Navigating the Legal Pitfalls of Augmented Reality

Navigating the Legal Pitfalls of Augmented Reality.

Mashable.com has published an interesting article on the legal implications of Augmented Reality as a marketing and advertising tool.

In the past year, AR has increasingly moved out of the “gee-whiz” phase of just being a technological marvel into becoming a legitimate and increasingly adopted tool in the marketing arsenal of a significant number of companies. (The Mashable article cites Ikea and Philips electronics as two examples, but there are many more, with new-comers jumping on board each day.)

There are, however, a number of significant legal implications that companies need to factor into their decision of whether or not AR is an appropriate tool to use and, if so, how to implement it.

These legal concerns include general privacy and data security issues, truth in advertising regulations, child protection (COPPA) issues, just to name a few.

The takeaway here is: if you are using AR in your marketing and product delivery process OR if you are thinking of adding AR to the mix, make sure that you have thought through and implemented policies and procedures that will keep you on the right side of the applicable laws and regulations that apply. Failing to do so can lead you into a ugly (and expensive) virtual dead-end.

Intel’s Andy Grove sounds off on data transparency in healthcare

Reblogged from GigaOM:

Andy Grove, the legendary and longtime CEO of Intel (s INTC), wants to light a fire under healthcare providers and patients.

In an article in the latest issue of Wired magazine, he argues that, in healthcare, “1950s-era thinking still rules the day, and irrational and inexplicable pricing is routine.”

“The health care industry plays a gigantic game of Blind Man’s Bluff, keeping patients in the dark while asking them to make life-and-death decisions.

Read more… 310 more words

Exclusive: Anatomy Of A Brokerage IT Meltdown – Security -

Exclusive: Anatomy Of A Brokerage IT Meltdown – Security -.
InformationWeek.com has an excellent article up which details the breakdowns in IT policy and procedure which lead the now-defunct stock brokerage, GunnAllen Financial, become the first company to be fined by the SEC for failing to protect customer data.

The article is a hair-raising read and the actions of both GunnAllen and its IT company, The Revere Group, would be almost comical if not for the incredibly serious implications of the cavalier way in which they dealt with sensitive client information.

While this instance is an extreme one, it is an object lesson for companies handling sensitive client information. The consequences of poor data management and data security are dire!

Why corporate strategy needs to change with the cloud

Reblogged from GigaOM:

Cloud computing changes everything, including corporate strategy as a practice. I have listed five reasons why, although I’m sure there are many more. Long story short: Corporate strategists need to get out of their 20th century mindset and into the 21st century.

1. Emergent strategy rules

For years, the practice of strategy has been about analyzing value chains, applying frameworks like Porter's five forces or newer strategic-intent-driven ideas like Blue Ocean Strategy.

Read more… 1,098 more words

An interesting article on corporate IT strategy. Particularly when read in context with come of the comments and responses from the Author. Clearly effective use of cloud computing resources by corporations requires some very careful thought (and re-examination of its IT risks).

Anonymous reminds Apple that UDIDs are creepy — Apple News, Tips and Reviews

Anonymous reminds Apple that UDIDs are creepy — Apple News, Tips and Reviews.

I am not sure which is more creepy, the way in which Apple has been using Unique Device Identifiers (UDIDs) to track iPhone and iPad users’ behavior or the fact that (if the claims of where these leaked UDIDs came from are true) the fact that an FBI agent had a trove of over 12 Million of them, along with other  personally identifiable information matched up to these UDIDs.

In any event, it goes to show that there remain many concerning security and privacy issues surrounding the use of mobile devices.

iPhone SMS security flaw uncovered by hacker

iPhone SMS security flaw uncovered by hacker.

Another day, another security issue. It appears that since at least 2007, the iPhone’s SMS protocol has permitted spoofing of the identity of sender of SMS messaged to iPhones.

As such, until this flaw is fixed, beware of seemingly legitimate SMS messages asking your for personal information!

The problem with BYOD: We all suck at mobile security

Reblogged from VentureBeat:

• 

The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement may be a dream come true for office workers, but it has one big problem: Office workers are really bad at securing their phones.

That's the message embedded in a survey by IT risk and compliance services company Coalfire, which talked to 400 non-IT workers to get a sense of how well they are securing their mobile devices outside of the workplace.

Read more… 224 more words

47% of BYOD employees don't have passwords on their phone! 51% say their company doesn't have the ability to remote wipe the BYOD!! And 49% say their IT Departments never even talked to them about security on the device!!! Survey says: FAIL!!!!

At Defcon, Hackers Show How to Bypass Android Encryption – Ina Fried – Mobile – AllThingsD

At Defcon, Hackers Show How to Bypass Android Encryption – Ina Fried – Mobile – AllThingsD.

More apparent insecurity in the Android platform: apparently the Android operating system from version 3.0 though the present use the same password for unlocking the device that it uses for encrypting the data on the phone. This opens up data on the phone to a relatively simple brute force attack, as few people use complex passwords to unlock their phones.

In light of this revelation, it is clear that Android continues to be a questionable choice in platforms for businesses / enterprise use.

GPS Weakness Could Enable Mass Smartphone Hacking – Technology Review

GPS Weakness Could Enable Mass Smartphone Hacking – Technology Review.

A researcher at the University of Luxembourg has discovered that a weakness in the A-GPS location process used by smartphone can permit malicious wi-fi sites to re-route the phone’s A-GPS location queries to the malicious site even after the smartphone has disconnected from the malicious site, permitting hackers to track the phone from that point on.
Furthermore, on smartphones where A-GPS signals are processed on the phone’s main CPU, hackers can use this exploit to crash the phoe and possibly make use of other bugs to compromise the phone.
This exploit was demonstrated on a umber of different Android phones by several manufacturers.

Data Breach costly to Global Payments, to the tune of $84M | ajc.com

Breach costly to Global Payments  | ajc.com.

Another costly reminder of the liability that can stem from data breaches: Atlanta-based Global Payments suffered a breach in which 1.5 million account records were exposed i a hack attack.

Global Payments now reports that just the cost to fix the data breach has reached $85 Million, so far, resulting in a 91% drop in quarterly net income when compared to last year. This does not account for the damage to Global Payments’ reputation. Both Visa and Mastercard dropped Global Paymeents from their compliance lists after the revaluation of the data loss.

According to the Atlanta Jounral Constitution, last month, Global also warned that hackers also might have accessed the personal information of an unknown number of merchants who’d applied with Global for payment processing services.

Interviewedby the AJC, Adam Levin, an identity theft expert and chairman of Credit.com, said the Global breach is another wakeup call that governments and companies may not be doing enough and that consumers must protect themselves. His conclusion: “Companies have got to be more proactive,” he said. “Even the ones that are really good [at security] are finding that the bad guys still find a way to beat them.”