Tag Archives: Effect
AI Weekly: U.S. lawmakers decry the chilling effect of federal surveillance at protests
There’s a thread that runs through police violence against Black people and connects to overpolicing, onerous and problematic tactics like facial recognition, AI-powered predictive policing, and federal agencies’ surveillance of protestors. It’s almost a loop; at the very least, it’s a knot.
For months, American citizens have tirelessly protested against police violence, largely in response to the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Numerous reports allege that federal agencies have conducted surveillance on protestors. According to some members of Congress, this is creating a chilling effect on First Amendment rights: This week, Representatives Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Bobby Rush (D-IL), along with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), sent a letter asking the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), an independent federal agency, to investigate those reports.
“The act of protesting has played a central role in advancing civil rights in our country, and our Constitution protects the right of Americans to engage in peaceful protest unencumbered by government interference. We are, therefore, concerned that the federal government is infringing on this right,” reads the letter’s introduction.
Specifically, they want the PCLOB to investigate:
- The federal government’s surveillance of recent protests
- The legal authority supporting that surveillance
- The government’s adherence to required procedures in using surveillance equipment
- The chilling effect that federal government surveillance has had on protesters
The alleged surveillance measures include aircraft surveillance from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that involved devices that collect people’s cell phone data, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seizing phones from protesters with the intention of extracting their data (a request that went unfulfilled apparently), and the DHS compiling information on journalists covering the protests (which seems to have stopped).
In a statement shared with VentureBeat, PCLOB board member Travis LeBlanc said, “I am deeply concerned by reports of the federal government’s surveillance of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters exercising their constitutional rights. As the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, we are empowered to conduct an independent investigation of any such government surveillance and I hope my fellow Board Members will join me in doing so promptly.”
The agency would not state what measures it may take as a result of its investigation, and indeed, its powers are somewhat limited. Formed in 2007 from the 9/11 Commission, the PCLOB’s two chief responsibilities are to oversee “implementation of Executive Branch policies, procedures, regulations, and information-sharing practices relating to efforts to protect the nation from terrorism” and to “review proposed legislation, regulations, and policies related to efforts to protect the nation from terrorism” in order to advise the executive branch of the U.S. government on how to meet its goals while preserving privacy and civil liberties. The PCLOB’s aegis expanded beyond terrorism with Section 803 of the 9/11 Commission Act, which requires that federal agencies submit reports about privacy and civil liberties reviews and complaints.
The agency has deep reach, at least — access to documents, and the right to interview anyone in the Executive Branch. But though it can conduct reviews and make recommendations, the only real legal action it can take is to subpoena people through the U.S. Attorney General’s office.
Though this week’s letter directly engages the PCLOB, it’s by no means the first salvo from concerned lawmakers. Earlier this year, Reps. Eshoo and Rush sent a letter of concern about surveillance and its chilling effect, signed by 33 other members of Congress, to heads of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), National Guard Bureau, and CBP. “We demand that you cease any and all surveilling of Americans engaged in peaceful protests,” they wrote. They also demanded access to all documents these agencies have that pertain to the protests and surveillance. (The agency responses came by the barrelful and were included in a media announcement this week.) And in their most recent letter, Eshoo and Rush listed a dozen other letters of concern that members of Congress sent agencies and private companies expressing shades of these same concerns.
But the prior missives and responses have not, apparently, satisfied their concerns. In a statement to VentureBeat, Rep. Eshoo said, “It’s my hope that the PCLOB will conduct a thorough and independent investigation to uncover the facts about the allegations cited in my letter. These facts will help inform me and my colleagues about what actions Congress should take to prevent future abuses, update existing laws, and hold offenders accountable.”
The aforementioned thread continues through federal agencies’ protest surveillance to acts of aggression, intimidation, vigilantism, and in some cases violence. Unidentified agents in unmarked vehicles brazenly grabbed and detained protestors off the street in Oregon. Law enforcement directly or indirectly let an armed teenager roam the streets of Wisconsin, where he killed two protestors and injured a third. And the sitting President of the United States, during a nationally televised presidential debate, ominously told his supporters to watch the polls on election day — a thinly veiled overture to intimidate voters — and exhorted his white supremacist supporters to “stand by” and implied that they should be prepared to commit violence against leftist groups.
The chilling effect that Rep. Eshoo is so concerned about may follow the same path, from protests to the polls — which is all the more urgent given that the 2020 election is just over two weeks away. Preventing future abuses and holding offenders accountable is not merely the right thing to do, it’s crucial to a continued functioning democracy.
The audio problem:
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The Importance Of The Amazon Effect On Customer Centricity In Midsize Companies
Part 1 of the series, “Top Trends Impacting Midsize Businesses in the 2020s”
Customer expectations often come down to one word: instant gratification. Thanks to industry disrupters such as Amazon, consumers have become accustomed to a world where individual needs are met with one-click ordering, faster delivery, and extraordinary customer service.
Satisfying such a demanding environment can be an overwhelming task for a business of any size unless considerable changes are made. According to IDC, one trend that most midsize companies will soon consider is adjusting their business models to become more customer-centric. The analyst’s survey indicated that 55% of respondents will either embrace or begin to adopt experience-centric models by 2024 to deliver outcomes that matter most to their customers.
Customer trust outperforms instant gratification
People usually remain loyal to brands to which they feel connected. But building those relationships can mean very different things to different customers. Some prefer to purchase products instantly and share their thoughts directly on social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, or even Snapchat. Others desire a personalized shopping experience, whether through an e-commerce site or a local brick-and-mortar store.
No matter how “special” the connection, the red thread across all these channels is best summed up with one quality: trust.
For example, customers are focused on how products and services are sourced, produced, and delivered. Offerings that match the values of individual customers meaningfully – without compromise and frustration – are in high demand. And more importantly, people desire brands that openly provide information to prove their credibility, reliability, and sustainability.
And more importantly, addressing data privacy requirements and regulations will help your business gain a competitive advantage. Certainly, companies have no choice but to adhere to related regulations, unless they want to suffer from punishing fines and industry restrictions. Yet in the eyes of the customer, brands that consistently and compliantly create consent and protection of customer information will ultimately create long-term brand loyalty
Digitalization shapes a future of customer trust
Earning customer trust is a long, hard-won journey of consistent transparency, meaningful interactions, and reliable outcomes. Still, all it takes is one breach, misuse, or clandestine monetization of that relationship to ruin every connection made – destroying any hope of restoration.
The key to safeguarding midsize businesses from such perilous risks is the adoption of the right tools that can help analyze various types of data from an increasing multitude of information sources in real time. Doing so provides an intelligent core that enables three critical building blocks for customer trust.
1. Destruction of information silos
Democratized access and exchange of data across every single business system allows employees to tap into real-time insights that drive faster and more accurate responses to customer needs. In return, growing companies can improve decision-making and the delivery of outcomes and experiences that keep customers delighted and loyal.
2. Process transparency for all
A critical best practice for delivering outcomes that meet (or possibly exceed) expectations is allowing various organizations to work together. A comprehensive view into their customers’ history – from sales, service, and marketing to finance and the supply chain – allows employees to make decisions that turn isolated interactions into a well-rounded, informed, and meaningful experience.
3. Insights that are real-time, relevant, and actionable
Once data is democratized and processes are transparent, the next step is to acquire the analytics tools needed to turn information into insights that inspire and energize actions that matter most to customers. A predictive analytics model can help decision-makers identify optimal solutions to problem areas faster, support a responsive e-commerce framework, and automate repetitive and rule-based processes. Plus, frontline employees can obtain the forecasts they need to meet customer needs without delay.
The best customer experience is rooted in trust
Now more than ever, customer trust and the customer experience go hand-in-hand. Midsize companies that seize the opportunity to build trust are well-positioned to deliver authentic customer experiences that deliver as promised. And in the end, the brands that customers trust most will reap the ultimate rewards of advocate-like loyalty, market leadership, and revenue growth.
Discover how midsize companies are moving to become more customer-centric businesses. Listen to an excerpt from our webinar “Winning in the 2020s: Six Trends Every Midsize Needs to Know,” with Timo Elliott, Global Innovation Evangelist from SAP and guest speaker Shari Lava, Research Director Small and Medium Business at IDC.
This article originally appeared on Forbes SAP BrandVoice.
Cool Effect
Dreamforce is a bit like a holiday feast in that there are usually leftovers to savor. One of the stories that didn’t get enough attention at last month’s event was Salesforce’s path to becoming a carbon-neutral company. Time to savor it.
Salesforce has made a monumental effort to switch to green electricity generation and ensure that its buildings and business processes are as light on the planet as possible. It even hired a chief sustainability officer to get the details right. One of those details involved purchasing carbon credits to balance out its remaining carbon emissions with certified carbon offset projects.
Carbon Credits
When it came time to pick a mitigation partner, Salesforce went to its partner ecosystem and its foundation for a solution and found
Cool Effect, a nonprofit dedicated to helping individuals, organizations and businesses support carbon emission-reduction projects easily and transparently.
Cool Effect selects projects that issue credits that have been approved by an international carbon standard such as the Gold Standard, The Verified Carbon Standard, Climate Action Reserve, Win Vivo or the UNFCCC.
For example, the
Gold Standard was established in 2003 by the
World Wildlife Fund and other international NGOs as a best practice standard to ensure projects that reduced carbon emissions under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism also would foster sustainable development.
International standards-based approvals imply that a project has undergone certification, monitoring and verification by a third party, a certified United Nations auditor, and that all the documentation has been properly filed. Unless a project has completed a program like this, its carbon credits are not real or verified.
Cool Effect hires a second independent scientific auditor to re-review the project documentation for “additionality,” and perform supplementary due diligence on the project. Additionality is a key concept in the carbon market. A project is considered “additional” if it reduces CO2 emissions in addition to what might have happened in the ordinary course of business.
A project that reduces CO2 emissions and financially depends on the sale of carbon credits to do so is additional. A project that is profitable without the sale of carbon credits, such as many wind programs, is not additional. Other programs deemed not additional include those required by a governmental entity, such as methane capture from landfills.
Cool Effect offers projects as diverse as methane capture from coal seams on Native American lands, to biogas projects that turn waste into energy, and clean-burning cookstoves for rural poor around the world.
Better Stoves
Salesforce has proven itself extremely useful as a tool for capturing and organizing the large quantities of data required for carbon programs. Cool Effect, the sales platform for carbon offset projects, uses Marketing Cloud. Proyecto Mirador and the Uga stove project are both cookstove projects featured by Cool Effect that use Salesforce for data collection and stove tracking.
As an example, Proyecto Mirador, based in Honduras, sells Gold Standard carbon offsets to pay for the construction of efficient cookstoves in rural Central America. It’s not unusual for a family to run a stove or tend a fire for eight hours straight when cooking corn and beans, two staples of life in Honduras.
The stoves are much more efficient, using less wood, and they have chimneys to vent toxic smoke, so it’s a win for both sides. People get better stoves and the benefits of not inhaling smoke for long periods, and the stoves generate carbon credits.
Using handheld devices, field workers visit homes where stoves are installed to survey use and maintenance with qualitative surveys. When cell coverage is available, workers upload their data to Salesforce, where employees in California as well as Honduras can review it. The data collected is used to answer questions on a number of parameters related to carbon credit issuance.
Since Proyecto Mirador’s start in 2004, the project has built more than 150,000 stoves, according to Cool Effect estimates. Over an estimated five-year life, each stove could prevent the generation of 14.5 metric tons of CO2.
Cool Effect offers 11 projects similar to Mirador in that they all use simple technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Taken together, the Cool Effect projects have reduced global warming emissions by 16 million tons — but in order to continue their work or even grow, they need to sell their credits.
As we think about the macro effects of carbon emissions on the global climate, it’s easy to think that small contributions from efforts like Proyecto Mirador are overmatched by the enormity of the need — but that’s not true.
Carbon pollution comes from everywhere, and solving the climate challenge will require solutions at every level that emissions are produced. There are no quick fixes, but projects like Cool Effect’s provide great examples of how everyone can participate in the effort to lower emissions for the benefit of all parties involved, from poor people to large corporations.
Denis Pombriant is a well-known CRM industry researcher, strategist, writer and speaker. His new book, You Can’t Buy Customer Loyalty, But You Can Earn It, is now available on Amazon. His 2015 book, Solve for the Customer, is also available there. He can be reached at
denis.pombriant@beagleresearch.com.
How Will Dynamics 365 Effect Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers?
You may have heard about Dynamics 365, which is the latest offering from Microsoft for small to midsize businesses. This new offering is taking the place of Dynamics CRM Online and customers will soon transition to the new platform. Some of the most asked questions about this transition are below.
How will this transition effect me?
- If you’re running CRM on-premise there will be no effect on your system.
- If you’re utilizing CRM online, you’ll transition to a Dynamics 365 licensing plan on your CRM renewal date.
I’m on CRM Online – Why should I switch to Dynamics 365?
- No more flipping between programs and cutting and pasting. With Dynamics 365, the structured workflow of business apps is connected with the unstructured work of collaboration and productivity. This will lead to a much more productive experience.
- 365 uses a common data model, shared with Office 365, to simplify data management and integration across apps and business processes.
- Offers tech savvy business customers/analysts, aka “citizen developers,” (using Power Apps, Power BI Embedded and Microsoft Flow) and professional developers (using Azure platform services) a consistent way in which to compose new apps and easily extend and modify existing ones.
- Comes with connectors that let you integrate with applications and services from Microsoft and our partners – including custom API’s and on premise systems.
- An all new business process flow and business rule visual designer with drag-and-drop functionality
- All new editable grid functionality which allows the user to perform inline editing of records in both the web and mobile clients
What is the difference between Dynamics 365 and CRM Online?
There will be two versions of Dynamics 365
- Dynamics 365 Business Edition for small and medium businesses
- Financials, Sales, Marketing, embedded intelligence, PowerApps and Flow
- Dynamics 365 Enterprise Edition for large, more complex businesses
- Operations, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Field Service, Project Service Automation, embedded intelligence, PowerApps and Flow
Both editions let you choose Apps based on what functionality you need. These Apps are the same CRM functions and screens you currently use. You can choose specific Apps or bundle them all together in a plan. Apps include sales, customer service, operations, marketing, project service automation and more.
What about integration?
Dynamics 365 integrates directly with other Microsoft products like O365, OneDrive, Outlook, Excel, Skype, and more.
If you have further questions or would like more information, email DFC Consultants or call us at 701-281-6112.
By Sabrina Zimara, DFC Consultants
Why I Love TIBCO—The Butterfly Effect
Have you ever heard about The Butterfly Effect? If so, you know that small things can drastically change the world. That is my ‘TIBCO Story’ in just two sentences. Continuing with the movie theme, I would like to describe my first six months working as an associate consultant at TIBCO Software.
My first day at TIBCO was like ‘Suits’, and yes, I was like Mike but Harvey also was there. I had just graduated and had more than two years experience in IT. My resume was quite good, but even 10 years experience is not enough! You can have a nice diploma, knowledge of programming languages, and experience, but that’s not enough if you want to grow! At TIBCO, we’re still developing ourselves and this common attitude regarding personal and professional growth was the biggest surprise for me.
Top Gun.
Do you remember the final dogfight and plane crash? Well, at TIBCO, practice is the best teacher. That’s why during your first months you will get lots of training and opportunities to break something down. I took advantage of all of these opportunities, but the first time I sat down to build the development environment took me 20 hours, give or take. Today, I do this in 30 minutes. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
A Beautiful Mind.
My biggest achievement in the first months? Working almost like John Nash, you are finally creating something useful. After long tests your code is ready for the market—yes, I mean the release day.
The first production release is always nice, but feeling your solution make somebody’s work easier is awesome! During the shadowing experience at my first customer, I’ve done the straight connection between the two working environments. Not so much, but it is saving something real: customer’s time!
The Shawshank Redemption.
Why do I think you should join TIBCO? The answer is obvious. Joining worldwide corporations often means losing your independence or that you are just a spoke on wheel. But not at TIBCO. Here, you are treated as a partner. If you want to learn something new, you can through a variety of offered trainings. You can create a personal development plan. I mean real development, not just changing titles. Trainings, courses, challenges. Traveling? A lot! If your current job makes you feel like Andy from Shawshank Redemption, you should definitely apply at TIBCO. You won’t regret it!
Stay tuned for more insider scoop from TIBCO’s employees right here on The TIBCO Blog. Each month, we’ll profile new employees and positions—check out the previous interviews here. Interested in becoming part of the team? Check out our current career opportunities, and don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook!
Temporary/Disposable Email Addresses & Their Effect on Deliverability
As you know (and as most of you have encountered), many, if not most, of the addresses in your list will stop working over time. Some experts estimate that 25 to 30 percent of your organization’s contact data go bad each year under normal circumstances. When a recipient changes jobs or an organization changes email providers, those perfectly good addresses are rendered useless. These newly invalid email addresses negatively affect your deliverability due to the bounces that will inevitably occur if you keep sending to them.
You probably already knew this. What you may not know is that there are email addresses that are created to be temporary or disposable. These addresses are designed to stop working within a certain timeframe – or just keep existing and become unused.
The disposable email address (DEA)
The term “disposable email address” refers to addresses that have no long-term value to the creator or owner. They are usually acquired with a limited purpose in mind, and can be easily discarded. For example, if you wanted to sign up for a discussion board or chat room and also wanted to shield yourself from any email from the group, you might use a DEA. It would remain valid until you discarded it.
The temporary email address
Temporary email addresses, on the other hand, expire automatically over time. The timeframe could expire an address after twenty minutes, or a month, or after receiving a set number of emails. Email service providers and many online services offer these addresses, many times for free. The reason behind the growing popularity of these temporary email addresses is that they combat spam and identity theft, and address the annoyance of high volume senders.
With the rise in popularity of subscription-based websites, discussion forums, online retailers, and news sites, many people want access – without the inevitable deluge of emails in their inbox. Consumers often use temporary/disposable email addresses to take advantage of special offers or gain access to a site’s content without having to use their personal or business email addresses when completing sign-up forms.
Good for the consumer, bad for the marketer
Although these emails may be beneficial to the people who use them, they do present risks to email marketers. Implementing and sending to a list filled with these addresses presents almost zero benefits to the sender. If the address has expired, you’ll get a hard bounce. If an email does get through to the inbox, the potential that a recipient will engage is very low. Those email might go into a filtered folder, where they will be ignored until the end of time. Or they will notice your message is sent to an email they created to protect themselves from spam.
These addresses can drastically impede efforts to reach potential customers or contacts. Not only does it reduce your effective reach to customers and contacts but worse yet – it also skews your email list analytics. For example, your team may have extremely high delivery or subscription rates, with only a small fraction of those recipients and subscribers actually reading your emails.
In email marketing quality trumps quantity, and these types of email addresses are undeniably nonconducive to attracting quality leads. Temporary emails also increase the risk of reducing delivery rates and overall deliverability metrics. This means fewer messages get through due to higher bounces and can lead to you getting marked as a spammer.
How to protect yourself
Net Neutrality’s Effect On Advertising
Net neutrality is a buzzword in the media, and has been so for awhile now. However, as of late, it has taken on even more importance with President Barack Obama speaking out on the matter.
Obama has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt tough net neutrality standards. Obama’s comments have posed a challenge to the FCC, as they are the governmental agency that governs internet providers. Net neutrality has long been a topic that has been discussed in the political scene of the United States.
Introduction to net neutrality
So, what is net neutrality, anyway? Coined in 2003, net neutrality, in essence, means that there is no larger entity– whether private, such as an internet provider, or public, such as a government– that prioritizes faster bandwidth, server speeds, etc. for certain of its clients.
Examples as to how this could be an issue are with giving faster internet speed to individuals or firms who pay more money, or slowing internet speeds on sites considered to be rivals. All in all, net neutrality is something that affects us all.
Affecting marketers and advertisers
Something that many don’t realize, however, is that net neutrality could especially affect marketers and advertisers.
It is thought that if net neutrality does not become implemented that smaller firms that advertise will be at a disadvantage as they’ll only be able to buy ads on sites with slower bandwidth. It is expected that ad prices will go up, and many publishers will be forced from an ad-based model to a subscription-based model for their content. This is because for smaller publishers, the revenue from low-quality ads will be far outweighed by what could be gained via a paid model.
It is believed that the big online firms of the world– think Google, Facebook and AOL– would be the first to buy faster and better internet services, leaving every other firm to choose amongst the remains.
Since many broadband providers also compete in other sectors, such as the advertising sector, it is likely that they would have an inherent advantage. Examples of such companies include Verizon and Comcast. It is very possible that without net neutrality that information about an individual’s or firm’s internet usage could be sold.
Leading the charge
Recently, national, mid-sized to large blue-chip firms with excel dashboard data on this topic have been leading the charge for net neutrality. They include Ford, UPS, Bank of America, and Visa– none of whom are tech firms, and see themselves at a major disadvantage with how the laws, or lack thereof, are currently set up.
These firms are pushing for broadband to be reclassified under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934– the same plea that President Obama made. Title II essentially regulates the classification of telecommunications providers; there would be a push for these internet providers to provide equal services to everyone. Internet providers would be treated as a utility, essentially.
Opposition
It won’t be this easy, however– nothing ever is. Many, such as FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, believe that the laws on the books that are proposed to be applied are antiquated. He has a point– the Communications Act of 1934 as its name suggests, is 80 years old– even though the legislation was updated 18 years ago. (Even so, O’Rielly argues that no one knew how the internet would work a mere 18 years ago). The FCC has threatened to not apply all sections of the Act to broadband providers should net neutrality in the United States become a thing.
Conclusion
If one feels like they’ll be affected by net neutrality, or just wants to make their voice heard, they can file a form with the FCC voicing their opinions. The public perception of companies like Comcast and AT&T has decreased significantly as of late with their dissent for net neutrality.
So, if a small business, it is probably smart to be vocal for net neutrality. It will give you a chance in the already tough capitalist market of the United States. The smallest advantage can turn into something that makes or breaks a company.
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Want something else to read? How about ‘Grievous Censorship’ By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed’s Blog