Facebook has been called out for allowing a number of tech companies, including smartphone manufacturers, access to a sea of data about its users.
Reports claim 60 device manufacturers, including the likes of Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and BlackBerry had partnerships with Facebook allowing them access to user data. In return, manufacturers could offer customers features like messaging or the ‘like’ button.
The problem with the deal, however, is that it breaks compliance with the 2011 consent decree from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and means that manufacturers could also access the data of users’ friends, without their unequivocal consent.
Shared data
According to the New York Times, some device makers could get data from users’ friends that believed to have blocked any and all data sharing.
These partnerships are still active, even though Facebook started toning them down a few months back.
Facebook defended its position, saying the partnerships are in line with its privacy policy, with the Federal Trade Commission’s agreement, and that it limited how the data could be used.
“These partnerships work very differently from the way in which app developers use our platform,” said Ime Archibong, a Facebook vice president. Unlike developers that provide games and services to Facebook users, the device partners can use Facebook data only to provide versions of “the Facebook experience,” the officials said.
Different companies said to have been using data for different purposes. Apple, for example, says it used the partnership to allow its users to post photos to Facebook without actually bringing up the app. BlackBerry said the deal was used to give customers access to their Facebook networks and messages.
The countdown to E3 2018 is well and truly underway for Sony and PlayStation. As part of its hype-raising strategy for this year, PlayStation has revealed that it will be making an announcement every day in the run up to its press conference on Monday June 11.
The first announcement has come and it’s a brand new PS4 and PS VR game: Tetris Effect. Coming to PS4 with a PS VR mode in ‘Fall 2018’, this is a game from Tetsuya Mizuguchi and the minds behind Rez Infinite and Lumen.
The trailer for the game which you can watch below is a little strange but it points towards a puzzle game that offers a brand new take on Tetris. Named after the phenomenon where Tetris images linger in the vision, memories and dreams of players even after they stop playing, Tetris Effect will aim to imitate this feeling by immersing players in a three-dimensional Tetris world that reacts to how they play.
The game will have a playable demo on the E3 show floor, though developer Enhance will apparently attempt to release a playable demo on the PlayStation Store later in the year for those who can’t attend. According to the official website, the game can be played on PS4, PS4 Pro and in PS VR, with PS VR players enjoying 3D visuals while Pro players get 4K and 60 fps.
There are now four more announcements to come over the next few days and these will include a release date confirmation as well as the unveiling of more brand new PS4 and PS VR games.
Sid Shuman who announced the game said that this countdown is PlayStation’s way of trying something new. E3, he said, is “changing” and “evolving”, becoming much more than a week-long event and PlayStation wants to reflect that.
Shuman promises that there will still be plenty of exciting announcements during the official E3 press conference but says that this is a way to give the many exciting games PlayStation has in the works the time they deserve.
GDPR’s recent entering into force is a breath of fresh air for consumers (once the seemingly endless stream of ‘updated privacy policy’ emails dries up). The legislation has been anticipated for years, but its implementation is welcome now more than ever, in the wake of data breaches like those carried out on Equifax or Facebook.
GDPR is empowering users where their data is concerned. As well as requiring companies to beef up their security and handling of any user information, it allows individuals to request the purging of their information from company databases. It’s an excellent step in the right direction – recognising rights that consumers should have had for a long time. It imposes steep fines on the companies that fail to adhere to strict standards.
One of the downsides that critics have been quick to point out is the capacity of smaller businesses to implement the changes necessitated by GDPR. Whilst large companies will find it easy to invest in updating their policies and tweaking their infrastructure to reflect the changes in regulation, smaller ones will struggle, and may not have the funds or skills to safely protect user data (a fine of €20 million could spell the end for such businesses).
I believe blockchain technology can help, not only for smaller businesses, but for large ones as well. Blockchain technology is the ideal match for GDPR – on one hand, rights are protected by legislation, and on the other, they’re secured by technological advances. With this emerging technology, companies no longer need to store customer information in easily-targetable data silos – if anything, they’re incentivised not to in order to avoid risking fines under GDPR.
The strength afforded by a distributed ledger is decentralisation, combined with the zero knowledge storage of the blockchain. This seems to have captivated industries, not only from a security standpoint, but as an ethos in and of itself – flattening the hierarchy and centralised aggregations of data in a system that allows individuals to remain sovereign over their own information has gleaned a great deal of interest and around the technology.
The result will be widespread disruption across sectors. Whilst the current state of securing data is best analogised as racing to build taller and thicker walls, the new one would forego this need, as there is nothing for the walls to protect. Users would truly own their own data with zero-knowledge storage to secure personal information, and could choose to interact with their preferred businesses without running the risk of that data being siphoned or stolen.
Consider ecommerce – it’s a booming industry, but one that faces significant risk: online outlets collect huge amounts of user information, including highly sensitive card details, physical addresses, phone numbers, and names. Hackers seeking lucrative targets need look no further than databases brimming with thousands of these collections, which can be used for fraud, identity theft, or sold to other malicious actors.
A blockchain solution would negate any of this. With a platform that harnesses the power of decentralisation to effectuate payments, consumers and merchants could interact in a trustless manner. The user would not need to worry about their data being vulnerable, as it never leaves their possession, and the merchant can focus their efforts and channel funding into other areas of the business, as emphasis on securing customer information is no longer required.
This is just one example. Distributed ledgers unlock a wealth of potential applications in everything from supply chain management to genomics. Adding transparency, cryptographically-assured security and new incentive models to enterprises of today, blockchain technology could vastly alter the current architecture of businesses across the board.
