Posts tagged ‘data security’
Getting Value from Your Data Series: It’s All About Your Data Ecosystem
By Marilyn Craig and Mary Ludloff
We’re back with the fourth post in our series on how to get value from your data, including how to ensure that new “data” and “analytics” products are designed for successful delivery to new and existing customers.
In the previous posts in this series, we discussed our methodology and what is required in terms of understanding your target customer—who they are and what they need—as well as making sure you have the right Team in place to work on the project. In this post, we are going to discuss how you build your Data Ecosystem:
- What is needed to ensure that data processes will support the new product(s)?
- How do you identify appropriate data partners and enhancements?
- What privacy- and security-related issues must you be aware of and address?
Trend #1: Digital Advertising Comes of Age and Continues to Propel the Growth of Data Brokers and Markets
By Mary Ludloff & Terence Craig
Authors’ Note: As promised, this is trend number one in our take on the top ten privacy trends or the more things change, the more they stay the same. Although similar to David Lettermen’s Top Ten lists, our list is not as funny (unless we get points for sarcasm). We would like to remind you that sifting through the media coverage, books, blog posts, and research studies has been no easy task and trying to understand how all of it fits into the larger privacy landscape has been even harder. Added to that, our list is sure to elicit a litany of trends that we missed. We certainly hope that it does and welcome your input in our comments section! Now, on with the trend number one!
It is safe to say that continued media attention (mostly negative) has not had an impact on the rising use of third party tracking mechanisms to collect personal information. According to the Web Privacy Census, an undertaking sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, which measures and benchmarks Internet tracking over time:
- The number of cookies discovered on the top 100, 1,000, and 25,000 websites are all significantly increasing. For example, in May of 2012 5,795 cookies were found on the top 100 sites and in October of 2012 the number reached 6,485.
- The percentage of cookies set by a third party host was 84.7%. In other words, most of us are being tracked by a host of parties that we have no data collection agreement with.
- The top trackers were BlueKai (the largest online auction marketplace), Rubicon Project (one of the larger real-time bidding systems that sells ad space on web pages), and Adnxs (the advertising exchange for advertising exchanges).
In a pii (Privacy, Identity, Innovation) Conference State of Mind
By Mary Ludloff
Although this year has been extremely busy for us, Terence and I always find time for this event: The Privacy Identity Innovation Conference. Natalie Fonseca, the Co-Founder and Executive Producer of it, is the driving force behind its ongoing success. This year’s program focuses on:
“… the latest developments in areas like mobile, biometrics, the Internet of Things and big data. Learn about emerging trends and business models driving the personal information economy, and get guidance on developing strategies and best practices to build trust with your users.” (more…)
pii2013: Building Trust in the Data Driven Economy—Hope to see you there!
As entrepreneurs at a growing startup there are very few things that are exciting enough to divert even a tiny bit of our attention from giving our customers the world’s best streaming analytics technology. And while my co-founder Mary and I have been known to disagree on what those things might be, we are always in agreement that the Privacy Identity Innovation Conferences (pii) are the best conferences for bringing together leading voices from technology, science, and government for the critical discussion(s) of what Privacy and Identity mean in the age of the NSA, Facebook, and Internet of things. pii2013 is being held in Seattle this year to (as their website states):
“Explore emerging technologies and business models, and highlight strategies and best practices for building trust with users. From news reports of increasing government surveillance to stories about startups using customer data in ‘surprising’ ways, there’s no shortage of examples illustrating why now is an important time to talk about innovation and trust. It’s a critical conversation about the future of privacy, identity and reputation that you won’t want to miss.” (more…)
Privacy v Security, Transparency v Secrecy: The NSA, PRISM, and the Release of Classified Documents
Privacy, Anonymity, and Judicial Oversight are on the Endangered List
An age old debate has once again reared its very ugly head due to whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance, PRISM, and the astounding lack of any rigorous oversight on the NSA’s vast data collection apparatus. While PatternBuilders has been incredibly busy, in our non-copious amounts of spare time Terence and I have also been working on our update to Privacy and Big Data (which is undergoing another rewrite due to new government surveillance revelations that for a while happened hourly, then daily, then weekly but certainly are far from over). It’s important to note that pre-revelations our task was already herculean due to mainstream media’s pick up on “all stories related to privacy” (a good thing) that often missed the mark on the technical side of the house (we often find ourselves explaining to non-techies just what meta data is which usually happens after someone on CNN, Fox, NBC, ABC, etc., butchers the definition) or got tripped up by the various Acts, Amendments, state laws, EU Directives, etc., that apply to aspects of privacy.
Over the last few weeks as details about PRISM emerged, it’s become clear to me that main street America may still not understand the seismic shift that big data and analytics brings to the privacy debate. Certainly the power of big data and analytics has been lauded or vilified in the press—followers of our twitter feed are used to seeing the pros and cons of big data projects debated pretty much every day. We’ve (Terence and I) talked and tweeted about privacy issues as it applies to individuals, companies, and governments. Heck, we even wrote a book about privacy and big data. (more…)
Big Data Makes Its Broadway Debut (Sort of) and Other News
What a week for big data in the news! Less than two to three years ago, it seemed like big data was the sole purview of “pioneer” companies and industries (like retail and financial services). Today, everyone is writing about it (follow us on @bigdatapbi for the news we come across) and we’ve gone from industry- or research-related “stories” to mainstream press reporting from outlets like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Forbes. But you really know you’ve made it when you’ve taken your metaphorical bow on Broadway.
Full disclosure: I am a theater maven. Love Broadway, love the theater, love going to New York City to see shows. So imagine my early morning pre-coffee surprise when I saw this headline in the Wall Street Journal: Big Data Hits Broadway. Somebody wrote and produced a play about big data? How could I not know about this? Who’s in the cast? Well… not quite! However, the slogan “Conquer Big Data” is on a sign gracing Times Square. As editor Michael Hickins points out in the article:
“As you can see from these roadside signs – one above Broadway in New York’s Times Square district, the other on Highway 101 between San Jose and Redwood City – Big Data has gone from bleeding edge to the edge of the highway.” (more…)
Confessions of a Privacy Junkie (and a list of my favorite privacy resources!)
The holiday season is upon us and we are being inundated (happily) with best and worst lists as well as predictions for 2012. Terence and I will reveal our own lists soon but I thought that I might take this post to chat about our book (Privacy and Big Data) and the evolution of a privacy junkie (me). But before I begin, a note to our regular readers: I know that I promised a part 2 in my series on McKinsey and location tracking and it’s coming… in early 2012 (yes, I have taken poetic license with scheduled dates!).
As you all are far more aware than you might want to be due to our incessant plugging, we (Terence and Mary) wrote a book on Privacy and Big Data this year. I have always been concerned about privacy issues and thought that I was well informed on the subject so why not co-author the book? How much work would it really entail? After all, this is a topic that Terence and I talk (and argue) about pretty much every day so all we needed to do was collate our combined knowledge and voilà, a book is born! Six months later, after reading through thousands and thousands of pages of research, books, articles, and posts on the topic of privacy, I can safely say that I am now a privacy junkie of the highest order (I suspect Terence is as well but I digress). (more…)
Data and Technology Have No Moral Compass: But that does not mean that we get to abdicate all responsibility.
I do not consider myself an idealist and I would not call myself naive. That being said, as Terence and I engaged in research for our book, Privacy and Big Data, there were moments when I threw up my hands and said, “Really?” Certainly, the recent spate of articles on surveillance technologies and how governments around the world are buying and using those technologies to, for want of a better term, spy on its citizens gave me pause.
Don’t get me wrong—I know these technologies exist. I am also very aware that the regulatory environment does not really address what devices or applications built on top of these technologies can do. The reality is that companies like Datong sell “intelligence solutions” to the military, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies around the world. Recently, an article in the Guardian revealed that: (more…)
Roundup: About 4 Tech Giants, All Things Private, Social Media Stats, Maps, and Big Data!
Greetings one and all! It’s been a while since I posted about the more interesting articles, blogs, videos, etc., that I have come across and I thought that now is as good a time as ever to cover some interesting items you may have missed in the past few weeks. The topics are far ranging, thoughtful, illuminating, and at times, contentious, but that’s why they are interesting. So without further ado, let’s get to it!
Four Tech Giants Battle It Out
If you haven’t already, set aside some time to read Fast Company’s take on the (coming soon) great tech war of 2012. The combatants? Apple, Facebook, Google and, Amazon. The prize? Us—I think! This thoughtful piece by Farhad Manjoo looks at how these four goliaths will battle it out on the technology innovation field to, essentially, win the hearts, minds, and wallets of all of us:
“Think of this: You have a family desktop computer, but you probably don’t have a family Kindle. E-books are tied to a single Amazon account and can be read by one person at a time. The same for phones and apps. For the Fab Four, this is a beautiful thing because it means that everything done on your phone, tablet, or e-reader can be associated with you. Your likes, dislikes, and preferences feed new products and creative ways to market them to you. Collectively, the Fab Four have all registered credit-card info on a vast cross-section of Americans. They collect payments (Apple through iTunes, Google with Checkout, Amazon with Amazon Payments, Facebook with in-house credits). Both Google and Amazon recently launched Groupon-like daily-deals services, and Facebook is pursuing deals through its check-in service (after publicly retreating from its own offers product).”
Privacy and Big Data: Post-Book Thoughts, Terence’s POV
Over the course of writing our book Mary and I have been asked many times about how it was to collaborate on this grand production of ours. The next question, of course, was whether we changed our minds about the state of privacy in the age of big data. (And the final question was were we still friends? The answer, unequivocally, is yes.) Within the book, we tried to represent all sides of the privacy debate regardless of where we stood (although we are equally sure that you might be able to discern our opinions on some of the topics). Mary has already shared her thoughts on the process and privacy in general. Now, it’s my turn!
Mary and I have been friends and co-workers for a long time. This is our second startup together. It is considered a fait accompli in startup land that a technical founder/CEO (me) and a classically trained VP of Marketing (her), will not get along – but thankfully, in our case it has been a pleasant and fruitful collaboration with both of us learning from each other. So how hard could co-authoring a book be? Pretty damn hard, it turns out. There are the mechanics of the writing process itself, meeting deadlines, matching styles, fighting over different interpretations of grammar rules – Mary is a fan of Strunk & White and I, on the other hand, think e.e. cummings is a god. Then there is the content itself. Privacy, as we mention in the book, is one of “those topics” – as controversial in its way as what my Father called the bar fight trifecta: Religion, Politics and Another Man’s Spouse. (Those three topics when combined with a couple of beers, could be guaranteed to get even the best of friends swinging bar stools at each other with abandon.) (more…)
Big Data Big Analytics 