Enterprise hits and misses - CCPA brings the trust and privacy heat, drones take off, and the Internet of insecure things is here
- Summary:
- This week - CCPA heightens the trust and privacy debate, but what's next? CES may celebrate gadgetry, but around here, drones get a harder look. The diginomica crew makes their best of picks, the tech decade gets reviewed, and the whiffs are epic.
Lead story - Trust and privacy in 2020 - how should brands approach CCPA? by Barb Mosher Zinck
MyPOV: We're only a few days into 2020, and it looks like our year is going to be dominated by tech vendors getting out in front of privacy - or stepping right in it via hacks, breaches, and playing poker hands with user data sloppy third party data swapping.
Barb kicks it off with a piece on CCPA and more - which we all need, given CCPA went into effect January 1. We assume that proper data compliance spurs trust, but Barb says hold up:
Is it enough for a brand to comply with privacy regulations to provide they are trustworthy? Or is something bigger required?
The CMO Council interviewed executives with brands dealing with privacy and trust in their organization. What's clear is that trust and privacy are not the same things.
Interesting - why not? Barb quotes Sonesh Shah, VP Marketing and Head of Digital for Bosch NA:
Companies right now have an option: start now by trying to build out what brand and user trust means and take the next months and year to really put that into practice. OR you can just follow the regulatory trends and rules coming from State X or State Z and just let the compliance team work with marketing, telling the team what they can and cannot do. Option two may be the more typical path. But it won't be that fruitful.
Complying with the law? That's a start. But the cutting edge of marketing is elsewhere. Put customers/content audiences first, and the regulatory issues should be a no-brainer. Also see Barb's A product-led growth strategy changes marketing - are we ready?
Diginomica picks - my top stories on diginomica this week
- Drone alone 2 - the unexpected benefits - how do you write about the problematic future of drones without droning on? Chris pulled it off with this erudite two-parter, happily missing any horrid puns. Pull quote: "The future may look simple once the regulatory and technical challenges of commercial drones have been overcome; but the reality will be messy." Also see part one.
- Brian Sommer's Month in Review – December 2019 - Brian caps off the year with tales of vendors behaving badly, and another salty roundup of flawed HR technologies like ATS, and an assortment of
wildly overflogged pseudo-intelligentnext-gen AI recruitment tools. Plus some new tech buzzwords - ready for the hyperwoke enterprise?
Vendor analysis, diginomica style. Here's my three top choices from our vendor coverage:
- Tech-for-good news from a data-for-good skeptic - how two Sisense customers use BI to save organs and lives - Neil
- Fall event highlight - Sage Intacct's SaaS industry customers reveal subscription business lessons - and results - Jon
- Closing thoughts in conversation with Floqast CEO Michael Whitmore - Brian
diginomica does its best-of thing - 2019 in the rearview
Most of our regulars chipped in a best-of for 2019. This year, a number of them had thematic angles. So, you can pick your pleasure:
- Retail's 2019 - Stuart takes on a year of retail transformation with the highs (and many lows) of iconic brands.
- 2019 - the Madeline version - Madeline hones in on diversity in tech, via the 2019 pieces that advanced that vital conversation.
- A 'SAP-tastic' 2019 - the Den version - if you speak SAPanese, or want lessons from the drama of a vendor in a high-stakes transformation, Den's compendium is for you.
- 2019 - the Martin version - speaking of high stakes, Martin compiles the vitals from a volatile year in the cloud infrastructure business.
- 2019 - the Jess version - The reigning queen of the use case picks the best non-profit transformation stories she covered this year.
Meanwhile, Phil's top ten focused on the XaaSsy themes of the frictionless enterprise. Derek hit on the top digital governance stories, AI ethics, "all change" at Infor and ServiceNow, and the rise of Google Cloud. My top ten spans the realities of transformation to AI field results, to the ongoing need to save enterprise events from themselves, before we develop brain atrophy from three hour keynotes and DJs spinning us into sonic submission.
Jon's grab bag - Kurt takes on the anti-big-tech FAANG dystopians in his assumption-busting Business development and competitiveness - 'Big Tech' isn’t the problem, it’s the solution. This line from Kurt sets a good tone for a 2020 agenda: "Such static thinking ignores or minimizes the dynamic power of technology diffusion, democratization and disruption."
Speaking of FAANG dystopia, Stuart managed one more feel-good Facebook update in 2019, a surprising/rare European legal victory: Facebook on track for a win as Europe's top court is advised existing data transfer mechanisms are "valid". But Stuart warns of a darker/broader data theme: "Privacy Shield remains unfit for purpose."
Best of the rest
CCPA, AI healthcare ethics, and cybersecurity hits center stage in 2019
MyPOV: Yes, I realize that in Las Vegas, the most irrelevant gadget-obsessed biggest consumer tech show of the year is underway (CES). You can probably guess how I feel about the smellification of tech:
Charmin at CES 2020: RollBot, SmellSense and V.I.Pee as innovation meets absurd https://t.co/H43fqb4Z8A
-> so sad I'm not in Vegas missing out on all this world-changing "innovation"
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) January 5, 2020
Setting aside the fawning over foldable phones, enterprise types broached meatier topics:
Artificial Intelligence Is Rushing Into Patient Care - And Could Raise Risks - At the Scientific American, Liz Szabo put the breaks on the AI hype I blew a bit of gasket on:
Is Google breast cancer detection AI better than doctors? Not so fast https://t.co/5bHzntDydO -> nice job by @TiernanRayTech of putting breaks on the hype I've been hearing on this, for some real world context here. AI isn't gonna revolutionize anything here- useful tool only.
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) January 3, 2020
Over at Constellation Research, Liz Miller laid out a bunch of need-to-knows on CCPA, and did it with a flourish: Happy CCPA Day California! Now the Privacy is REALLY Gonna Hit the Fan. Miller's bottom line:
You have a choice: see this as a curse or an opportunity. But know this…CCPA isn't the last regulatory thrill ride. With legislation pending in New York, Nevada and new calls for federal data privacy and security standards, CCPA is just the beginning of the chaos.
Louis Columbus wrapped up a strong year of enterprise security blogs with Shadow IT Is The Cybersecurity Threat That Keeps Giving All Year Long. The priority? "Secure the networks shadow IT relies on."
Other standouts - taking stock of the tech and AI decade
I ignored the noise festival of self-service predictions, but a thoughtful look back? Sign me up. Here's a few:
- Two truths and seven lies retailers heard in the 2010s - Forrester has published a lot of forgettable, low-effort posts on ZDNet. This was not one of those - and sets up the NRF "big show" nicely (yep, I'm going).
- A decade in review in tech - if you click on one link this week, make it this one from ethical coder Cindy Sridharan
- 10 tech trends that shaped the 2010s - Pew Research Center turns to the data for big ways our views on tech have changed. Yes, there is captain obvious "mobile/social decade" stuff in here, but the info on online harassment and fake news is notable.
- Revisiting the rise of A.I.: How far has artificial intelligence come since 2010? - A definitive decade-of-AI review from digital trends - including the rise in deep learning.
- Kellblog's 10 Predictions for 2020 - ok, I said no-predictions-allowed, but Dave Kellogg also looks back, grading what he said last year. Plus - these predictions span tech, culture, and thorny data problems.
Whiffs
We sure got off to a whiffy start in 2020, with some doozies that might not be topped all year:
Detroit fire crews investigated for burning house selfie https://t.co/ndDAHjrU4r
-> an epic PR fail - - sets a very high bar for 2020.
"There are a lot of ways to celebrate a retirement. Taking a photo in front of a building fire is not one of them.""
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) January 2, 2020
This one has the vibe of a publicity stunt as well: Antiques Roadshow expert drinks a bottle of urine, rusty nails and human hair after mistaking it for 150-year-old port. Maybe this year we should coin a new tech term: deathstreaming (Man who was livestreaming while driving 100 mph crashes car in Connecticut).
It's way too early to declare a "worst breach behavior of 2020" award, but what HP did here, giving their customers the "all clear" when they were anything but, did not get nearly enough public shaming:
Go read this ‘Cloud Hopper’ hacking investigation by the WSJ https://t.co/ulwCr0oL6h
"Hewlett Packard Enterprise was so overrun that the cloud company didn’t see the hackers re-enter their clients’ networks, even as the company gave customers the all-clear"
-> not good at all
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) January 2, 2020
On the device (in)security front, it's hard to beat this one via Den Howlett:
Oh man sometimes this shit is so bad, you can't help but laugh.
— Zack Whittaker (@zackwhittaker) January 2, 2020
Hey, at least losing your key isn't a big deal! Oh, and speaking of the Internet of insecure things, get a load of this one:
Xiaomi security cam flaw streams strangers' video feed to wrong person https://t.co/IxWDKpBIwY
"Google said it has reached out to Xiaomi to resolve the issue"
-> very reassuring :) Guess Google didn't want Amazon Ring running away with the c̵r̵e̵e̵p̵y̵ smart home competition
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) January 3, 2020
Creepstastic work Google. And sure, it's just a third party partner - that you trusted in people's homes. Now we know our ABCs... See you next week.
If you find an #ensw piece that qualifies for hits and misses - in a good or bad way - let me know in the comments as Clive (almost) always does. Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. 'myPOV' is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.