. But I suspect that, no, there aren't any structures in place to protect them unless there are features that you click on these things where you can put in... There's all kinds of... There's all kinds of dashboards you can put in here, but it's... These are not company... These are not stuff that was designed for privacy. And so one would assume some of it might have been... That's been used for enterprise. But in general, this stuff just started being used without a whole lot of vetting.
Scott Galloway · 35:25
Mhmm.
Kara Swisher · 35:25
Scott?
Scott Galloway · 35:26
I think one of the real tragedies of the novel coronavirus that we'll look back on and think that really registered permanent damage in our society is that one of the wonderful things about public schools K through six is that loosely... Roughly speaking, kids from different economic and ethnic groups pace at a similar pace until they get into junior high and high school and and rich kids get access to the kinda college industrial complex. But loosely speaking, k through six on math scores, kids meld or they melt. And with distance learning, we've seen fifty percent of low income kids immediately fall behind.
Kara Swisher · 36:07
A bigger problem than even privacy. I agree.
Scott Galloway · 36:09
And really tragic. And distinct of even the moral argument, that means we're just 50% less likely to find vaccines. We're 50% likely to come up with wonderful therapies. We're 50% likely to solve economic crises because we are letting a generation of kids fall behind. And anyone who has kids knows your kid comes off the tracks for a year or two years, it can kinda haunt them the rest of their lives. It's it's a competitive economy, and your kids do need to keep tracking. The the issue it goes to... And I talked to, professor Sanana Rao last week from MIT who's a colleague at NYU and is a total gangster, and he was a good guy. He... And by the way, just a quick plug. He just... He's coming out with a book called The Hype Machine about Facebook. So the the issue of data interoperability is a really big one, and that is at one point, you weren't allowed If you wanted to to to go from AT and T to Verizon, you couldn't take your phone number with you. And so what did they do? Congress said that's stupid. That's... You're putting up artificial barriers. You're reducing choice. You're reducing competition. Prices are going up. And so they made it such that you had to be able to... Phone companies had to let you port your data, specifically your phone number. And the same thing has to happen here. And it's not only across... Alright. I don't like Facebook the way... I'm not down with the way Facebook's behaving. I wanna take my contacts, my data, my network to another platform. And the same thing is here. Whatever data is happening, whatever's go... All the content that's being generated online from online learning, it has to be interoperable. It has to be something that could ideally be ported back to the school system, be ported to another platform, be ported to another software company that wants to provide remote learning. But data interoperability, I think, is a bigger issue than privacy here.
Kara Swisher · 37:56
Yep. I think... Well, no. Because there were huge privacy issues in New York City public school system on Zoom last year. I think, Scott, you're absolutely right that the... Even my kids are suffering, and they have everything. Like, can just see them struggling. You know what I mean? Not just with... Just staring at a screen all day and then doing homework on a screen all day. It's just... It's not it's not
Scott Galloway · 38:15
Horrible for me.
Kara Swisher · 38:16
Have to really people who have means are struggling. And these kids who do not have means, even worse, not just because of how badly these lessons are structured, but also that they're on public networks, that they're on... Like, that they they struggle to... Some some kids, if you see these pictures of them sitting outside of a Taco Bell doing things, that's a public network privacy issue. There's... These are these are private companies essentially. They're using the the the the tools they're using. Who knows what structures are in place? I don't even think these companies know who's using them because it's... Sometimes it's a book club, sometimes it's a school, sometimes it is. So there... We really do need to invest in long distance education via... You know, in remote means in a significant way that makes it, you know, private. It makes it exciting. It makes it easy to use. It's a real area that everybody talked about working out really well, but really hasn't been. It's just sort of been a, you know, bubblegum and bailing wire situation, including in privacy. So I would be very concerned, and make sure you have all your privacy settings, which may not allow you to use some of this stuff. That's one of the other issues. And they're very... It's super complex. I was doing it on my computer this week, and I just was lost. And I am good at technology, you know, figuring out what to click and what not to click. And I got all these different privacy things, you know, doing scans of my computer because I was worried about some hacking. And it just is... It's totally complex, and you shouldn't have to do this on top of having your kids at home. So we do not have good answers for you, Ruth, but you do live in Hawaii, which is a beautiful place.
Scott Galloway · 39:47
Ruth from Puna.
Kara Swisher · 39:48
Puna. We really like that. And... You know, we'll see. I think this is another thing our legislators need to look into and and our the companies. There's a real opportunity here for a great business, I think. Anyway, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.
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Kara Swisher · 40:32
I get so many headaches every month.
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— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 41:36
Okay, Scott. You know what time it is. Give people what they want. Not the fly. A prediction. Yeah. Not testosterone. There's no testosterone in this prediction.
Scott Galloway · 41:46
The most exciting IPO or the most exciting, I don't even call it public offering of 2021 is gonna be Amazon spinning AWS. I do think I do think that antitrust has lot... Has a lot of momentum. Jeff Bezos is always just sort of feels to me like two, three steps ahead of all of us. I think he's got just... I I think he's probably the smartest or I don't know, most adroit
Kara Swisher · 42:12
Business man. Yeah.
Scott Galloway · 42:14
Business mind in in history. And I think he's gonna say, well, why wouldn't we spin it? Why wouldn't we? And I'll still I'll still control it. Yeah. But it's gonna be a distinct company. I... And so I think you'll get out ahead of the curve here. Think most exciting I would. I just said I think 2021. And by the way, my timing's usually off on this stuff. Usually... Time goes faster. I've suffered from the same spar... Far species suffer from and that is time goes a lot faster than I perceive it's gonna go. But I would say next year, and he's gonna say, okay, I don't need this bullshit. I want everyone focused on work. I'll spend. And not only that, when he spends it, it's kind of like title inflation, and that is a bunch of people are going to, know, somebody's gonna get to be the CEO. Someone's gonna get to be the president. Someone's gonna. So it'll be... And it'll it'll expand their market because companies like Walmart will consider working with AWS if it's not owned by Amazon.
Kara Swisher · 43:04
Yeah. And then they do deals with each other. You know?
Scott Galloway · 43:06
That's
Kara Swisher · 43:06
right. It was interesting. I was on a panel with John Hennessey on the board of Google, you know, and obviously that
Scott Galloway · 43:11
the Stanford president?
Kara Swisher · 43:12
Yeah. He's the chairman of the board of Google too.
Scott Galloway · 43:14
Yeah.
Kara Swisher · 43:14
And he said some things I didn't love, including that people don't vote because they're lazy. But, anyway, what he did talk about, and you could see him, is that this idea... I I proposed this idea to him that we... That they break up on their own. And he he started with the, oh, it's complex. And then I'm like, well, is it? And it's like, well, actually. And then he started to, like, puzzle it out. And, you know, you know they've been puzzling it out of how to And do so he didn't say he didn't say absolutely not. The first move is no, but then it's not absolutely not, which was interesting. So I think that's a very good prediction. So you think it's gonna be Amazon first.
Scott Galloway · 43:51
Or unless someone unless someone steps in and makes... And does a deal behind the scenes with them and says, can do this to yourself or we're gonna do it to you. Yeah. But I think... Look, I just think AW... I've said one of my predictions is 2025, the most valuable company in the world is AWS.
Kara Swisher · 44:07
Yeah, all right.
Scott Galloway · 44:08
He's very shareholder driven. He has $200,000,000,000 but he wakes up every morning and he looks in the mirror and he says, hello, man, worth $300,000,000,000 think he's very focused Do on his own shareholder
Kara Swisher · 44:18
you think does that?
Scott Galloway · 44:19
I think they're all obsessed with making $1 more. Yeah. And not only that, everything they do supports that notion. I mean, they just
Kara Swisher · 44:32
Lot of testosterone, in other words. I'm I'm back to steroids.
Scott Galloway · 44:37
I'm back to Barry White.
Kara Swisher · 44:38
Back to Barry... Oh my god.
Scott Galloway · 44:39
Hello, ladies. Hello, ladies.
Kara Swisher · 44:41
You know, I have dated people with deeper voices than you, sir. Anyway, any
Scott Galloway · 44:45
What's your name?
Kara Swisher · 44:47
No. None of your beeswax. Anyway, listen.
Scott Galloway · 44:50
That's a face report.
Kara Swisher · 44:51
That a prediction. I think it will come true. I think that one is a...
Scott Galloway · 44:56
Is think AWS does get spun?
Kara Swisher · 44:59
I I think they're all gonna be like, do we wanna spend the next couple of years,
Scott Galloway · 45:03
you know Fighting this out.
Kara Swisher · 45:04
Fighting this. And we wanna get richer. And we're gonna get... It's gonna... It's coming. The train is coming, so let's get on it and let's let's run the train. And that's how they think. And so they want... Because they are pumped up on testosterone, and they know that this is the inevitability. Mhmm. Okay, Scott. That's the show. Next week, guess who? On Monday, we'll be talking to Farid Zakaria. I know you're excited. Are you excited? Gonna faint.
— Predictions segment ends —
Scott Galloway · 45:28
I love that guy.
Kara Swisher · 45:30
Don't faint. I want you to lead discussion.
Scott Galloway · 45:33
Yeah. I'm intimidated by him.
Kara Swisher · 45:35
Well, think of some questions. You have a whole weekend to think of questions for Farid Zakaria. Okay? There's a lot going on, especially, you know, across the... We'll talk about China. We'll talk about lots of stuff. He's he's quite a erudite person. Anyway, in the meantime, email us with your questions about companies and trends at pivot@VoxMedia.com. We appreciate Ruth's question from Hawaii today. Mahalo.
Scott Galloway · 45:56
Today's show was produced by Rebecca Sinanis. Fernando Finite engineered this episode. Erica Anderson is Pivot's executive producer. Make sure you subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. Or if you're an Android user, check us out on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you liked our show, please recommend it to a friend. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. We'll be back next week for a breakdown of all things tech and business. Little tea shot for the dog.
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