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On power and privacy

Moving the Market: Silicon Valley's critics and would-be regulators must soon decide whether they care more about curbing the power of the big tech firms or guaranteeing user privacy — because the two efforts are not the same, and in some cases they're diametrically opposed to one another.

• It's an inconvenient truth, but the more dominant tech firms become, the better positioned they are to protect user privacy.

• By the same token, as tech firms become less dominant, they also lose the ability to influence the way the internet works.

Case in point: Apple's new single-sign on feature.

• In a departure from Facebook and Google, Apple's SSO allows users to sign in to websites and apps without sharing their personal information.

• But as my colleague Jason Abbruzzese reports, it also broadens Apple's power, because the SSO is now mandatory for any developer operating in the App Store who uses third-party sign-ins.

• This isn't necessarily a nefarious move by Apple; it's the only realistic way that the company can guarantee their commitment to user privacy. But it does give them more power over the app market.

What's remarkable is how many members of the pro-regulation, "break 'em up" coalition fail to understand this. Many misguidedly advocate for limiting tech giants' power *in order to* protect user privacy.

• To wit: Chris Hughes, who claims the title of Facebook co-founder, made privacy concerns a central part of his New York Times op-ed in which he made the case for breaking up Facebook.

Higher wisdom comes from Ben Thompson, Silicon Valley's Sage-at-Large in Taipei, who explained over a year ago how society's demand for privacy was also a demand for "ever more closed gardens," which would end up empowering existing platforms.

• "If those platforms will be increasingly entrenched," he argued, "then the more valuable regulation might be that which ensures an equal playing field on top of those platforms."

The big picture: Fixing Silicon Valley's problems requires a scalpel, not an ax. Beware of overly simplistic solutions.

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Elizabeth Warren taunts Tech

Big in the Bay: Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign has paid for a billboard at San Francisco's main Caltrain station that reads "BREAK UP BIG TECH," a direct shot at Silicon Valley.

• The transit hub "connects San Francisco to the big tech firms in Silicon Valley," NYT's Nellie Bowles notes. "The train stops in Menlo Park (home to Facebook), Mountain View (home to Google) and Sunnyvale (near Apple’s headquarters)."

Fun fact: Sen. Warren, her campaigns and her committees have spent more than $2 million on Facebook ads over the last year.

💼 Rally the Market 💼

Making It: Forbes has released its list of America's most successful self-made women. List members range in age from 21 to 92 and are worth a combined $81.3 billion.

• The big picture, via Forbes' Luisa Kroll and Kerry A. Dolan: "More women are creating new businesses and amassing fortunes than ever before."

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Adam Mosseri milks 'influence'

Big with the brands: Adam Mosseri has introduced a new Instagram feature that enables advertisers to promote influencers' branded posts, allowing them to turn their sponsorship investments into full-fledged ad campaigns.

• The rationale: Consumers have higher engagement rates with "influencers" and "creators" than they do with the brands that sponsor them. In other words, they're more likely to buy CoverGirl lipstick from a cover girl than CoverGirl.

The big picture: The influencer marketing industry is surging, from $1.7 billion in 2016 to an estimated $6.5 billion this year, per a report form Influencer Marketing Hub.

• The downside: You're about to see a lot of sponsored posts from influencers you don’t actually follow.

Market Links

• Mark Zuckerberg faces another staff security problem (BI)

• Tim Cook backs off crackdown on parental-control apps (NYT)

• Katie Drummond oversees a Vice Media restructuring (NYT)

• Bob Iger beats Netflix and Amazon Prime in India (WSJ)

• Hope Hicks may not comply with her subpoena (Variety)

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Shari Redstone seeks growth

Media M&A watch: Shari Redstone says a combined Viacom and CBS would still need to get bigger in order to better compete with tech giants, signaling an interest in additional acquisitions after the two firms' expected merger.

• "We would want to look at something after that to... develop more scale as we move forward," Redstone said at The Information's Women in Tech, Media and Finance conference.

What's next: The CBS and Viacom boards are preparing for deal talks that could begin this month, per CNBC's David Faber.

Drew Angerer/Getty

Keeping up with Katzenberg

Talk of Tinseltown: Here's a question that gets asked every day in Los Angeles, on multiple studio lots and multiple phone calls, from Beverly Hills to Burbank: "What do you think about Quibi?"

• The debate over Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman's short-form mobile video venture, which I've been covering for over a year, always pits healthy skepticism of the endeavor against Hollywood's unyielding loyalty to one of its titans, which manifests itself as: "No one bets against Jeffrey Katzenberg."

What's new: Digiday's Sahil Patel has provided everyone with a clean, comprehensive breakdown of the ongoing debate. "There are several valid reasons for why Quibi can pull it off," he writes, "but there are also plenty of reasons why insiders are skeptical."

• What's next: Katzenberg and Whitman have added "a pair of bygone MTV favorites" to the Quibi content portfolio: "Singled Out" and "Punk’d."

👟 What next: California's new hot commodity is the "Thank You, Oakland" Curry 6, an exclusive Under Armor shoe that Steph Curry has gifted to thirty people, including his barber and his dog trainer, ahead of the team's move to San Francisco.

• Tonight at Oracle: NBA Finals Game 3. 6 p.m. PT on ABC.

See you tomorrow.