The great digital-age swindle… and the man fighting back

He was tour manager for the Band, producer of Mean Streets" so why, at nearly 70, is Jonathan Taplin taking on Facebook and co?

We are all - or nearly all - slaves to technology. Think about how many times you consult Google every day. Consider the role that social media like Facebook and Twitter play in your lives. And when you buy a book, or countless other items, it's increasingly likely that you purchased it from Amazon.

These brand names have come to define our lives in ways that have crept up on us so that now we can't imagine being without them. But has their influence grown too large? For all the futuristic idealism that marked their beginning, have they turned into rampant capitalist monopolies that are indifferent to the damage they wreak, and contemptuous of the governments whose taxes they avoid?