WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: cameras are everywhere - phones, streets, home, office - and AI enables new capabilities that can present massive surveillance possibilities as well as personal protection and real-time data. This very well done video - as is the case with most VOX videos - should give you a good rundown of the plus and minuses...

WHY IT MATTERS: an article full of eye opening data on hacking and security (like only 750$ to hack someone's password) and links to protect your Google accounts (like adding recovery phone number).

WHY IT MATTERS: with voice enable devices making their way into the professional settings like doctors offices or lawyers office, the impact of devices that record everything that is being said in very private settings should concern us all.

WHY IT MATTERS: with digital transformation comes new tools and techniques that we need to learn to keep our privacy. These are 5 of them.

WHY IT MATTERS: for geeks that want to understand which trackers exists and how they appear on mobile apps and websites. Can also be used to add them to your apps of sites, unfortunately...

WHY IT MATTERS: I wrote about this many years back and it is worth an update given this very interesting article from WP. The growth of mobile tracking, yes even on iPhone, should be cause for concern. They also link to a solution, disconnect.me which I also covered in the past when it was launched as the collusion chrome plugin (in 2013!!!!). Moreover the very good github list of trackers is quite mindblowing. Yes it has been 6 years and the state of privacy has worsened in serious ways. Follow the links in the article for details but here are the 2 I consider most useful:

https://disconnect.me/

https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect-tracking-protection

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

A relatively technical explanation of the methods used to track people on the web.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Discusses different solutions to remain anonymous online, from TOR to bitcoins.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This is the basics you need to know: incognito mode, VPNs and TOR network. If you don't read this.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Big brother is watching and when it does you can gain tremendous insights into the behaviour of humans. I zoomed in on Montreal and the diagram is very clear about which run trails are most popular on the Mount Royal. On the dark side, of course, this means Strava performs some high level surveillance on us as we share our bike and run rides with their software.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Social logins are very useful but they carry security and privacy concerns that every company must examine as they move to digitalize everything. In "Kill the password" (fmcs.digital/blog/kill-the-password-a-string-of-characters-wont-protect-you/), the author shows the impact of having multiple websites and applications connected with one another. This is a security concern that must be addressed, mitigated or at the very least highlighted so that everyone involved is aware of the risks and the benefits.

Other articles:

• somewhat technical: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-danger-of-social-media-logins-2014-5
• recent stats on social login use: https://betanews.com/2016/10/19/social-logins-convenience-risks/ 

Mozilla has always been promoting Internet security and privacy and this new report paves the way for a very interesting ongoing look at key elements of the public Internet.

Read this important post to understand just how many traces we leave behind as we lead our daily lives.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

On this Data Privacy Day 2017, I thought I would review what Google, Apple, Facebook and others know about me. Unfortunately, it looks like this information is difficult to find and pretty much the only data we can find is from Google. So, let's assume Apple, Facebook, twitter, and others know as much if not more.

Google tools that will show you what they know about you:

• https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity 
• https://www.google.com/settings/u/0/ads/authenticated 
• https://myaccount.google.com/dashboard 
• http://visual.ly/how-much-does-google-really-know-about-you

Other articles about those tools:

• http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-google-knows-about-you-2016-5/#to-delete-all-of-your-web-and-app-activity-in-one-shot-go-back-to-the-main-web-and-app-activity-page-and-click-on-the-three-dots-at-the-top-corner-of-the-page-then-click-on-delete-options-then-on-advanced-and-then-on-all-time-4
• http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-everything-google-knows-about-you-2016-6
• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-much-google-know-about-you/ 

Recent announcements of fully automated, no cash register no lineups Amazon stores, have made the use of RFID chips and other digital identification techniques the topic of discussion again.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Digital transformation requires bridging the physical world with the digital one. One of the simplest way to do so is to attached radio frequency beacons (RFID chips) to products so that you can detect their presence and make inventory management and checkout faster, easier and more accurate. Pushing this idea forward of course means that humans too should be tagged to help identify them in the digital world. Not only does this open a see of useful application - unlocking doors without a key, tracking location inside a building, removing the need for password - it also raises concerns about privacy and identity management. Fun times ahead!

Amazon GO: http://fmcs.digital/blog/amazon-go-no-registers-no-cash-no-lines-retail-store-digital-transformation-huge-leap-forward/

Retail location tagging: http://sco.lt/6yVDqz 

Décathlon connected products and self checkout: http://www.force-ouvriere.fr/chez-decathlon-85-des-produits-sont-connectes?lang=fr 

AI and Big Data are being applied to identity verification by a startup that has received 25M in funding and is poaching employees from Google.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

AI and other techniques will provide enhance capabilities to deter theft and privacy violations. They will become essential tools in digital transformation of businesses. For example, UBER is using Onfido to verify that people are who they claim they are, thus making their service better able to curb credit card theft, and protect drivers by ensuring their passengers can be tracked is they behave inappropriately. 

Location services on mobile phone can reveal information you may not want others to know. This post describes in simple term what geolocation can reveal.

The web never forgets. This new site offers ways to remove some traces of your digital life. Useful.

A very good review of the limitations of passwords and the multiple new methods we will have to enhance our digital security.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

To go digital, being secure is very high on the list of priorities. Maslow had put security as the second layer in the pyramid of needs - and I believe this is also true in the new pyramid of digital needs!