Amazon’s Panorama box lets firms check if staff follow coronavirus rules

Posted by & filed under Amazon, Automation, Business Analytics, Data Analytics, Electronic Surveillance, Ethical issues.

Amazon plans to sell companies a way to detect when staff are not wearing face masks or socially distancing. Beyond the pandemic, the system could also be used to track compliance of other workplace rules or to monitor the public – for example, to check the number of customers queuing in a store. It involves… Read more »

The Brutal Fight to Mine Your Data and Sell It to Your Boss

Posted by & filed under Big Data, Bots, Business Analytics, Civil Liberties, Electronic Surveillance, Ethical issues.

HiQ is a “people analytics” firm that creates software tools for corporate human resources departments. Its Skill Mapper graphically represents the credentials and abilities of a workforce; its Keeper service identifies when employees are at risk of leaving for another job. Both draw the overwhelming majority of their data from a single trove: the material that is… Read more »

Uber to share data to help ease city congestion

Posted by & filed under Big Data, Business Analytics, Electronic Surveillance, Ethical issues, Uber.

Uber is launching a website outlining how its cars move around cities, in an effort to appease city authorities who have long called for more data sharing.  It will provide data on dozens of cities from next month.  Uber’s transportation data could help cities to improve traffic flow.  The controversial app-based taxi service had previously… Read more »

Changing Minds Where It Mattered

Posted by & filed under Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, Competitive Advantage, Entertainment, IT and Marketing.

MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO and founder of Facebook is trying hard to convince everyone that Facebook had no nefarious role in the 2016 US Presidential election. But according to President-elect Donald Trump’s digital director Brad Parscale, the social media giant was massively influential—not because it was tipping the scales with fake news, but because it helped generate the… Read more »

Facebook’s Race-Targeted Ads Aren’t as Racist As You Think

Posted by & filed under AI/Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, Competitive Advantage, Ethical issues, IT Trends.

IN LATE OCTOBER ProPublica released a scathing investigation showing how Facebook allows digital advertisers to narrow their target audience based on ethnic affinities like “African-American” or “Hispanic.” The report suggested that Facebook may be in violation of federal civil rights statutes and drew parallels to Jim Crow Era “whites only” housing ads. Source: Wired Magazine Date: November… Read more »

Using heat mapping to see where people are

Posted by & filed under Augmented Reality, Big Data, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, Competitive Advantage, Dashboards, Emerging Technologies, Ethical issues.

This technology allows someone to accurately map where, and for how long, a person is. Source: CNN Date: August 25th, 2016 Link to video: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2016/08/15/shopping-tracking-technology.cnnmoney Discussion 1) Where else might this sort of technology be really useful? 2) If you were buying this technology for your company, what sorts of concerns might you have?

Can DNA become the future of digital storage? Microsoft is betting on it

Posted by & filed under Big Data, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, Ethical issues.

Not only is DNA remarkably effective at retrieving and copying data, it’s extremely efficient in scale. It’s estimated that a diploid cell in the human contains about 1.5 gigabytes of information, which it can store and retrieve with frightening accuracy. At 1.5GB per cell, the cells in your hand could provide a storage medium bigger… Read more »