A handful of tech companies -- Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft -- have become so ubiquitous in our daily lives that their devices and algorithms are nearly inescapable. Each of the companies has become a juggernaut in its corners of the market. And their role in geopolitics has steadily grown to the point that it's practically cliche anymore to say big data is the new oil. The comparison is apt, though. As it was for oil companies before them -- and for steel companies before that -- the growth of tech firms, and the effective monopolies they've established in certain areas, are concerns that Washington will eventually have to address. The only questions are when and how....
