Big Brother has Built Geofences to Control Behavior, Tesla Drivers Beware City Hall Can Now Control Your Location. The Snowden revelations opened the general public’s eyes to the (alleged) eavesdropping by the NSA and other government organizations. The Hong Kong protests showed the world how today’s mass video surveillance uses facial recognition to identify the location of people (for example, who is protesting what and when). City traffic light cameras send y [...]

They Know Everything About You You may already know Uber drivers now score YOU, the passenger, and that a customer rating indicates who they choose to pick up. But did you realize a score below 4 out of 5 could potentially drive up your costs (fewer drivers want to drive you, triggering premature “congestion” pricing)? Best Buy (and others) have shifted away from a “customer is always right” policy, now using your shopping and product return data to ban select [...]

While apps like Waze, Uber and Apple Maps may be helping to ease some of your transportation woes, recent stories suggest we should think twice before blindly trusting these apps to work in our best interests. Apps designed to route people – either you or drivers looking to pick you up – rely on a lot of data: traffic data, location data, user-reported data, even personal data (Who is requiring a pickup? Where do you often visit late at night?). What if this app data could [...]

How will the cybersecurity landscape change in 2017? Many businesses still feel woefully behind in their response to the pervasive threat of cybercrime. Let’s review how companies in different countries and different industries are rating their own cybersecurity strategies heading into 2017. Cybersecurity Report Card – Barely a Passing Grade Researchers asked 700 security executives in nine countries how well their organization was dealing with cybersecu [...]

Even as early adopters today are already speaking with their household appliances, lighting systems, home security network, and computing devices through cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) enabled systems, one question comes to mind. Which AI system will lead the way to eventual mass market adoption: Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s homeKit, Microsoft’s Cortana personal assistant, or perhaps the recently announced Google Assistant? Each system offers a fast-growing dose of cloud-enabled arti [...]

Just a decade ago, self-driving cars were relegated to science fiction and the dreams of a handful of technologists. Today, self-driving cars are already on the roads. Uber is using them to pick up passengers in Pittsburgh. Self-driving features are built into the latest models of Mercedes, BMW, and of course, Tesla – although these cars still require a human driver to be attentive and ready to assume manual control at any moment. In recent months, we’ve seen a number of [...]