Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Random Thougths about daily life
From my point of view I try to divide my day between what I have to do and what I want to do, then I choose what absolutely must do during the day and split my time accordingly.. pretty simple right?
But everyday there is always a surprise, an emergency, something I forgot which absolutely throws my day out the window and forces me to ditch my carefully chosen path.
I know I want to keep posting interesting topics and I will, but projects come and go, hope you will forgive a seeminly random rambling
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
How much is our data worth ?
Now that is an interesting question is it?
For the average person is no longer so but if you are reading this it is a safe bet you are already wondering so. Like any of the deepest questions in our world, this topic needs context to be correctly analyzed so let's begin:
What is "data"?
Data is a very volatile concept which is easily shaken by the social media companies and government, basically it is any information they can take from you and compile.It doesn't sound so vile right? But start taking in account how much of your life they are disclosing either directly or indirectly and it will amaze you.
A big part of their information gathering starts with your name, age, address ,etc. this will constitute your profile, which will serve as a header for the next steps which will be:
- who are your friends
- where do you go to eat
- what do you like
- what do you hate
- Which ideas do you support
- what do you buy
Still doesn't sounds ominous? Let's continue:
This profile will classify you into different categories easily searchable and catalogued which will be used for diverse purposes
So let's get in context: in the old days if a business wanted to advertise on their products they would buy space in the radio or in a TV spot where most people are watching and hope for the best.
So a company selling products and services for senior citizens would buy time for their ads at "Matlock" and hope for the best.
But how about if you could filter out people not interested in your product and filter in people interested in whichever age band there is?
Enter social media, now companies did this using questionnaires at malls and supermarkets, nowadays they don't need to do so, we do it for them.
Filling out your profile for your friends to see also do so for the company to fill out the blanks, they allow political movements to join in and use their platform to organize, just so they can get a list of who joins what, even your shopping and wish list is shared so they know what do you want and they can sell ads to the companies who want to sell it to you.
But how much is all this worth?
In online marketing there is no way to actually control who has "seen" your advertising so the way they charge for it is for the people who actually clicked on your ad (cost per click or CPC)Just the service of focused advertising makes Facebook ads worth between $0.50 to $4 a click (which would mean it got the interest of one person)
Average Facebook CPC & Other Benchmarks by Industry in 2019
Industry | |||
---|---|---|---|
Apparel | |||
Automotive | |||
B2B | |||
Beauty | |||
Consumer Services | |||
Education | |||
Employment & Job Training | |||
Finance & Insurance | |||
FItness | |||
Home Improvement | |||
Healthcare | |||
Industrial Services | |||
Legal | |||
Real Estate | |||
Retail | |||
Technology | |||
Travel & Hospitality |
An average Ad campaign for a small company would mean at least $10.000 a month and the best part, it is for each company so the information is sold once and again and again and again....
Facebook has made more than $1 billion per quarter just from ads alone which certainly tell us more from the financial value of our data than any other points of worth, but there is more....
Political Value
Cambridge Analytica, currently a bad word in the commercial world, but not so a few years ago it was one of the most successful advisors in regards of... political campaigning using focused advertising.
Countries where SCL Elections claims to have worked |
---|
US |
UK |
Argentina |
Colombia |
Guyana |
Uruguay |
Trinidad and Tobago |
Grenada |
St Vincent and the Grenadines |
Saint Lucia |
St Kitts & Nevis |
Antigua and Barbuda |
Cyprus |
Nigeria |
Gabon |
Kenya |
Zambia |
South Africa |
Latvia |
Lithuania |
Ukraine |
Romania |
Italy |
Moldova |
Albania |
India |
Pakistan |
Nepal |
Thailand |
Indonesia |
Philippines |
Mauritius |
The financial gain in politics is enormous and as per their results the ammount of data they brought in from our social networks did paid its due.
So as far as getting paid for your data it might be worth around $100 - $200 but as companies go each person data can be monetized for million
Reference
https://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-lookalike-audiences-help-advertisers-reach-users-similar-to-current-customers-others-in-their-database/
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/427941/the-biggest-cost-of-facebooks-growth/
https://adespresso.com/pricing/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/07/14/facebook-twitter-how-much-data-worth/39677311/
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/data-worth-bill-google-190624204901419.html
http://stenor.github.io/
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/carlos-de-torres-gimeno/big-data_b_4817705.html
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/where-do-marketers-get-leads-data
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/how-much-is-your-data-worth-mmm-somewhere-between-half-a-cent-and-1-200/254730/
https://medium.com/wibson/how-much-is-your-data-worth-at-least-240-per-year-likely-much-more-984e250c2ffa
https://fee.org/articles/how-much-is-your-data-worth-to-tech-companies-lawmakers-want-to-tell-you-but-they-have-no-idea/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephanzoder/2019/08/06/how-much-is-your-data-worth
https://fitsmallbusiness.com/how-much-does-facebook-advertising-cost/
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Blockchain, Is it time to adopt it as a new Standard?
When Bitcoin came up a decade ago it was set to create a revolution but it seems it did in more than one front.
Blockchain, its node based decentralized database, was easily overlooked in the early days, but it is now profiled to be the latest trend in secured and indestructible open source databases in the market.
I actually love the explanation given by Forbes Columnist Mark Zilbert
"" Imagine that you and your best friend Bob are standing on a stage in
an auditorium, and there are 1,000 people in the audience. In front of
these 1,000 people, you hand your car keys to Bob, and Bob hands you his
Rolex. You declare, “Bob, you now own my car.”
Bob declares back to you, “You now own my Rolex.” There are 1,000
witnesses who can each declare, without doubt, that your car now belongs
to Bob, and the Rolex belongs to you. If anyone in the audience later
tells a conflicting account of who owns the car or the Rolex, the other
999 people will refute it. And, if you take a spare set of your keys and
try to give that same car to someone else, the 1,000 audience members
will confirm that Bob owns the car, as each of them witnessed the
“transaction.” This is the essence of how the blockchain works. ""
What are the perks of Blockchain?
Both Etherium and Hyperledger are open source and share the best perks of blockchain which are:- Scalability: The Blockchain architecture creates a "node" which is a server or Virtual Machine where the database is hosted, the trick is, the database can add or remove these nodes without hassle so computing power, authenticity checking, etc. can grow as much as needed
- Indestructibility: This is relatable to the internet itself, as long as a single node is working the database will be available, so let's say the database gets attacked and one of the servers goes down (gets rebooted, stalls or the network goes down on the data-center), the other nodes have everything they need to keep working and when the previously damaged node comes online again they'll update him.
- Confidence: One of the main concerns right now is confidence on the database, What happens if someone defaces my data?, If someone deletes my database? If someone adds false data as real?, Blockchain adds native protection to these concerns by adding security headers to the information blocks which will make it next to impossible for hackers to insert false information, also no information gets deleted from a blockchain database ever, every new change is saved as a new version and every update is digitally signed so every audit will tell you exactly who replaced the information and worst case scenario will give you the opportunity to go back to a previous version.
- Non-Repudiation: I mentioned every record is digitally signed, what it means is if you use Blockchain's native security system you can see the signature of the user which is not replicable as it is a digital certificate unique for each device usable by the user.
Excellent... But what does this mean..
For legal documents it provides a way to record any kind of documents in a way they cannot be changed, deface or repudiated (kind of a bureaucratic task nowadays), it can lower the costs of registering and would bring much needed visibility and transparency to these procedures.
Now don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean everyone will have access to add records but it means that whoever is adding these records will be recorded and digitally monitored by the platform.
As an example South Korea has already started this endeavour, they have stressed it's uses in public safety, finance, tourism and logistics.
In the same way logistics is a prime example of what blockchain is capable as a plethora of companies have started to use and enforce it.
We can see Walmart, Samsung, Fedex, IBM, Microsoft, etc. adopting blockchain as a trusted way to recording and controlling their transactions.
Using blockchain, Walmart employees are tracking shipments from the source to their warehouses. After scanning the lots with the store's app, employees can see which farm the fruit came from and where it's stored in the backroom. The technology could help customers understand where their food comes from and could streamline the restocking process as well as saving time and money in recall processes.
My motto is when the cost is comparable the most secure option is the option to go, blockchain is an affordable, escalable and secure database with a design set to save processing power, it is an amazing technology and must be taken advantage of it, reduce time and cost, raise trust and take out irrelevant controls.
Related Links
https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korean-president-regulatory-innovation-is-question-of-survival
https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/24/walmart-is-betting-on-the-blockchain-to-improve-food-safety/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-15/samsung-jumps-on-blockchain-bandwagon-to-manage-its-supply-chain
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesrealestatecouncil/2018/04/23/the-blockchain-for-real-estate-explained/#1ffdf5d2781e
https://www.blockchain-council.org/blockchain/top-10-companies-that-have-already-adopted-blockchain/
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/5-companies-using-blockchain-to-drive-their-supply-chain/
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