all-in-one privacy solution":["Proton Unlimited tam kapsamlı bir gizlilik ve güvenlik çözümüdür"],"Black Friday":["Muhteşem Cuma"],"No ads. Privacy by default.":["Reklamsız. Privacy by default."],"People before profits":["İnsanlar paradan önce gelir"],"Security through transparency":["Şeffaflık ile güvenlik"],"The best Proton Mail ${ BLACK_FRIDAY } deals":["En iyi Proton Mail ${ BLACK_FRIDAY } fırsatları"],"The world’s only community- supported email service":["Dünyanın tek topluluk tarafından desteklenen e-posta hizmeti"]},"specialoffer:limited":{"${ hours } hour":["${ hours } saat","${ hours } saat"],"${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft } and ${ secondsLeft } left":["${ hoursLeft } - ${ minutesLeft } - ${ secondsLeft } kaldı"],"${ minutes } minute":["${ minutes } dakika","${ minutes } dakika"],"${ seconds } second":["${ seconds } saniye","${ seconds } saniye"],"Limited time offer":["Sınırlı süreli teklif"]},"specialoffer:listitem":{"Create multiple addresses":["Birden adres oluşturun"],"Hide-my-email aliases":["Hide-my-email takma adları (e-posta adresi)"],"Quickly unsubscribe from newsletters":["Bülten aboneliğinden hızlı ayrılma"],"Use your own domain name":["Kendi etki alanınızı kullanın"]},"specialoffer:logos":{"As featured in":["Belirtildiği gibi"]},"specialoffer:metadescription":{"Get an encrypted email that protects your privacy":["Gizliliğinizi koruyan bir şifreli e-posta edinin"]},"specialoffer:metatitle":{"Proton Mail Black Friday Sale - Up to 40% off":["Proton Mail Muhteşem Cuma İndirimleri - %40'a varan indirimler"]},"specialoffer:newmetadescription":{"Get up to 40% off Proton Mail subscriptions this Black Friday. Find great deals on our secure end-to-end encrypted email plans.":["Bu Muhteşem Cuma'da Proton Mail aboneliklerinde %40'a varan indirimlerden faydalanın. Uçtan uca şifrelenmiş e-posta tarifelerimiz için muhteşem fırsatlardan yararlanın."]},"specialoffer:newmetatitle":{"Proton Mail Black Friday sale | Up to 40% off secure email":["Proton Mail Muhteşem Cuma İndirimleri - Güvenli e-postada %40'a varan indirimler"]},"specialoffer:note":{"* Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first year":["* İlk yıl için ${ TOTAL_SUM } üzerinden faturalandırılır"],"*Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first 2 years":["*ilk 2 yıl için ${ TOTAL_SUM } üzerinden faturalandırılır"],"30-day money-back guarantee":["30 günlük para iade garantisi"],"Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first 2 years":["İlk 2 yıl için ${ TOTAL_SUM } üzerinden faturalandırılır"],"Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first year":["İlk yıl için ${ TOTAL_SUM } üzerinden faturalandırılır"],"You save ${ SAVE_SUM }":["${ SAVE_SUM } tasarruf ediyorsunuz"]},"specialoffer:off":{"${ DISCOUNT } off":["${ DISCOUNT } indirim"],"${ PERCENT_OFF } off":["${ PERCENT_OFF } indirim"]},"specialoffer:testimonial":{"I love my ProtonMail":["ProtonMail'imi seviyorum"],"My favorite email service":["En sevdiğim e-posta hizmeti"],"Thanks Proton for keeping us all safe in the complicated internet universe.":["Hepimizi bu karışık internet evreninde güvende tuttuğun için teşekkürler Proton."],"You get what you pay for. In the case of big tech, if you pay nothing, you get used. I quit using Gmail and switched to @ProtonMail":["Ödediğinizin karşılığını alırsınız. Big Tech şirketleri söz konusu olduğunda, hiçbir şey ödememiyorsanız sizi kullanırlar. Gmail kullanmayı bıraktım ve @ProtonMail hizmetine geçtim"]},"specialoffer:time":{"Days":["Gün"],"Hours":["Saat"],"Min":["Dakika"]},"specialoffer:title":{"And much more":["Ve çok daha fazlası"],"Make your inbox yours":["Gelen kutunuzu kendize özel tutun"],"Safe from trackers":["İzleyicilerden güvende olun"],"Stay organized":["Düzenli kalın"],"Black Friday email deals":["Muhteşem Cuma e-posta fırsatları"],"Don’t just take our word for it":["Sırf bizden duymuş olmayın"],"Our story":["Öykümüz"],"Transfer your data from Google in one click":["Google'dan bilgilerinizi tek tıkla aktarın"]},"specialoffer:tooltip":{"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES }+ countries, connect up to 10 devices, access worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Yasaklı içeriklere erişin ve gizlice gezinin. ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES } üzeri ülkede ${ TOTAL_SERVERS } üzerinde sunucu, 10 aygıta kadar bağlantı, dünya çapındaki yayın hizmetlerine erişim, kötü amaçlı yazılım ve reklam engelleyici, ve daha fazlasını içerir."],"Easily share your calendar with your family, friends or colleagues, and view external calendars.":["Takviminizi bir bağlantı aracılığıyla ailenizle, arkadaşlarınızla veya iş arkadaşlarınızla paylaşın ve başka takvimleri görüntüleyin."],"Includes support for 1 custom email domain, 10 email addresses, 10 hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["1 özel e-posta etki alanı, 10 e-posta adresi, 10 hide-my-email takma adı, takvim paylaşma ve daha fazlası için destek içerir."],"Includes support for 3 custom email domains, 15 email addresses, unlimited hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["3 özel e-posta etki alanı, 15 e-posta adresi, sınırsız hide-my-email takma adı, takvim paylaşma ve daha fazlası için destek içerir."],"Manage up to 25 calendars, mobile apps, secured with end-to-end encryption, 1-click calendar import from Google, and more.":["25'ye kadar takvim yönetin, mobil uygulamalar, uçtan uca şifreleme ile koruma, Google'dan tek tıkla aktarma ve daha fazlası."]},"Status Banner":{"At the moment we are experiencing issues with the Proton VPN service":["Şu anda Proton VPN hizmetiyle ilgili sorunlar yaşıyoruz"],"Learn more":["Ayrıntılı bilgi alın"]},"Status banner":{"Learn more":["Ayrıntılı bilgi alın"],"Please note that at the moment we are experiencing issues with the ${ issues[0] } service.":["Şu anda ${ issues[0] } hizmeti ile ilgili sorun yaşamaktayız, bilginize."],"We are experiencing issues with one or more services at the moment.":["Şu anda bir veya daha fazla hizmet ile ilgili sorun yaşamaktayız."]},"suggestions":{"Suggestions":["Öneriler"]},"Support":{"Sub category":["Alt kategori","Alt kategori"]},"Support article":{"${ readingTime } min":["${ readingTime } dakikalık","${ readingTime } dakikalık"],"Category":["Kategori","Kategori"],"Didn’t find what you were looking for?":["Aradığınızı bulamadınız mı?"],"General contact":["Genel iletişim"],"Get help":["Yardım alın"],"Legal contact":["Hukuki iletişim"],"Media contact":["Medya iletişimi"],"Partnerships contact":["Ortaklık iletişimi"],"Reading":["Okuma süresi"]},"Support categories":{"Browse Proton product support":["Proton ürün desteğine göz atın"]},"Support category":{"There is no article in this category yet.":["Bu kategoride henüz bir makale yok."]},"Support troubleshooting":{"--- Select ---":["--- Seç ---"],"App version":["Uygulama sürümü"],"Browser":["Tarayıcı"],"Check if this helps":["Yardımcı olabilecek bu cevaba bir göz atın"],"Choose a category for your question":["Sorunuz için bir kategori seçin"],"Choose a product":["Bir ürün seçin"],"Did this solve your issue ?":["Bu, sorununuzu çözdü mü?"],"Faster assistance is just a few clicks away — please make your selections":["Daha hızlı yardım birkaç tık uzağınızda, lütfen tercihlerinizi yapın"],"No, contact support":["Hayır, destekle iletişime geçin"],"Proton account":["Proton hesabı"],"Proton Bridge":["Proton Bridge"],"Proton Calendar":["Proton Calendar"],"Proton Drive":["Proton Drive"],"Proton for Business":["Proton for Business"],"Proton Mail":["Proton Mail"],"Proton Pass":["Proton Pass"],"Proton VPN":["Proton VPN"],"Thank you for your feedback":["Geri bildiriminiz için teşekkürler"],"Troubleshooting":["Sorun giderme"],"What can we help with ?":["Ne konuda yardımcı olabiliriz?"],"Yes":["Evet"]},"support_modal_search_query":{"Search query":["Sorgu ara"]},"support_search_button":{"Search":["Ara"]},"support_search_i_am_looking_for":{"I'm looking for":["Şunu arıyorum: -"]},"SupportForm":{"For a faster resolution, please report the issue from the Bridge app: Help > Report a problem.":["Daha hızlı bir çözüm için, lütfen sorunu Bridge uygulamasının Yardım > Bir sorun bildir kısmından bildiririn."],"Information":["Bilgi"]},"SupportForm:option":{"Account Security":["Hesap Güvenliği"],"Contacts":["Kişiler"],"Custom email domain":["Özel e-posta etki alanı"],"Email delivery and Spam":["E-posta iletimi ve istenmeyen e-postalar"],"Encryption":["Şifreleme"],"Login and password":["Oturum ve şifre"],"Merge aliases and accounts":["Takma adları (e-posta adresi) ve hesapları birleştir"],"Migrate to Proton":["Proton üzerine aktarım"],"Notifications":["Bildirimler"],"Other":["Diğer"],"Plans and billing":["Tarifeler ve faturalandırma"],"Proton for Business":["Proton for Business"],"Sign up":["Hesap açma"],"Storage":["Depolama"],"Users, addresses, and identities":["Kullanıcılar, adresler ve kimlikler"]},"SupportForm:optionIntro":{"Select a topic":["Bir konu seç"]},"swiss_baseed_feature":{"Swiss based":["İsviçre merkezli"]},"Testimonial":{"Awards":["Ödüller"],"Customers":["Müşteriler"],"Featured":["Öne Çıkanlar"],"Go to testimonial source":["Müşteri görüşünün kaynağına git"],"Reviews":["İncelemeler"],"Videos":["Videolar"]},"Text":{"Find the plan that's right for you":["Size uygun tarifeyi bulun"],"If you need help, check out our ${ supportLink }.":["Yardıma ihtiyacınız varsa ${ supportLink } ziyaret edebilirsiniz."],"The page you’re looking for might have been removed, or it could be an\nold link.":["Aradığınız sayfa kaldırılmış veya eski bir\nbağlantı olabilir."]},"Title":{"On this page":["Bu sayfada"],"Related articles":["İlgili makaleler"],"Share ${ thisPage }":["${ thisPage } paylaşın"],"Thank you!":["Teşekkürler!"],"this page":["Bu sayfayı"]},"Tooltip":{"More information":["Daha fazla bilgi"]},"tooltip_calendar":{"Create up to 20 custom & shareable encrypted calendars. On top of that, add up to 5 calendars from friends, family, colleagues, and organizations.":["20'ye varan özel ve paylaşılabilir şifrelenmiş takvim oluşturun. Üstelik arkadaşlarınızdan, ailenizden, iş arkadaşlarınızdan ve kuruluşlardan 5'e kadar takvim ekleyin."]},"tooltip_vpn":{"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES }+ countries, highest VPN speed, ${ TOTAL_VPN_CONNECTIONS } VPN connections, worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Yasaklı içeriklere erişin ve gizlice gezinin. ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES } üzeri ülkede ${ TOTAL_SERVERS } üzerinde sunucu, en yüksek VPN hızını, ${ TOTAL_VPN_CONNECTIONS } VPN bağlantısı, dünya çapındaki yayın hizmetlerini, kötü amaçlı yazılım ve reklam engelleyici, ve daha fazlasını içerir."],"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES }+ countries, highest VPN speed, 10 VPN connections, worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Yasaklı içeriklere erişin ve gizlice gezinin. ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES } üzeri ülkede ${ TOTAL_SERVERS } üzerinde sunucu, en yüksek VPN hızını, 10 VPN bağlantısı, dünya çapındaki yayın hizmetlerini, kötü amaçlı yazılım ve reklam engelleyici, ve daha fazlasını içerir."]},"version_history_label":{"Version history":["Sürüm geçmişi"]},"version_history_tooltip":{"Store up to ${ versionHistoryNumber } versions of each file for up to ${ years } years":["Her dosyanın ${ versionHistoryNumber } sürümünü ${ years } yıla kadar tutun"]},"vpn_features_link":{"View VPN plans":["VPN tarifelerini görüntüle"]},"vpn_features_useCase":{"Access blocked content and browse privately":["Yasaklı içeriklere erişin ve gizlice gezinin"]}}},"unleashApi":"https://account.proton.me/api"};
// We need to import data (the framework context) from the server
// This Astro feature with define:vars works well but creates an inline script
// So we can't directly import the initFramework helper, we have to store the context
window.frameworkContext = frameworkContext;
})();
Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines | Proton
Last year, Big Tech companies (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft) received about $3.04 billion in fines for breaking laws on both sides of the Atlantic. As of seven days and three hours into 2024, they had already earned enough revenue to pay it all off.
A little over a week of operations is all it would take if the companies tackled their fines one after another. If they each paid their fines simultaneously, Meta would be the last to finish after five days and 13 hours.
This shows how insignificant these fines are for companies whose revenues are often larger than countries’ GDPs. In fact, 2023 was the second straight year these five companies were fined over $3 billion, showing that they view fines as nothing more than the cost of doing business.
This also assumes these companies act in good conscience and pay their fines promptly. Unfortunately, there’s no late payment penalty for Big Tech — and they often delay for years. It’s just another instance of Big Tech using its overwhelming revenue to bend or avoid the rules that govern the rest of us. Clearly, the current remedies for antitrust and privacy breaches are not having the desired effect.
Big Tech annual revenue dwarfs total fines
We published an article in August 2023 showing that the fines Big Tech companies received by that point in the year, some $2.3 billion, were inconsequential compared to their income. We thought it would be good to revisit those figures at the end of the year. We’ve calculated the average revenue earned per hour for each company using the latest figures reported. (We explain the sources we used for calculating this table at the bottom of this article.)
We also included fines these companies received in 2023 in the months after our article was published, such as a $700 million settlement in a case against Alphabet (Google) for how it illegally blocked competition on the Google Play Store(new window) that came out in December.
The updated table below shows the 2023 fine totals for each company, along with how long it would take them to pay off those fines with their 2023 average hourly revenue.
Company
2023 total fines
Time to pay off fine
Alphabet
$941 million
1 day, 3 hours, 55 minutes
Amazon
$111.7 million
1 hour, 50 minutes
Apple
$186.4 million
4 hours, 15 minutes
Meta
$1.72 billion
5 days, 13 hours, 25 minutes
Microsoft
$84 million
3 hours, 30 minutes
Total fines
$3.04 billion
7 days, 3 hours
For Apple and Microsoft, we calculated the average revenue per hour using the annual revenue amount in their 10-K report for their 2023 fiscal year (dates are noted in the table). We then divided that amount by 365 and then divided the resulting amount by 24 to reach the hourly average.
Alphabet (Google), Amazon, and Meta (Facebook) don’t release their annual financial statements until the beginning of February, so we calculated the average revenue per hour using the revenue they reported for the first nine months of 2023 in their September 10-Q report. We then divided that amount by 273 (the number of days in a year through Sept. 30) and then divided the resulting amount by 24 to reach the hourly average.
Delay, delay, delay
Big Tech companies can further water down the potential sting of these fines by delaying payment for years(new window). They’ve done this by filing appeals, counter-suing, or simply refusing to pay. Some notable examples include:
Every company has the right to appeal, and privacy abuses and antitrust cases are notoriously complicated and often governed by laws that were written well before the internet was invented, meaning a great deal of interpretation is necessary. Still, it’s not a sign of a functioning justice system for appeals to take such a long time while people continue to suffer data abuses and unfair high prices. Those with the deepest pockets can often drag out litigation well after it’s clear they have no chance of winning, taking time and resources away from regulators’ efforts to create a level playing field in the market.
Weak fines are not a deterrent
These paltry fines aren’t helpful if you think a fine should function as a punishment for poor corporate governance or an incentive for companies to change their behavior. If a company can pay off a fine with less than a week’s revenue or avoid paying it entirely for half a decade, then it won’t cause executives to tread cautiously.
For example, despite Meta racking up nearly $2 billion in fines and Google nearly $1 billion, both Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai remain secure in their CEO posts. While other CEOs might be ousted immediately if their companies were fined billions of dollars year after year, investors and board members are willing to accept them at Big Tech companies because $1 billion represents less than 1% of these company’s total revenue. They view these fines as nothing more than the cost of doing business under the surveillance capitalism business model. And as their balance sheets show, business remains good.
This is important because the internet has become one of the most (arguably the most) important pieces of global public infrastructure the world has ever seen. It connects billions of people to their friends and family, to gainful employment, to entertainment, to essential information, and more. Despite how essential it is to the global economy and society, governments around the world have allowed Big Tech to bend the internet to their will.
Big Tech knows people want privacy. It’s why Google and Apple have launched major ad campaigns talking about how they give you control of your data. However, if you look at the features they’re producing, they continue to search for new ways to collect people’s data, from launching metaverses to following your activity in other apps, showing they aren’t taking regulators seriously.
If we want to take back control of the internet, several things must happen.
First, governments must combat Big Tech. They must impose fines that get Big Tech’s attention for breaching user privacy and locking competitors out of the market.
But fines can only be part of the solution. Regulators, armed with strong antitrust legislation, must strongly challenge mergers that create massive monopolies. They must encourage competition and empower people to choose the service that is best for them.
There are several opportunities for legislators to empower regulators to ensure fair competition and protect people’s rights in the coming year, such as with the Digital Markets, Consumer and Competition Bill in the UK that’s currently going through Parliament. Similar legislative initiatives have started in South Korea and Japan, as well.
But until governments step in, you must protect your information yourself. If you remove your personal data from Big Tech’s reach, not only are you protecting your privacy, you’re also depriving Big Tech of the ability to sell targeted ads.
The above table is not an exhaustive list of all the fines these companies received in the 2023 calendar year. We included all the substantial fines we could find in major news sources, but there might be others. Also, this table excludes several censorship fines from Russia that seem motivated by Big Tech’s refusal to remove news about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Also, due to the fluctuation of foreign exchange rates, the dollar amounts might have shifted since this article was published.
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