Tech Bytes to Know this Week: 7.28.2016

July 28th, 2016

Topics: Culture Global Governance Risk Management

Verizon’s Purchase of Yahoo! Demonstrates Lack of Understanding of the Digital World – Verizon spent almost $5 billion this week to buy another titan of the digital age (they purchased AOL last year) in a goal to grow their stagnating wireless business by serving as a content hub that compliments AOL. With the US mobile market already deeply penetrated, the telecom’s growth will depend on its ability to provide relevant content that will drive the advertising dollars that result from users. Yahoo boasts over a billion active customer views (note: not the same as active users) but why exactly Verizon thinks that will generate new revenue in ways that Yahoo by itself could not is hard to see. Viewing the industry through the lens of raw customer views is an outdated methodology not likely to grow Verizon’s revenue in any dramatic way. Today’s digitally-savvy companies focus instead on deepening engagement with customers as a better way to grow, and despite relevant sports and finance properties, seeing deeper engagement from existing Yahoo customers is not likely to happen without significant changes.

Information Security is a Significant Issue in the 2016 Presidential Campaign – In a sign of the times, information security was once again thrust into the Presidential campaign this week as US intelligence officials revealed their belief that hackers linked to the Russian government are responsible for security breaches at the Democratic National Committee. Political views aside, information security is a big, big issue these days and voters are starting to pay attention to its importance. While the general public has a long road to understanding InfoSec, the notion that cyber threats are important means the government is likely to pay more attention to protecting digital infrastructure and systems, which is a good thing.

Police Now Using 3D Printed Fingerprints to Unlock Phones – Police are working with a lab at Michigan State University to 3D print models of human fingerprints to unlock mobile phones (a Samsung phone, in this case). The phone belongs to the deceased victim of a crime, but it’s not hard to see how this technology could be used by police to unlock suspects’ phones to search for evidence as well (not to mention by criminals and hackers). The use of technology in this manner begs the question – how will our legal system view such action. While passwords have long been seen as covered by the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination, it remains to be seen if fingerprints will also be covered by 5th Amendment protections.

FAA Limitations in Drone Rules Opens the Door for the UK to Partner with Amazon – When the FAA released its long-awaited drone rules earlier this year it did not include provisions that would enable companies like Amazon to fly delivery drones. Restrictions included line-of-sight requirements and prohibition of autonomous drone operation. This week, Amazon decided to take its drones and head to the UK. The partnership with the British government will enable Amazon to both test its delivery capabilities and likely pressure the FAA to speed up the regulatory approval process for autonomous delivery drones in the United States.

Featured CXOTalk video of the week: Episode 166: Innovating Platforms, Data, and Internet of Things, with Quentin Clark, Chief Business Officer, SAP

How do platforms, data, and the internet of things come together create innovation in the enterprise? In this episode, Quentin Clark, Chief Business Officer at SAP shares his view on technologies that can drive transformation and business model innovation.