How Tech Surprised and Scared in 2018

Happy 2019.

Last year was a big one in tech, as the Silicon Valley behemoths that drive large swaths of California’s economy faced mounting scrutiny over the way they handle our personal information and do business with one another.

But it felt almost overwhelming trying to get a handle on everything that came to light. So I asked Pui-Wing Tam, our Tech editor, to put the revelations into some context.

Jill Cowan: What was the most surprising thing your team uncovered this year and why?

Pui-Wing Tam: So much happened in tech in 2018 that it’s hard to know where to begin. But the story line that emerged that I found the most surprising was the increasing activism of tech workers.

Silicon Valley tech employees have historically seemed a docile lot, lured to the corporate campuses in Mountain View, California, San Jose and farther north in San Francisco by promises of fat compensation and a comfortable life.

But in 2018, many engineers and other workers at companies like Google and Facebook began more publicly voicing their thoughts on a range of issues, including whether artificial intelligence should be used by the Pentagon, how to better treat sexual harassment victims, and how to embrace more diversity of thought in the workplace. They showed conscience, a heart, and a healthy amount of internal debate.

What was the most disconcerting thing your team found this year?

It was a year full of holy moly headlines about Facebook improperly handling our user data, Google working on a censored search engine for China, Amazon setting off surveillance alarm bells by selling facial recognition tech to the police, and domestic abusers using smart home technology to harass their victims. Most creepy of all was the column about Brian X. Chen’s experience downloading all the information that Facebook had ever collected on him.

So by the end of the year, one of the most disconcerting things was wondering if tech even does any good any more.

Fortunately, Farhad Manjoo reminded us of the personal power of how tech can help us store and surface our memories with a column about Google Photos. And Kevin Roose handed out a few awards for good tech.

What story lines will be the most important in the year ahead?

We’ll still be closely following how far this tech backlash goes. And in San Francisco, we’re looking for a big bump in conspicuous spending if a bunch of tech startups — including Uber, Lyft, Slack, Pinterest and others — manage to make their debut on the stock market, enriching their founders, employees, investors and the Tesla car dealer down the road.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.