Don’t pay tech companies to exploit your community

I made software to help teachers build community in their classrooms. My cofounders and I cared most about doing good for kids, and built our product around what they needed. It took off, and soon millions of people all over the world were using the system we built.

We took money from a new set of investors, thinking they would help us pursue our mission. But then something happened that we hadn't predicted.

Our new investors didn't want to help teachers. Instead, they strategized around controlling them and their students. This was a big shock to me, and it gave me a new lens on technological power that I want to share. I see community leaders across the country making deals with large tech companies just like I did, thinking they will benefit and their interests are aligned, only to find out later it was just about centralizing power. I want to help people who care about community avoid the mistakes I made.

Right now, Coralville City Council members are considering giving a tech company (called “Flock”) access to the location of every car that passes through their town. This company has convinced many cities to do this, which makes it very valuable to investors because it has centralized a lot of power those investors can profit from.

I can imagine a reasonable city council member wrestling with the moral implications of giving away our locations and ultimately deciding to get the cameras. But I want that city council member to also understand they've received an unbalanced, backward business proposition that a savvy business person would refuse. The cameras are more valuable to Flock than they are to us. Flock should be offering to pay us for our data (after all, they sell it to others), and yet the proposal before the council is the other way around.

Cities who give their residents’ locations to Flock should charge the price of our privacy. The proposal that Coralville council members are considering would tell Flock everywhere we go … and actually PAY for the privilege with our tax dollars!

I hope Coralville council members and leaders everywhere will understand how much money these tech companies are making off us because of the deals they’re able to convince us to take. Flock’s worth $7.5 billion to investors because we aren’t driving harder bargains. Let’s wise up.

Riley Eynon-Lynch is a cofounder of RSFIC (pronounced “rizz-fick”) and lives in Iowa City.