Today, I read of at three separate instances where class-action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of people whose personal information had been breached at a healthcare company.  The largest lawsuit, filed against TRICARE, represents 4.9 million affected individuals and is seeking damages of $1,000 per record – a total of $4.9 BILLION. Wow!

This action or other similar lawsuits have yet to be reach court or settlement. Depending on the outcomes, potential costs of litigation and resulting awards to victims may emerge as the single most powerful financial driver to implement good information security in the healthcare industry. 

From the NASA Picture of the Day service:

Taking Flight at Cape Canaveral The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft launches from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41, Monday, Nov. 18, 2013, Cape Canaveral, Florida. NASA’s Mars-bound spacecraft, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.

I love this photo!

I took the short Sommer + Sommer brain test and found that I use both sides of my brain almost equally.  That was a bit surprising to me.  I expected that I’d be more predominantly logical. 🙂

Does multi-tasking just spread what limited IQ I have around to the different projects I do?  Sometimes I feel like that.

The following video features Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D., Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ontario, Canada, discussing the paper I co-authored with her, “Privacy and Security by Design: An Enterprise Architecture Approach.”

Recently, my colleague Eric Stephens pointed out an interesting online data visualization service, called Raw. I just had to try it out.

The following circle chart shows the top ten nations from which people have reached my Yellow Jeep Project Facebook page – ranging from 3,007 for the USA down to 5 from Mexico. Fun tool to use; interesting visualization of some simple data.

My recent post about the book, “Age of Context: Mobile, Sensors, Data and the Future of Privacy,” by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, began to explore the benefits that might accrue from converging technologies of the “perfect storm” of mobile devices, social media, big data, sensors and location-based services. But what effect will this have on personal privacy?

Scoble and Israel provide these comments in the final chapter of the book, entitled “Trust is the New Currency”:

We have spoken to hundreds of people and looked at hundreds of technologies, and we firmly believe that adding context will make the world an easier, more efficient, cleaner and more productive place.

However, we’d be negligent if we didn’t point out that the price we pay for many of these benefits is our personal privacy. Every new piece of technology we adopt requires us to consider that price and how it will be exacted.

The book proposes the follow principles that need to be wrestled with in this area.  These are not the exact order or terminology used in the book, but my interpretation of what is needed.

1. Transparency and candor.  Service providers don’t attempt to cover up impacts to privacy made by choices consumers make.
2. Freedom to choose.  Consumers are always able to opt in and out at will – choosing what privacy they may be willing to sacrifice for other benefits.
3. The right to know.  Consumers can know what data services providers maintain, and what that data is used for.
4. The right to go silent.  Consumers retain the right to “go silent,” or opt out of any attempts to monitor or track that consumer.
5. Data ownership.  Personal data remains property of the consumer, event when the service provider is a steward of that data.
6. Human override.  Humans can always over ride automatic processes.

Scoble and Israel propose that online service providers that get it right will gain advantage over those that don’t – that privacy will become a valuable asset, not just for consumers, but those who hope to deliver services to them.

This was echoed in a recent Huffington Post article:

Today there is a new business currency. It can’t be found at the local bank, or purchased for any price. The new commodity is trust. And while I speak of trust as a commodity it can’t be bough or sold. It has to be earned. … A shift is underway in how businesses and consumers interact, both online and in person, and the businesses that recognize the value of building trust and dare I say “wow” with each transaction will set themselves apart from the competition.

“Protect privacy to build trust” can and must become a powerful mantra for modern business.

 

 

Much has been said about the rapidly expanding influence of small, connected sensors in the Internet of Things.  In the book “Age of Context: Mobile, Sensors, Data and the Future of Privacy,” that I blogged about recently, “sensors” are named as one of five major forces in the “perfect storm,” the “Age of Context”.

While recognizing the importance of sensors, I also am intrigued by unique actuators, which actually do something useful in response to conditions sensed.  I learned of an interesting new application of actuators this morning in the article, “Save on utilities: just heat or cool yourself.“

Wristify … a new thermoelectric bracelet out of MIT, monitors air and skin temperature, then sends tailored pulses of hot or cold waves to the wrist to help you maintain comfortable temps. 

This experimental device helps the body adjust to accommodate temperature changes by applying hot or cold temperatures to the body through a wrist band:

If I put something cold directly on your body at a constant temperature, the body acclimates and no longer perceives it as cold. … Think of what happens when you jump in a lake. At first, it’s bracingly cold, but after a while, you get used to it. By continually introducing that sudden jolt of cold, Shames discovered, you could essentially trick the body into feeling cold. Wristify basically makes you feel like you’re continually jumping into the lake — or submerging into a hot bath.

This seems like a great use of sensors teamed with actuators, transforming contextual knowledge (ambient temperature) into useful response (thermal comfort).

Will we soon see a wearable device to help us endure to or cold temperatures? I don’t know, but this could be really useful. Apple or Google, could you please build this into a smart watch?