Archive for June, 2014

10 Big Data Analytics Privacy Problems

Thursday, June 26th, 2014

Big data analytics are being used more widely every day for an even wider number of reasons. These new methods of applying analytics certainly can bring innovative improvements for business. For example, retail businesses are successfully using big data analytics to predict the hot items each season, and to predict geographic areas where demand will be greatest, just to name a couple of uses.

The power of big data analytics is so great that in addition to all the positive business possibilities, there are just as many new privacy concerns being created.  Here are ten of the most significant privacy risks. (more…)

Using “Compliant” Stuff Doesn’t Result in Full Compliance

Wednesday, June 11th, 2014

In the past couple of weeks I’ve spoken with five different small to mid-size organizations who have had a software or hardware vendor basically tell them, “Our product is HIPAA compliant! Use it and you will also be fully HIPAA compliant!” How can that be? In three words; it can’t be. Here’s what is most likely going on with those claims. (more…)

Choose: $50 Credit Card Fraud Limit or Unlimited Privacy Damage?

Friday, June 6th, 2014

So today AT&T announced plans to test a service allowing payment card providers to access the location of a customer’s phone to improve the accuracy of fraud prevention systems for transactions made abroad. AT&T customers will have to opt-in to the fraud protection service, which will also be me made available to enterprise customers later this year.

Antone Gonsalves asked me for my opinions about the privacy implications, which he included some of within his article he published on CSO Online today.  However, I wanted to make several more points to follow-on to his article. (more…)

Privacy Lessons from Snapchat

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014

There are many new small and mid-size business start-ups who are offering a wide range of online services, mobile apps, and smart devices. There are also many businesses that have been around a long time that see an opportunity and so are expanding into these areas.  I’ve spoken with many such businesses, and they often make two common privacy mistakes: (more…)