Data and Security

The arrival of martech was heralded as the next stage of marketing. These platforms enabled marketers to gather endless reams of data so they could reconfigure their approach and boost their conversions. The theory was that the better businesses got to know their customers, the more appealing they could make their offers. What actually happened […]

The good news is that data breaches appear to be declining in 2018, according to the Risk Based Security Q1 2018 Data Breach QuickView Report. The first three months of 2018 witnessed 686 breaches compared to 1,442 breaches in the same quarter in 2017. The bad news is that numerous breach strategies still work, including malware, phishing, […]

More enterprises are investing in mobile applications on platforms preferably iOS. The 2016 enterprise mobile apps report brought out by Adobe reinforces the growing need for enterprises to invest in mobile apps. With Apple constituting a major share of the world smartphone market, iOS tend to be the most preferred platform in enterprise app development. […]

If you scour the internet for your personal data, stop. It’s already out there in the hands of companies, and no number of removal requests will change that. What you should be worried about is whether executives at these companies are asking themselves the right question: What constitutes ethical use of consumer data? What if you […]

Although FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stated, “I strongly support a free and open internet,” the FCC officially repealed net neutrality on June 11th. The original net neutrality laws protected the internet by referring to it as a common carrier. That meant it fairly provided a service like utilities to everyone. However, repealing net neutrality laws […]

GDPR is coming and many organizations are changing their ways – you must have noticed getting emailed from your favorite websites about their new policies. One of the most sensitive data pipes in every big organization is the CRM (Customer Relationship Management), which contains all of the private information of both the company and their […]

There’s no getting around it: the way marketers and retailers harness the power of big data can be a little on the creepy side. An innocent Google search on a specific subject can often result in you seeing nothing but targeted ads on that subject for the rest of the week wherever you turn.  Yet […]

In 2013, hackers managed to access the AP twitter account and posted a fake tweet implying that there was an explosion in White House and the then President Obama had been injured. Following the Tweet, the stock market went into panic mode with the Dow plunging over 150 points and the S&P 500 shedding $135.6 […]

Every time you’ve installed a piece of commercial software, you’ve invariably been presented with what must have appeared to be legal gibberish- a seeming difficult to read, needlessly long, solid block of text that was almost impossible to understand. Most people never bother to read the information presented- quickly scrolling to the bottom of the […]

The big data trend continues, and more and more companies are hopping on the bandwagon. While many organizations assume they need big data’s wisdom, often the “small” operational data they already have will do just fine. Operational data is internal data, such as the data that gives Uber its ability to dispatch cars. Big data, […]

For a business in digital transition, data architecture is a big decision. Selecting the right model is one of the first and most important choices of any such initiative. But given the breadth of options and confusing terminology, choosing a solution that meets the company’s needs without blowing its budget is no easy task. Two […]

For all of the “isms” supposedly being felled by enlightened Americans, the U.S. economy remains stunningly unfair. Take racism. On one hand, interracial marriages have grown fivefold in the 50 years since Loving v. Virginia, which legalized the practice. On the other, the average median household wealth of African-Americans declined by 75 percent between 1983 […]

The smart city began as a science fiction dream, but it’s very quickly becoming a reality. Municipal infrastructure, integrated with smart technology, will transform the aesthetics, utility, and sustainability of urban landscapes from here on out. To see a smart city in action, just look to Washington, D.C., which has embraced a top-down approach to […]

Companies may be well aware they’re sitting on a gold mine of data, but most of them have no idea how to exploit its value. Case in point: According to research by Forrester, up to 73 percent of corporate data goes unanalyzed. Information is collected, then neglected. That’s as unproductive as living with Superman and […]

In February 2017, the Transformations Autism Treatment Center learned that one of its former behavioral analysts had breached its security. According to his indictment, Jeffrey Luke illegally accessed a TACT Google Drive account and stole protected health information from more than 300 current and former patients. TACT’s cyber breach is especially concerning because Luke had […]

In 2006 Google’s acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion, and Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012.   Many dismissed these purchases as indulgences of cash-rich tech behemoths, and federal regulators took no action.  But, these acquisitions were far from frivolous.  They shut out potential competitors, strengthening Google’s market dominance in search and Facebook’s in social media. And, now […]

Data has never been more critical to marketing success. Companies are striving to employ the latest analytics to drive improvement in all areas of operations. The good news is that the majority of consumers are willing to provide data, given the right conditions. In fact, a 2018 survey by Acxiom found that 58 percent of […]

At media companies, 2018 might be remembered as the year that someone finally got data sharing right. To be sure, there were some missteps. Facebook’s series of data scandals cost the social network around a quarter of its value. But Twitter, Google, Reddit, Snapchat, and even Facebook each tweaked their privacy policies to better balance […]

The majority of cyberattacks aren’t large-scale, coordinated efforts to break through tough defenses and acquire valuable data; instead, they’re simple and opportunistic. A “hacker” might stumble upon someone’s password because they left it written on a sticky note, or they might take advantage of an account that was left logged in on a public computer. […]

Every year IoT brings new things to biotechnology, manufacturing, home living and every aspect of our daily lives. We’ve seen it disrupt traditional industries, transform our cities and contribute to the autonomous transport of the future. It sits in an ecosystem where machine learning, AI and data analytics help us understand our world more than ever before. […]

Seasoned technology writer Michael Miller spoke to ReadWrite about his latest book The Internet of Things: How Smart TVs, Smart Cars, Smart Homes, and Smart Cities Are Changing the World. During this conversation, he discussed current IoT practices, implementations and made some useful predictions of how consumers and businesses will be impacted by this emerging […]