Category Archives: ESG CX

Children – Data Games with their Future

There are three data points to think about

  • Instagram is working on a version for children under 13
  • Proctoring applications are a lot more acceptable with educational institutions
  • The Metaverse and it’s inroads into the world of children

Let’s start with these though

Safety in the browser

  1. You would be aware of a new initiative called FLOC. It is currently in preview/ testing mode and will roll out soon enough. It is promoted, by Google, as a privacy protection initiative to third party cookies. Still, it has received significant push back, and most browser alternatives are refusing to support the standard and, for now, only available on Chrome. Will FLOC also cover Google Workspace (education) based students ids and what about Chromebooks used by children. Hopefully, the status is opt-out from the outset.

If you have concerns, then Edge is the default browser on Windows machines, and you can choose Firefox or Brave. Mac’s default browser is Safari, but all the other three browsers are available. Meanwhile, Microsoft Edge’s new Kids Mode has appropriate features and content for children aged 5-8 or 9-12. It limits the sites that children can go to, adds safe search and strict tracking prevention. The browser’s family safety feature is linked to a Microsoft account.

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A QR code in the Sky

Somewhere in Shanghai, there is a QR code in the sky.

There is the technical wizardry of drone operations that could create a QR code in the night sky. It then makes you wonder if this is needed?

Scanning conversations on Twitter, the responses included –

  • ‘future possibilities’ and applications
  • ‘scalable billboards and exponential infinity model.’
  • ‘beautiful’ and other terms for wonder too.
  1. Do we need the wonders of fingerprinting, ad-tech related in the sky as well?
  2. Nighttime light pollution has been associated with many health disorders plus the impact on wildlife. This kind of service may add to the problem and add to the safety and energy burden.
  3. There is a lot of discussion on the impact of nighttime light pollution on astronomy and the work of earth observation teams. Adding to this are the mega-constellations of satellites going into service in earth orbit. They will be visible from the earth.

Now imagine a child, fascinated by apps like Sky Guide, taking to a telescope. What will they see? A galaxy, comet, planet, human-made satellites or a QR code. Is there a correct answer for this?

Picture source : https://twitter.com/Pathfinder/status/1383491963068899336/photo/1

Data Breach – 10 customer expectations

The elevator pitch for the new economy is that “data is the new oil”. Data lakes are forming faster than the lakes formed by melting glaciers. As for the latter, I’d rather the glaciers don’t melt!

Database products and analytics tools that power concepts like data lakes are flourishing. They are increasingly getting powerful features that a modern enterprise needs. If you are not playing the data game, you will be left behind, they say! 

In the ‘bad old days’ powered by oil, there were the inevitable oil spills. They spoilt natural habits, and this information was often covered up. The big spills got into the limelight mainly because videos, satellite imagery and other tools made them difficult to stay hidden. The second-order effects also got noticed, and the regulators wrapped some knuckles, even if a bit gently.

The modern equivalent of the oil spill is the data breach. Not a day passes by without some story about a data breach or leakage. It is troubling that the number of records per breach is sometimes in the millions, and we seem to not even blink an eye. Every record contains a name or a number or email at least; sometimes a lot more!

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Chai time with NFT: A moment in history like no other?

Imagine the greatest speeches of our time. Imagine the things that moved us as people, inspired nations and great sporting moments. Then imagine the artworks in galleries or museums in countries that you could never visit or ever own.

Imagine you made something or said something that no one responded to. Then imagine your favourite creation that you put heart and soul and countless hours creating, took it out to the art gallery or the cinema or the speaking circuit, but nothing happened!

Now add NFT to the mix.

Wait, what? Nonfungible tokens! Why?

Some believe that the decentralised and crypto future will deliver untold wealth to the creative person. Further, they are the great hope of the creative and art world, or at least that is what the proponents would want you to believe! So, if you are an artist, gallery, content creator or anyone else in the creative space, you should be following the NFT debate. However, don’t rush headlong into it, and look at regulatory limitations before transferring your hard-earned money.

An artist sold their NFT work for $ 69 million, and the first tweet of the Twitter platform by it’s CEO was sold for about $ 2.5 million. The first one is a bit difficult for me to comprehend but let’s start with the seemingly easier one. The CEO runs two companies and has a reasonably large following of about 4.5 million followers, and the value of the tweet was roughly half the number of followers he has. I will not extend this simplistic analysis to the artist, but it did get me thinking if I had said anything that might be worth an NFT? Doubtful, and let’s leave it at that.

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