The Banking Executive Magazine - May 2022 Issue

Online Retail Business grams, video games and applications than on Windows or even Linux. What can also happen, is when an operating system updates, sometimes a program that you have used forever will become incompatible with the newest update of an OS. But the most common form of an operating system dictating on what is allowed on their platform occurs on mobile operating systems. On mobile operating systems, certain applications will be banned and you will be unable to download and in- stall them –even if their software is compatible with the operating sys- tem itself-.So, technically, operating systems control all the software that is on your computer, including web browsers. Operating Systems installed on de- vices such as smartphones, laptops, desktops and tablets are arguably the top point of control in our modern economy. The top four most valuable compa- nies in the world; Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google have one thing in common, and it is that they have all tried their very best to own the physical devices market, and specif- ically the smartphone. That's be- cause they know that owning the most popular device in the world that connects users to the Internet, is the ultimate source of control. Software companies like Facebook and Google were reluctant to how the physical device companies had complete control over them. So, they began trying to own access to the In- ternet itself! In 2015, Facebook and Google started launching satellites and high- altitude weather balloons that would allow millions of people to connect to the internet for free> using this method, they would be able to gather more data and dictate what websites users can browse using their Internet. For example, a user is using an iPhone to connect to Facebook's free internet program and the user wanted to go on to apple.com -the website of the company whose phone the user is using-. If the user is using Facebook's free internet, he probably would not be able to access that website because Facebook gets to choose what websites are and are not available. So, the next frontier of control, might actually be giving away free Internet to the entire world, and who knows if Facebook, Google or another tech company succeeds in this free inter- net venture, we might see the biggest gatekeeper of business the world has ever seen, and that is how just a few companies control every other on- line business on this planet. the BANKING EXECUTIVE 30 ISSUE 161 MAY 2022