WebProNews

Tag: Data

  • What is important to know about the ELT and ETL processes?

    What is important to know about the ELT and ETL processes?

    Nowadays, it is common for companies to use ELT and ETL processes in working with Big Data. This allows running documentation from the different sources of information used in the data lake and data warehouse. 

    Moreover, ELT and ETL processes are quite affordable for every interested company or institution. So, as you may have already guessed, we are going to discuss ETL data modeling practices today. We believe that this will have a positive impact on your business growth.

    First of all, you need to know the differences and similarities between ETL and ELT. What’s more, it is recommended to understand the most used words on this topic, like data lakes and data warehouses. Let’s start! 

    How do ELT and ETL processes work? 

    The ELT (extract, load, transform) is the process in which the data is modified after having been transferred to the receiving database, without making any changes. The first stage of this operation is to extract the data. The maneuver of loading the data to the database it receives is the intermediate stage where the ELT admits that the target system executes the respective transformations.

    For this reason, we recommend you apply ELT and ETL processes while working with large amounts of data. In addition, unstructured data, the source, and the target database use the same technology when the amount of converted data is massive. 

    The transformations made on the data are improved by the database that receives them. Usually, it can be NoSQL databases or Hadoop clusters. As we can see, in the ETL process, the data circulates from the origin to its final destination. So, the whole responsibility for the success lies in the ETL and the chosen database technology. 

    What is more, ELT and ETL processes are responsible for:

    • mobilizing large amounts of data;
    • integrating them;
    • introducing them into a common site. 

    What are the main differences between ETL and ELT?

    ETL and ELT are very similar. Yet, the most obvious difference is in the order in which the ETL and ELT processes in Big data execute the various required operations. These methods are best handled in different situations.

    So, here are to your attention some of the most crucial differences between ETL and ELT:  

    1. ETL is the process of extracting, transforming, and loading data. 
    1. ELT is the process of extracting, loading, and transforming data. 
    1. Within ETL, data is moved from a data source to an intermediate data store. 
    1. ELT uses a data warehouse to perform basic transformations. There is no need for data staging. 
    1. ETL can help ensure privacy and compliance by cleaning sensitive and secure data before it is loaded into the data warehouse.
    1. ETL can perform complex data transformations and can be more cost-effective than ELT. 

    The difference between ETL and ELT can be explained quite easily. However, realizing the whole picture and the cool benefits of ETL over ELT requires some time. Plus, a deeper understanding of how ETL works with data warehouses and how ELT works with data lakes is also necessary.

    The result of using both ETL and ELT 

    Organizations, companies, and institutions always need to make the most of the advantages of these two computer methodologies. They use ELT and ETL processes in Big Data, where ELT is responsible for quick introductions of unstructured data. As for ETL, it is helpful to make them more flexible and secure. 

    For this reason, the vision has expanded towards ETLT, which executes the following steps that you need to know:

    • Extraction. Data from the different sources are collected and transferred to the development area for preparation.
    • Loading. At this stage, data is uploaded to the Data Warehouses.
    • Transformation. It is the last stage, but not the least. It is where operations are executed to transform and integrate data from various sources.

    This result of the operations carried out on the existing data. It allows adjusting the times and technologies used to improve the amount of work. Therefore, the first group of changes is faster and more effective in providing the data with the necessary preparation and greater security.

    Can the ETLT bring any benefits to the ETL and ELT processes?

    The ETLT in Big Data provides us with the advantages of both – ETL and ELT processes. In this way, it manages to lighten the introduction of data. At the same time, the ETLT provides the security and quality required in modern companies, organizations, and institutions that use such technologies.

    ETLT processes are commonly used when it is necessary to filter, anonymize or mask data for regulatory reasons, before capturing it in the data warehouse.

    How to choose the best solution 

    As we have already mentioned, the ELT and ETL process in Big Data have become fundamental and essential for numerous organizations. The ETL can brag about many years of popularity. As well, it has a sufficiently high maturity and flexibility. This is really impressive, as it was not designed to work correctly with structured data and relational databases.

    As for ELT, it was created to execute activities with NoSQL solutions. For this reason, the difficulty of the operations it performs is less. Still, the size of the data it can process is greater than those processed by ETL.

    In this order of ideas in the execution of the two processes, it is possible to observe the accuracy, in terms of the type and structure of the data in the ETL processes. This hinders future transformations. At the same time, in ELT processes it is normal to make movements of unstructured and structured data with equal procedures.

    In summary, the data lake is unlimited, but you should have deep knowledge and comprehensive documentation about the ETL and ELT processes. This will help you achieve the required transformations and maximum quality for the use of the stored data. 

    Luckily, you can choose an option to work with professional IT services, like Visual Flow, to save your time and energy. This way, your team, and customers will get a better experience with data analytics. Moreover, obtaining a data warehouse is a reasonable investment that can raise your profits.

  • Protecting Data Is Nonnegotiable Today – Do You Have The Skills To Do It?

    Protecting Data Is Nonnegotiable Today – Do You Have The Skills To Do It?

    As we share an ever-increasing amount of personal and professional data online, hacking and cyber attacks seeking to steal that data for the benefit of cybercriminals are increasing as well. Far from being of little importance, the information we share online can be very valuable to digital fraudsters, even causing severe loss or damage to the victims of any leak.

    Therefore, to maintain good digital hygiene and protect our data online, these are some of the habits that we should keep:

    Opt for safe browsers

    We can use a wide variety of web browsers to access all kinds of web pages, but not all of them are the same, so it is convenient to choose the ones that are the most secure.

    Browsers such as Chrome, Safari, or Edge are developed by Google, Apple, and Microsoft, respectively, which tend to favor the installation of cookies and the collection of data for advertising purposes. That is why it is usually more advisable to use robust and independent browsers such as Firefox or Brave.

    Browse encrypted

    Using a VPN for gaming and browsing is one of the best ways to protect our data online, especially when browsing from insecure Wi-Fi networks. The possibility of a cyber attacker intercepting your passwords or credit card details while you are connecting to Wi-Fi in a coffee shop is very real. Still, this data will be indecipherable if you use a premium VPN.

    In most cases, you will also be able to use a free VPN for at least the first month of trial, which will help you assess its services.

    Use strong passwords

    In the absence of a better method – which will presumably be biometric verification systems – passwords continue to be the main way we can authenticate our identity on the internet. However, reports are continually being published denouncing the weakness of most of the keys we use online, making them very easy for hackers to break.

    The use of random, long, and unique passwords is essential to ensure the security of our digital accounts.

    Activate two-step verification

    As an extra layer of security, two-factor authentication should be enabled on all platforms where it is possible to do so. Generally, this type of verification uses the cell phone to confirm transactions or attempts to access our digital accounts, thus preventing hacking.

    For example, if your online banking password is leaked and a cyber attacker tries to use it to access your bank account, Two-Step Verification will ask for confirmation on your phone, allowing you to deny access and keep your funds safe. 

    Minimize the use of social media

    In recent years, security recommendations on social networks have multiplied, and the notion that we should limit the personal content we share is more widespread. However, millions of people still share their private lives openly and almost without any type of filter.

    Social networks can be addictive and even become a fast track to gaining popularity. Still, the information we publish on them can lead to serious cases of harassment, and, in addition, it is often used by hackers to try to violate other online accounts. 

    Monitor the apps that we install on the cell phone

    There are millions of apps on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, but not all apps are equally reliable. When we install apps on the phone, they request a series of permissions that can be very dangerous, including the possibility of accessing the photos in our gallery, reading our SMS, or making calls without our knowledge.

    Furthermore, these are not isolated cases. Apps as popular as Facebook are among the most requested permissions from their users, and often millions of people accept them without considering their risks. That is why it is important to review them carefully and, if in doubt, avoid installing suspicious apps.

  • How Can You Protect Your Business Information?

    How Can You Protect Your Business Information?

    Every legal business will have to leave an electronic or paper trail of corporate filings, business licenses, tax records, financial statements, lawsuits, complaints as well as a variety of other documents. This means that anyone who wants to research a company, either for competitive reasons, random curiosity, or out of interest in doing business with it– can find a great deal of information online or in hard-copy files at local, state, and federal government offices.

    In California, for instance, when entrepreneurs submit documents for filing with the California Secretary of State, they are automatically creating a public record. Accordingly, all of the documentation and information that is provided for filing is therefore made available to the general public for copying and viewing. Internet search engines and third-party websites will also be able to access and use the information as they wish. Details such as the name of the person filing as well as any mailing and street addresses, phone numbers, or email addresses that are provided in public filings, will be made available.

    The California Constitution, as well as the California Public Records Act mandate that the Secretary of State provides public access to its records for public viewing and copying. The Golden State has advised that “Corporations and limited liability companies can update address information on the Secretary of State’s records by filing a Statement of Information. For other types of filings, updated address information for filings with the Secretary of State can be submitted through a subsequent amendment or amended filing.”

    How to Protect Personal Information When Starting a Business

    A California registered agent, also referred to as an agent for service of process, is a federal law requirement for every formal business entity in the state of California. This individual or business entity will receive all official paperwork from the California Secretary of State. They will also receive any service of process that a business may be served with— in the instance of a legal dispute.

    Many business owners, especially single-member LLCs, tend to choose to act as their own registered agents. While this is legally allowed, entrepreneurs put themselves at risk of having all of their private information– home address, personal contact details– made public on the California Business Entities Search. A way around this is by hiring a registered agent who will accept legal correspondence on behalf of the company, hence protecting the location of the owner’s home or private business. 

    Benefits of a Registered Agents Service

    Apart from just superior privacy, a California registered agent service also provides business owners with flexibility since registered agents are required to be available every working day of the year, at all normal business hours. Outsourcing the service allows entrepreneurs to be more flexible in the hours and locations that they work. 

    They also allow for discretion in sensitive matters since receiving service of process for a lawsuit at the actual business premises should not happen in front of employees and clients. Registered agents help to avoid this issue since they will receive any service of process and other documents at their personal office; they can then discreetly have them delivered via mail or online.

    Registered agents are required to be a resident or have permission to operate in a state, which can be an issue when a company looks to expand its operations to other states. Since most registered agent services have permission to operate in all 50 states across the United States, entrepreneurs will not have to go through the hassle of the additional paperwork and procedures when expanding.

    It is vital that businesses remember to file their required paperwork timeously to avoid fines and keep the company in good standing with the state– which is important in maintaining the limited liability protection of the business. A registered agent service will help the business with the filing of important paperwork and will maintain a compliance calendar and remind the business when annual reports or any other filings are due.

    Final Thoughts

    Privacy is an important aspect to keep in mind when starting up a new business, especially for entrepreneurs that run their business from a private residence or office space. While most states make the businesses filing information public, owners are able to protect their personal information by using a registered agent service that will handle all of the correspondence on behalf of the business.

  • China Cracking Down on Exporting Customer Data Internationally

    China Cracking Down on Exporting Customer Data Internationally

    China is cracking down on exporting customer data internationally, requiring that companies get the government’s permission first.

    China has been cracking down on its tech companies in recent months. The video game industry has been particularly hard hit, with Beijing limiting how many hours per week kids can play games.

    According to the AP, in its latest efforts Beijing is restricting how much data companies can collect about their customers.

    A separate law that takes effect Monday establishes security standards, prohibits companies from disclosing information without customer permission and tells them to limit how much they collect. Unlike data protection laws in Western countries, the Chinese rules say nothing about limiting government or ruling Communist Party access to personal information.

    Companies will also have to report what and how much customer information they plan to transfer internationally, as well as what security measures have been implemented to protect the data. Regulators will decide within a week of a report whether to accept and approve it, or whether to launch their own review. If the regulators decide to initiate a review, the process can take up to 60 days.

    The new regulations could put Chinese companies at a major disadvantage when competing globally.

  • Move Over Data: Tesla Looking to Create Humanoid Robot

    Move Over Data: Tesla Looking to Create Humanoid Robot

    Tesla is looking to create a humanoid robot that is sure to draw comparisons to Star Trek’s beloved android Data.

    Elon Musk has been a major critic of artificial intelligence, leading him to cofound OpenAI in an effort to ensure AI research and development is done in a responsible way. Tesla is working to build on that research with the Tesla Bot.

    The company’s describes the project’s goal:

    Develop the next generation of automation, including a general purpose, bi-pedal, humanoid robot capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring. We’re seeking mechanical, electrical, controls and software engineers to help us leverage our AI expertise beyond our vehicle fleet.

    Tesla Bot Standing - Credit Tesla
    Tesla Bot Standing – Credit Tesla

    Recognizing the potential danger such a robot could pose (think I, Robot), Musk has said the robot is “intended to be friendly.” In addition, Tesla is designing the robot so that at “at a mechanical level, a physical level, you can run away from it [its top speed is 5 MPG] and most likely overpower it.”

    In the presentation announcing the company’s plans, Musk drew a direct comparison to Tesla’s vehicles, saying the company was already one of the biggest robotics makers on the planet. Taking its existing advancements and applying them to a humanoid robot was the next evolution of the company’s ambitions.

  • Invisibly Launches Platform to Help People Control and Monetize Their Data

    Invisibly Launches Platform to Help People Control and Monetize Their Data

    Invisibly is looking to disrupt the advertising industry, launching a platform that puts people in control of their data.

    The advertising industry is in a state of flux, as privacy has become thefront-and-center issue for many consumers, regulators and companies. Apple’s recent moves with App Tracking Transparency (ATT) has been seen as particularly devastating to the advertising industry, by giving people a choice about whether to be tracked.

    Invisibly is taking that a step further, putting people in control of their own data and putting them in a position to benefit from the monetization of it. Founder and CEO Jim McKelvey, also co-founder of Square, sees this is as the perfect time for Invisibly to make its mark.

    “It’s time we enable people to take back control of their data,” Dr. Don Vaughn Ph.D., Head of Product at Invisibly says. “By creating a platform that lets people make money from their data, we’re not only educating people on how valuable their data is, we’re telling big tech it’s time to change the way things are done, and time to start fairly compensating people for the data they regularly profit from.”

    “Right now people can make a few dollars a month from sharing their data on our platform, but within the next couple of years, we hope that people will be able to earn around $1,000 per year from Invisibly,” Vaughn continues. “We believe that data licensing will be a powerful new source of passive income for people and are excited to help the industry change to a 100% consumer-consented data model that people are fairly compensated for.”

    The platform is now in beta. Those interested in participating can sign up at www.invisibly.com.

  • Microsoft Will Keep EU Data in the EU

    Microsoft Will Keep EU Data in the EU

    Microsoft has upped its commitment to EU data privacy, promising to keep EU data within the bloc.

    Data privacy is a bigger concern than ever before, as individuals and lawmakers start holding companies accountable. As part of the shift toward more data responsibility, some jurisdictions have passed legislation requiring companies to take certain steps to protect user data.

    The EU’s GDPR is one of the strictest such laws, providing far more protection than US federal laws currently do. As a result, EU states and citizens have become increasingly concerned about their data being transferred to the US and coming under the scope of US surveillance efforts.

    Microsoft is working to address those concerns, promising it will go beyond existing agreements and keep EU data within the bloc. Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, announced the pledge on the company’s blog.

    Today we are announcing a new pledge for the European Union. If you are a commercial or public sector customer in the EU, we will go beyond our existing data storage commitments and enable you to process and store all your data in the EU. In other words, we will not need to move your data outside the EU. This commitment will apply across all of Microsoft’s core cloud services – Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365. We are beginning work immediately on this added step, and we will complete by the end of next year the implementation of all engineering work needed to execute on it. We’re calling this plan the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud.

    The new step we’re taking builds on our already strong portfolio of solutions and commitments that protect our customers’ data, and we hope today’s update is another step toward responding to customers that want even greater data residency commitments. We will continue to consult with customers and regulators about this plan in the coming months, including adjustments that are needed in unique circumstances like cybersecurity, and we will move forward in a way that is responsive to their feedback.

    While individual states have passed privacy laws, there have been increasing calls for for the US to address the issue on a federal level. Microsoft’s pledge, along with the increased challenges of doing business in the EU, will likely add increased pressure for measurable change.

  • Android Phones Home 20x More Than iOS

    Android Phones Home 20x More Than iOS

    A computer researcher at Trinity College Dublin has released a report showing Android phones home to Google 20x more than iOS does to Apple.

    Apple and Google have fundamentally different approaches to data. Apple is a hardware and, increasingly, a software and services company. Unlike Google, however, Apple charges for the majority of its products and services. As a result, the company has repeatedly said it has no interest in consumer data, or viewing that data as the product.

    In contrast, Google offers much of its services completely free of charge. To make a profit, the company is primarily a data-driven company, where the customer — and their data — is Google’s primary product.

    Researcher Doug Leith shows how different the two companies’ approach is to how their phones transmit data, mirroring their approach to consumer data, according to Ars Technica.

    Where Android stands out, Leith said, is in the amount of data it collects. At startup, an Android device sends Google about 1MB of data, compared with iOS sending Apple around 42KB. When idle, Android sends roughly 1MB of data to Google every 12 hours, compared with iOS sending Apple about 52KB over the same period. In the US alone, Android collectively gathers about 1.3TB of data every 12 hours. During the same period, iOS collects about 5.8GB.

    Needless to say, Google has disputed the findings, with a spokesperson providing the following statement to Ars:

    We identified flaws in the researcher’s methodology for measuring data volume and disagree with the paper’s claims that an Android device shares 20 times more data than an iPhone. According to our research, these findings are off by an order of magnitude, and we shared our methodology concerns with the researcher before publication.

    This research largely outlines how smartphones work. Modern cars regularly send basic data about vehicle components, their safety status and service schedules to car manufacturers, and mobile phones work in very similar ways. This report details those communications, which help ensure that iOS or Android software is up to date, services are working as intended, and that the phone is secure and running efficiently.

    Despite Google’s protestations, Leith’s research is no surprise to anyone who has followed Google’s data-mining and collection practices.

  • Snowflake CEO: Once You Get To The Cloud The Lid Is Off

    Snowflake CEO: Once You Get To The Cloud The Lid Is Off

    “Once you get to the cloud all of a sudden the lid is off,” says Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman. “People can just pursue their backlogs and whatever they can imagine. We’re now in a situation where technology is ahead of what people are capable of and imagining what they could actually do with it. That’s really a big part of what you see in Snowflake’s growth profile, a completely variable paradigm.”

    Frank Slootman, CEO of Snowflake, says that on-premise data centers can only accommodate a tiny fraction of what their real demand for data analytics really is:

    Once You Get To The Cloud The Lid Is Off

    The important thing to understand is that there’s a couple of long-term secular trends that are coinciding and driving the development of the market overall. One is, as everybody knows, the movement towards cloud. It’s really a modernization play. We’re moving from on-premise data centers and we’re taking workloads to the cloud because we get to take advantage of better economics and utility models. Then we no longer have to manage capacity, we pay by the drink and all that sort of thing.

    The other aspect that’s really important for our business is that we’ve had an extraordinary amount of pent up demand. The on-premise data centers could only accommodate a very tiny fraction of what their real demand for data analytics really is. Once you get to the cloud all of a sudden the lid is off. People can just pursue their backlogs and whatever they can imagine. We’re now in a situation where technology is ahead of what people are capable of and imagining what they could actually do with it. That’s really a big part of what you see in Snowflake’s growth profile, a completely variable paradigm.

    Notion Of Headquarters Is Evaporating

    We don’t have a yearning to go back to where we were. I can see why people would have that because of lockdowns and things of that sort. From a business standpoint, there’s a lot of positives to the shock to the system that we received. It’s almost like a wake-up call that is just opening our eyes to the opportunity. This whole notion that the office is your workday home we just realized that it’s nonsense. In other words, offices need to be there for specific purposes, for events, for training, for meetings specifically, but not a place to hang out nine to five. That’s definitely changing. It’s going to really reduce the real estate footprint that companies have.

    The other trend and you’ve seen it with companies leaving California, the likes of Oracle and HP and Tesla, and so on is that the whole notion of headquarters is pretty much evaporating in front of our eyes. We’re no longer operating with a physical center of the universe. We’re completely virtual. We’re connecting as needed. We’ve been operating for the better part of a whole year without a headquarters and it’s just fine. All of a sudden everybody’s staring at each other and saying like what is the headquarters anyway. You’ve seen companies like Pinterest and you’re writing up massive leeches in San Francisco and saying we’re going to be headquarter-less. It’s just a concept whose time has gone away… and that’s very profound.

    We Are Buying Talent And Technology, No M&A

    Usually, big M&A is a function of people running out of market and running out of a lot of opportunity. They’re trying to invade adjacent territories to give themselves new runway. That is obviously not the case for Snowflake. We’re in a tremendous marketplace and we are buying talent and technology. We sometimes refer to it as stem cells that we can use that we don’t have ourselves that we can build very specific technologies around that are very much built snowflake way. We can really enable our platform mission or footer. That’s really been our mode. If you looked at our history we don’t have a history of doing big acquisitions.

    Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman: Once You Get To The Cloud The Lid Is Off
  • Sweden’s Largest Insurer Leaked Private Data to Tech Firms

    Sweden’s Largest Insurer Leaked Private Data to Tech Firms

    Sweden’s largest insurer, Folksam, has admitted to accidentally leaking the private data of one million of its customers to tech firms.

    According to U.S. News & World Report, Folksam insures every second home in Sweden, giving the company access to vast troves of personal and private data on its customers. Unfortunately, the company accidentally shared that data with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Microsoft.

    Unlike the US, the EU has strict data privacy laws in the form of the GDPR. As a result, data breaches such as this one can result in hefty fines and penalties if not handled correctly. Folksam has assured customers that it does not appear any of the data was used improperly by third-parties, and vowed to do better.

    “We take what has happened seriously. We have immediately stopped sharing this personal information and requested that it be deleted,” said Jens Wikstrom, Folksam’s head of marketing.

    This data breach is just the latest example demonstrating the risks that come with the current state of the tech industry, and specifically cross-industry interdependencies that have become commonplace.

  • How Is Data Fight The Spread Of COVID-19?

    How Is Data Fight The Spread Of COVID-19?

    Is data the key to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic? As the old saying goes, to be forewarned is to be forearmed, and knowledge gives us the power to fight back. As this pandemic has been caused by a novel coronavirus that no one has immunity to or has seen before, getting as much information as possible distributed as quickly as possible is key to stopping the spread and ending the pandemic.

    Statistical modeling has shown us that our best defense against the pandemic currently is social distancing. With information from the Spanish Flu pandemic a hundred years ago and the real-time information we are gathering from outbreak hotspots, we know that keeping people away from each other is the single most important thing we can do right now to stop the spread of COVID-19.

    Cities that implemented social distancing earlier in their outbreaks showed significantly fewer cases per 100,000 residents as the disease progressed, and until there is a vaccine or a cure this is the best measure we can take to save lives.

    Unfortunately there are places where people have a difficult time socially distancing themselves from one another, and nursing homes are one of those places. Residents of nursing homes are also at higher risk of complications and death from COVID-19, so preventing the spread in these populations has proven to be a crucial and monumental task.

    Temperature checks of both residents and staff have been at the forefront of prevention measures along with closing down facilities to all but necessary staff. But once someone shows a temperature spike it may be too late. We know that people can carry COVID-19 for weeks without symptoms, spreading the illness to others without even knowing they are sick.

    Across the world, various healthcare organizations and governments are working together to share and track data about COVID-19 in order to find new information about this virtually unknown disease.

    The WHO has partnered with tech giants Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter in order to find new data and ways of analyzing it. Even detecting the disease a few days earlier could significantly halt the spread because of the extremely virulent nature of the virus.

    Tracking vital signs is the best we can do to protect the most vulnerable on top of the already strict social distancing rules, especially in nursing homes. But one company may have found a breakthrough in their data on nursing home dashboards.

    Measuring a person’s pulse oxygen twice a day with a pulse oximeter has been shown to show decreases in oxygen levels that could be attributed to COVID-19, and these readings start to appear up to two weeks before a patient would first spike a fever. This method of early detection could help prevent the spread in close quarters high-risk facilities like nursing homes and could also have broader implications in the general population once the economy starts to reopen.

    When it comes to halting the spread of COVID-19, the sooner we can find new and reliable information, the better we can fight the spread. Learn more about how data is being used to fight the spread of COVID-19 from the infographic below.

  • Verizon Gives Extra 15GB High-Speed Data to Customers

    Verizon Gives Extra 15GB High-Speed Data to Customers

    Verizon has announced several measures to assist individuals impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, including providing customers an additional 15GB of data.

    Depending on the type of plan a customer has, the data will be added to their plan in different ways. Postpaid customers with unlimited data will see the 15GB 4G LTE added to their hotspot data. For prepaid customers, and postpaid customers with finite data plans, the 15GB will be added to their standard data. Jetpack plans will also see the 15GB added to their standard data.

    According to Verizon, the data will be added to plans from March 25 to April 30. The data will be added automatically and not require any action on the part of customers.

    “We understand the hardships that many of our customers are facing, and we’re doing our part to ensure they have broadband internet connectivity during this unprecedented time,” said Ronan Dunne, CEO Verizon Consumer Group. “With so many Americans working and learning remotely from home, having access to reliable and affordable internet is more important than ever before.

    “While more than half of our wireless customer base is on an unlimited data plan, including all of our Fios and DSL broadband internet customers, we recognize there are many who may need additional connectivity during these trying times,” Ronan added. “We’re here for you and we’ll make sure you have what you need to stay connected.”

  • Brexit Means No GDPR Protection: Google May Move UK User Data

    Brexit Means No GDPR Protection: Google May Move UK User Data

    Brexit may have finally happened, but one side effect people may not have anticipated is losing GDPR protection as Google may be moving UK data out of the EU.

    The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of the most sweeping, comprehensive data protection regulations in the world, aimed at giving people control of their own data and digital footprint. With Britain leaving the EU, sources have told Reuters that Google plans on moving its customers’ data to the U.S.

    British Google users’ data is currently housed in Ireland, which is staying in the EU. To date, Britain has not committed to following the GDPR or implementing its own solution. Google evidently has some concerns that leaving its British data in Ireland would make it harder for British authorities to access it if the UK does not continue abiding by the GDPR.

    As Reuters points out, the decision is likely encouraged by the fact that the U.S. has one of the weakest set of privacy laws of any major economy. Google will likely welcome the opportunity to deal with less oversight.

  • Google and Facebook Face Tougher Rules in the UK Over Ad Dominance

    Google and Facebook Face Tougher Rules in the UK Over Ad Dominance

    According to Reuters, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) delivered a mixed bag of news for Google and Facebook.

    On the one hand, the CMA indicated a reluctance to subject the two tech companies to more in-depth investigations, saying that ‘big’ did not necessarily equal ‘bad.’ On the other hand, the agency did indicate more regulation was in order to prevent abuses, especially given how much the two companies dominate the UK online ad market.

    The CMA found that “Google earned more than 90% of all revenue for search advertising in Britain in 2018, with revenue of about 6 billion pounds, and Facebook accounted for almost half of all display advertising last year.”

    Facebook indicated it was “fully committed” to working with the CMA and touted its tools to give people control over their data.

    “We agree with the CMA that people should have control over their data and transparency around how it is used,” according to a company spokesman.

    Of course, in the U.S., Facebook just admitted to senators that it continues to track individuals even if they have location tracking turned off and uses that information to sell ads. In view of that, it would seem the CMA’s concerns about more regulation being required is well-founded.

  • Chrome For Android Update Fixes Data Wiping Bug

    Chrome For Android Update Fixes Data Wiping Bug

    Last week reports started surfacing of what appeared to be a data wiping bug in version 79 of Google Chrome for Android. Following a fix, Google has resumed the rollout.

    The issue had to do with Chrome acting as WebView in the most recent versions of Android. Third-party apps that access the web often use Chrome as the rendering engine, rather than bundling one of their own.

    According to Android Police, “when you log in with a web page inside an app, or use browsers like DuckDuckGo that lack their own internal rendering engine, Chrome is responsible for loading that content. Some Android apps actually run entirely inside WebView, such as applications built with Apache Cordova (PhoneGap) or packaged web apps like Twitter Lite.

    “One of the changes in Chrome 79 is that the location where web data is stored was updated. However, as one comment on a Chromium bug page pointed out, data from localStorage and WebSQL — two types of storage commonly used by web apps and packaged apps — wasn’t migrated properly.

    “Long story short, when devices were updated to Chrome 79, web apps and WebView applications had some (or all) local data deleted. While the data is still technically intact, since Chrome didn’t delete old data after the migration, there’s no way to access it right now.”

    The new update addresses this issue and properly migrates the data to the new location. If a user upgraded to the broken version 79, any new data saved to the new location will be overwritten with the original data from pre-79 versions of Chrome. In the event important data was saved to the new location with the broken update, that data can still be accessed and recovered if needed.

    This fix will be a welcome relief to users who originally thought their data was gone.

  • DOJ Planning to Review Google-Fitbit Deal Over Privacy Concerns

    DOJ Planning to Review Google-Fitbit Deal Over Privacy Concerns

    According to the New York Post, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is planning to review the Google-Fitbit deal over concerns about consumer privacy.

    We reported last month that Google had agreed to acquire Fitbit for $2.1 billion. As part of the announcement, Google did its best to reassure current users that it would respect their privacy and that their personal data would not be sold to third parties or be used for advertising. A couple of weeks later, it came to light that Facebook had also been interested in the wearable company, losing out in a bidding war against Google. At the end of that article, we made the following observation:

    “While some users have understandably been concerned about privacy in the wake of the announcement Google was purchasing Fitbit, it’s probably a safe bet that far more users would be concerned if Facebook was the buyer.”

    Evidently, the fact that Google is buying Fitbit instead of Facebook is not enough of a consolation prize to prevent regulatory scrutiny. In fact, according to the New York Post, both the DOJ and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wanted to review the deal, with one source describing it “as a real ‘arm wrestle’ between the agencies.”

    Both agencies are concerned with the privacy implications, given the amount of data Google already has about people’s lives. They fear that allowing Google to purchase Fitbit will give them too much data, especially sensitive health information. Google is already under scrutiny for Project Nightingale, Google’s partnership with the Ascension healthcare group to collect data on millions of patients.

    While the FTC has usually investigated Google’s past deals, the DOJ won out this time due to the fact they are “presently investigating Google for broader anti-competitive issues.”

    Although it’s too early to know how the DOJ will rule, the Public Citizen and the Center for Digital Democracy had previously urged the FTC to block the merger. With increased scrutiny on Google’s handling of customer data, it may be an uphill battle to close the Fitbit deal.

  • TikTok Accused of Illegally Collecting Data and Uploading It to China

    TikTok Accused of Illegally Collecting Data and Uploading It to China

    A California student has filed a class-action lawsuit against TikTock, the wildly popular social media app from China. According to a report in the Daily Beast, the suit alleges that TikTok uploads data without user consent—in some cases without a user even creating an account.

    Misty Hong, a student at Palo Alto, claims she downloaded the app but never got around to setting up an account. According to the suit, TikTok created an account using her phone number, and began analyzing videos she took but never uploaded. These videos included a facial scan.

    “The app, she alleges, transferred all of her information to servers owned and operated by companies that cooperate with the Chinese government. She’s filed the lawsuit on behalf of all U.S. residents who have downloaded TikTok, roughly 110 million people.”

    The suit also alleges the app secretly gathers “users’ locations, ages, private messages, phone numbers, contacts, genders, browsing histories, cell-phone serial numbers, and IP addresses. That data was allegedly then sent to Chinese servers.”

    TikTok’s executives have tried to reassure the American public that their data is stored in Virginia, with a backup in Singapore. In a recent New York Times profile, they tried to reassure American users that their data cannot be accessed by Chinese officials. Nonetheless, previous user agreements did stipulate that data could be sent to China. The suit is alleging that practice has continued despite changes to the agreement saying it won’t.

    Convincing users of its independence is a tall order, given that Chinese corporations are required to cooperate with Chinese intelligence when requested. This is partly what has led to Huawei being blacklisted in the U.S. and under scrutiny in many countries around the world.

    U.S. senators have already warned of the threat to national security TikTok may pose, should it be sending data back to China. This lawsuit will only add to those concerns and could result in punitive measures taken against ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok.

    In the meantime, given China’s poor history of respecting individual privacy—including, but not limited to China now requiring facial recognition scans to open a wireless account—this news should come as a surprise to exactly no one.

  • Twitter Making Changes Globally to Comply With Privacy Laws

    Twitter Making Changes Globally to Comply With Privacy Laws

    Reuters is reporting that Twitter is making changes throughout its platform in an effort to comply with privacy legislation around the world.

    The company is aiming to navigate the different laws and jurisdictions impacting how it collects and uses data. The European Union (EU) passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) last year, one of the most sweeping privacy protection laws in existence. California has its own legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), going into effect January 1, 2020.

    Twitter is planning on moving accounts for users outside the EU and the U.S. “which were previously contracted by Twitter International Company in Dublin, Ireland, to the San Francisco-based Twitter Inc.” This will allow the company to experiment with different privacy features—figuring out what works and what doesn’t—without worrying about infringing on the GDPR.

    “We want to be able to experiment without immediately running afoul of the GDPR provisions,” Damien Kieran, Twitter’s data protection officer, told Reuters in a phone interview. “The goal is to learn from those experiments and then to provide those same experiences to people all around the world.

    Coinciding with these changes, the company has unveiled a new site, the Twitter Privacy Center, in an effort to keep users informed about Twitter’s privacy efforts, as well as give them more control over their data.

  • It Is a Multi-Cloud World, Says VMWare COO

    It Is a Multi-Cloud World, Says VMWare COO

    “VMWare allows the datacenter to act like a public cloud,” says VMWare COO Sanjay Poonen. “It is a multicloud world. While AWS will be first and preferred for us, we want every customer that has VMWare in the private cloud but AWS, Azure, Google, IBM, and Alibaba, those are the top five hyperscalers, and all of them have embraced VMWare.”

    Sanjay Poonen, COO of VMWare, discusses the incredible growth of VMWare which is driven by their ability to connect companies to any and every cloud in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:

    Software Is Defining Everything

    We had a great quarter. You have to put the bigger picture in perspective. We’re in the golden age of software where software is defining everything. Software companies, in general, are doing well. What we have done as a company is focus on making the datacenter software-driven and we think there is a bright future there. We showed some examples of that in hyperconverged  (HCI) and in software-defined networking (SDN). 

    We also showed some incredible momentum with our partnerships in the hybrid-cloud. Amazon is obviously first and preferred there. We announced a partnership with Azure. There is also the digital workspace which is all of the devices. We think our future is bright and we just have to keep executing. Our view is always the long-run. 

    In This Software Future We Are Not Tethered To One Company

    I think there is a little bit of a misperception that we should nip in the bud (regarding correlating Dell’s earnings with VMWare). First off, VMWare’s business with Dell in these areas like hyperconverged, we’ve now surpassed companies like Nutanix who are number one in hyper-converged infrastructure, and in the digital workspace where we are partnering with Dell Laptops, those are going very well. We want Dell and VMWare to do well together. In the datacenter we work with Dell, HPE, Cisco, Lenovo, etc. There is no one hardware player that is the majority of our business. 

    In cloud we work with AWS, Azure, Google, Alibaba, and IBM. You won’t find another company that has got as many hybrid-cloud partners. In the digital workspace, we work with Apple, Google, and Microsoft. In this software future, we are not tethered to one company. We are optimized to Dell, we are not tethered to them. You need a software-based solution for any of these areas, the datacenter, the cloud, or the digital workspace during tough times and in good times. 

    It Is a Multi-Cloud World

    You should think about applications like mobile homes. They’re going to move from the datacenter to the cloud on this freeway called VMWare. The mobile home could go to one cloud and may come back. VMWare allows the datacenter to act like a public cloud. We make the hardware datacenter look like Amazon. Now if you are an Amazon customer, and they have 30-35 percent market share, number one in the market for cloud, they are our preferred cloud partner, we can help customers. We have many customers who are adopting VMWare cloud in AWS. 

    For those customers who said we are not an Amazon shop, for example, we quoted Walmart in our earnings announcement, they are using Azure. They have an option now because we announced a partnership with Azure. There are some customers that are going to have some other clouds. It is a multicloud world. While AWS will be first and preferred for us, we want every customer that has VMWare in the private cloud but AWS, Azure, Google, IBM, and Alibaba, those are the top five hyperscalers, and all of them have embraced VMWare. 

    IBM is a great partner of VMWare. We love their services business. IBM Cloud has 2,000+ customers. We are going to partner really well with Ginni Rometty and the team. We compete with a small part of Red Hat’s business in containers. Over 80 percent of Red Hat’s business is Linux, a good part of their business which is OpenShift and JBoss, is not doing so well. The future of containers is a small part of the business. We can walk and chew gum. We can partner with IBM and compete with that small part of Red Hat and that’s our focus. We want a big tent at VMWare. We want to partner with as many people as possible and compete with as few people as possible. 

    Make Your Story Sesame Street Simple

    First off, if you want to serve your customers well start by serving your employees. One of my professors at the Harvard Business School, Len Schlesinger, wrote an article and book on service profit chain. What he talked about is if you want to create shareholder value focus not just on customer satisfaction but satisfied employees. Hug your start. Take care of the best and brightest who come in there. 

    The second one is something that all of us can do which is make your story Sesame Street simple. All too often, I see product managers and account executives blabbering on with PowerPoints. Let’s tell the story just like you are telling the story to your mother or to your kids. Ironically, when you make things simple you’re going back to the basic principals of Steven Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, or Dale Carnegie, How To Win Friends and Influence People. It’s not that complicated. Have customer empathy.

    It Is a Multi-Cloud World, Says VMWare COO Sanjay Poonen
  • KT Links 5G Network and Satellite, Transferring Data Between Them

    KT Links 5G Network and Satellite, Transferring Data Between Them

    ZDNet is reporting that KT, South Korea’s largest telephone company, has announced the successful transfer of data between their 5G network and a satellite 36,000 kilometers away.

    The news has huge implications for wireless carriers around the world, as many struggle to deploy 5G networks in rural areas.

    According to ZDNet, “KT will also be able to use the satellite as a back-haul when transferring media files to multiple devices simultaneously, and will also allow the carrier to provide more stable 5G services by grouping its network with the satellite.

    “KT said it has developed a hybrid router for the test, and performed HD streaming from its 5G network and satellite to multiple 5G handsets for the test.”

    KT plans on submitting the test results to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) sometime next year. 3GPP is the organization that develops protocol standards for wireless technology and KT hopes their results will contribute to the 5G-satellite standard.

    Should it become widely adopted, the technology will assist countries with limited infrastructure to successfully roll out 5G. Even countries with large scale rollouts could still use the technology to cover remote areas where millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G is not feasible, due to its limited range.

  • DataWallet Puts You In Charge of Your Data, Says CEO

    DataWallet Puts You In Charge of Your Data, Says CEO

    “DataWallet is basically a digital wallet that holds all of your personal data,” says DataWallet CEO Serafin Lion Engel. “If Twitter was to give you a DataWallet you would see exactly all of the data that you create on Twitter. At the end of the day what DataWallet does is put you in control of your data. What it cannot do is protect you from anything that may happen illegally. So if Twitter really tried to cover up the fact that they were collecting their two-factor authentication data in order to advertise to you it wouldn’t show up but it would be all the more of a scandal.”

    Serafin Lion Engel, founder and CEO of DataWallet, discusses his mission of putting consumers in control of their data in an interview on CNBC:

    DataWallet Puts You In Charge of Your Data

    DataWallet is basically a digital wallet that holds all of your personal data. If Twitter was to give you a DataWallet you would see exactly all of the data that you create on Twitter. You would see all of the data you created yourself that they have collected about you through third-party vendors. Then you can see all of the use cases that they use that data for and you can actually set permissions for how exactly your data can be used. You can download your data and you can delete data. It puts you in full control of the data that you have created on the Twitter platform.

    At the end of the day what DataWallet does is put you in control of your data. What it cannot do is protect you from anything that may happen illegally. So if Twitter really tried to cover up the fact that they were collecting their two-factor authentication data in order to advertise to you it wouldn’t show up but it would be all the more of a scandal.

    Data includes anything that you post, your IP address, your email address, what device you are on, etc. It’s all-encompassing. Twitter also buys a lot of data about you in order to enrich their targeting capabilities. They may buy data from Acxiom about, for instance, your financial situation, whether you have applied for credit or not all in order to more accurately show advertising to you.

    Corporate Trust Is Rooted In How They Use Your Data

    We work with a lot of companies in the advertising industry because a lot of companies do want to do things differently. In ad tech, they are pretty upset about the fact that a lot of companies are doing things that are unethical and they do want things to change. We work with companies in CPG, in consulting, and in a variety of different industries.

    It definitely is a tough sell to companies that try to do things with your data that they would rather not have you know about. There are a lot of companies that in the past have been good data custodians and have not gotten any credit for that. They have not gone out on a limb in order to monetize their users’ data even though they could have. Up until about two years ago, it was not a hot topic, nobody was really paying attention and companies were making a lot of money selling their consumers’ data. 

    However, the companies who have been good data custodians and who have said we do not want to do anything that our consumers wouldn’t give us expressive consent to do with their data are jumping on board with what we’re doing right now. They’re the ones reaping the benefits because consumers will switch to companies that are putting them in charge of their data. Over 87 percent of customers say that the amount of business they do with a company depends on how much they trust it. That trust is rooted in how they’ve used their data.

    New Regulations Don’t Cover Data Usage

    The regulations in California and Nevada are very much focused on the sale of data, which is still a good thing. You can now issue an opt-out request for companies to not sell your data. However, it doesn’t cover usage. If, for instance, you wanted to direct the company to stop using your data for internal marketing purposes you wouldn’t be able to do that. Any data privacy regulation that is intended to put consumers in control of their data is a good thing. However, we also have to take into consideration that a lot of companies like Facebook and Amazon are really profiting from this because they are not a third party vendor. They have their own data and that really benefits them.

    DataWallet Puts You In Charge of Your Data, Says DataWallet CEO Serafin Lion Engel.