Perspective.

You only have to type the number ‘533 million’ into Google to receive responses on Facebook’s data breach, so widely has this been covered. 106 countries - mainly the US, UK and India, inc. phone numbers, names, locations, birthdates and email addresses. This ‘treasure trove’ of data was the result of a security flaw Facebook was made aware of over 2 years ago in 2019 - and again early 2020. What did they do? Clearly not enough. Worryingly, it seems that all it takes to access this data is knowing ‘where it is hosted, and some low-level database navigation skills’. Don’t assume if you haven’t heard from Facebook you are not affected - Facebook is not notifying it’s users and “has no plan to do so” - apparently because it doesn’t entirely know. How about good old-fashioned honest communication then, to all users Facebook? Hmmm… Strange that THEY don’t know, but others do - see haveibeenpwned.com. The good news is that if you joined Facebook after 2019, you are unlikely to have been affected. Since most of us joined before, my advice would be to be on high alert answering your phone.

Spotify have dropped from last week’s Newsroom high on Personalisation to an activist challenge this week due to a patent that would analyse users’ voices, and then make appropriate music recommendations. I’m curious, would they seek to exaggerate emotional state or lift emotional state? Would this extent to Podcasts telling you how to challenge your wonderful morning energy? Music is a powerful mood-changer, I’m not surprised. AI emotional recognition is nothing new - voices, faces, vital signs - all can be assessed. If it’s permission-based, music that matches mood may not be a bad thing. Much worse is the car that refuses to drive when it doesn’t like your emotional state.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tim Cook this week on the NY Times “Sway” Podcast with Kara Swisher. If you have 35 minutes spare, I recommend you listen for yourself. He refused to be drawn on the Facebook fight, instead championed Privacy and the coming app update that will allow users to turn off tracking based on the principle that “an individual should be in control over whether they’re tracked or not” - how can anyone disagree with such a principle? I cannot. Businesses that need the tracking can explain why any way they want - or even go so far as to with-hold services - but permission must now be given. Tim is surprised at all the ‘pushback’. Indeed, we seem to have forgotten that the right to contact someone is a privilege, not a right.

Finally, a study reveals that images influence our interpretation of text greatly. It’s true - humans process visual data better and faster than any other type of data - and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. If you are in the business of marketing, you should know this already - if not, make responsible adjustments. Even I’m thinking… perhaps next week, you’ll see a big visual comic strip instead of my usual write-up.