Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Taking the Internet Back for the People: The Government’s Plan for Internet Security

Not too long ago, the U.S. federal government finalized their National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). Although acronyms tend to make everything sound overly-official, this isn’t some new set of laws. Instead, this ‘strategy’ is more of an attempt to improve internet safety. NSTIC aims to make the internet a better place for everyone to store and use their personal information. Sounds kind of impossible, right? If this was some sort of strictly government attempt, it probably would be. However, NSTIC asks for the participation of businesses and consumers alike, actually giving it a pretty good shot.

What’s the Strategy?

As explained in more detail here and here, NSTIC is focused on three main issues:

• Identity – Anyone who uses the internet probably has a jumble of user names and passwords. Attempting to foster an “identity ecosystem,” NSTIC aims to simplify this issue by having users deal with only a select few identities from trustworthy sources.
• Privacy – Whenever we sign up or buy something online, we give out tons of personal information. The plan regarding NSTIC is very much on a ‘need to know’ basis. Under this, only necessary personal information will be shared with the interacting group; no more, no less.
• Security – If we have less accounts to create, then we can actually create them distinctively. After all, how many people use the same user names and passwords across multiple accounts? In short, a lot! This makes online theft too easy. Hopefully, this proposed ecosystem will eliminate that.

In the end, it’s best to look at NSTIC as more of a reform than another government headache. It aims to create a more tightly knit hold on the online sharing of personal information.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Sorry to upset you, but no one in particular. As I said earlier, NSTIC isn’t a law; it’s a recommendation. It calls upon all of us to do our part in improving our security online. I’m sure we all love to complain about incidents such as Sony’s Playstation Network being hacked. However, are there any particular networks or sites where we are 100% safe of theft? Businesses need to keep client information private, but we can’t just use easily accessible usernames and passwords with the expectation that they will take care of the rest.

NSTIC wants to fix these problems by making the online process simpler, and it wants everyone’s participation. If you really want to be cheesy about it, NSTIC has a ‘think of the children’ kind of feel. The process isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s a grand scale issue that will probably take decades or even generations. And yet, even in spite of its inevitably gradual process, isn’t there no time like the present to get started?

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Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Internet Explorer 9 “Do Not Track” Security Feature…Will it Really Work?

I was reading this article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday when I realized that Microsoft released their new version of their uber popular Internet Explorer web browser which included the highly touted “Do Not Track” feature. The new feature is news-worthy for a few reasons in my opinion.  First of all, Internet Explorer is now the first major browser to include this type of feature in a major release of their we browser although Mozilla’s Firefox browser is said to include a similar feature in an upcoming release.

I think that this new “do not track” feature is also an interesting advancement because of how quickly Microsoft developed and included this functionality in a major release of their web browser.  This type of new feature only started making news a few months ago when a number of consumer privacy advocates started complaining about how so many websites, like Facebook and others, are now collecting personal information about people and their web browsing habits when they visit their websites.  Microsoft and Mozilla took these requests so seriously that they decided to include this feature in their next browser releases only a quarter later.  In my opinion these web browser companies decided to include this feature so quickly because they knew it was relatively easy to implement (in the way they have) and they also knew that this new feature would make big news and would therefore help market their new releases.

Finally, I think this new web browser feature is of note because of the way it has been implemented technically may not be very effective at doing exactly what it is meant for.  Basically, now when a person using Internet Explorer 9 browses to a web page that is trying to collect information about the person or their computer or their web browsing history it sends a series of “header” records to the requesting website indicating that the person requests that the information not be shared with anyone else or used for marketing purposes.  The only problem here is that there are no set standards around these “header” records and no major websites or eCommerce associations have acknowledged that they will accept or abide by these requests to not share the user’s data.  Inevitably, what will happen here is that Microsoft will start pointing the figure at the eCommerce sites that do not recognize these header records until they cave in and recognize them because Internet Explorer is the most used web browser in the world and nobody wants to fine themselves on the wrong side of this argument because their sites will be bad mouthed in the press and seen as non-consumer friendly.

In conclusion, I think this is definitely a step in the right direction by Microsoft but I am not sure that this is really the best or most effective way to go about it.  I guess if this is just the first step in the direction of better security for shopper’s personal information on the web then it is probably worth it and will probably get us where we want to go. 

What do you think about this new feature that Microsoft started offering yesterday in their new Internet Explorer 9?

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Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Always feel like you are short on time? Maybe you should take a pay cut!

I was reading this post on the Wall Street Journal blog yesterday and it really made me think about how some people I know always seem to be stressed out.  After reading this blog and thinking about it a little bit, I really agreed that more often than not it seems like people that make more money in their day jobs seem more stressed out and are always saying they wish they had more time for their personal lives.  While there are likely multiple factors at play in these situations that are making these people feel like this, it seems like there are now a few different studies that are starting to link higher rates of pay to a perceived lack of time in their work and personal lives.

According to this post, there are now multiple studies that have compared a group of people that are paid very little for a day’s work and then another group of people that are paid a much higher hourly rate for the exact same work.  The results of these studies showed that the people that were paid a higher hourly wage felt much more time pressure than the group that was paid less.

I thought that these studies were interesting because they really seemed to show a tangible link between a person’s perception of their value relative to the amount they are paid to complete a task.  Sometimes people put this time pressure on themselves only because of their pay and not because the pressure to complete the task really exists.

Looking back on it now, have you ever felt like you put too much pressure on yourself to complete a task for your business when this pressure may have never really existed?

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Try Shopkick on Your Smartphone, Almost 1 Million Others Have!

I have been using the Shopkick application on my smartphone for the past few months and then I saw this article in the Wall Street Journal the other day and realized that 750,000 people have also downloaded and used the application since it was released in August.

Basically, the idea behind the Shopkick application is that users can login and see which local retailers are closest to their current location.  Users then also have the option on clicking on each of the retailers near them to see what specials the merchant is currently offering to Shopkick customers.  It seems like some of the larger retailers that have close relationships with Shopkick include Best Buy, Macy’s, and Sports Authority.

The other idea behind the Shopkick application that is used to encourage users to access the application daily is driven by rewarding users with Shopkick points just for viewing the retailer’s specials by using the Shopkick application on their smartphone.  Users can obtain additional points by physically visiting the retailers and checking in and also by scanning the barcodes of various products in the stores that the retailers are advertising.  Shopkick users can then redeem these Shopkick points for products and gifts cards from the various retailers.

I found the Shopkick application to be interesting and useful but after attempting unsuccessfully to scan the bar codes of a few advertised products at a local Best Buy I was a little frustrated by the application as well.  I can definitely see a lot of good uses for the Shopkick application and I hope that they expand the functionality included in it to possibly included automatic price comparisons and possibly an easier way to scan the barcodes of advertised products.

Have you ever used the Shopkick application in a store or any other smartphone application while shopping?

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Archive for the ‘News’ Category

So Maybe I was Wrong…Over 7 Million iPads Sold in the 4th Quarter of 2010

Just over 9 months ago on this very blog, I proclaimed that the “iPad is iCrap” and wondered aloud why anyone would be so dumb as to purchase one of these new fangled tablet computers.  Well, while I still think that, for me, the iPad is a non-essential gadget…I guess 7,330,000 other people in the 4th quarter of 2010 disagreed with me because all of them bought one! 

Yes, the iPad IS officially another success story for Apple, and yes it DID probably revolutionize the PC market once again for Apple, and oh yea it IS probably the hottest new gadget in the tech industry since the iPhone and iPad.  All of these things may be true but I am happy to say that not a day goes by that I wish I had one!

Another interesting tidbit that I wanted to pass along today that made me realize how massive the Interweb (my fancy name for the Internet) really is: Did you know that 70% of Facebook’s user base reside outside of the United States!?!?  Maybe this is just me being naive or maybe it is because I am one of the last Americans to NOT have a Facebook account, but this really shocked me…I mean to the point where I actually read this sentence again to make sure I didn’t read it wrong.  For some reason I always assumed that Facebook was a mostly America-centric social application but obviously I was wrong again there too!

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Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Thanks New York Times for Covering the KikScore Blog!

I can not tell you how valuable Google Alerts are for your business or startup.  I was getting ready to go back to work after New Years and I received my regular email for my Google Alerts for “KikScore.” Now I get a lot of emails for the various mentions of “KikScore” across the internet, but I had to do a double take when I saw that we were referenced wholly unsolicited in the New York Times’ You’re the Boss, The Art of Running a Small Business blog.  If you have not read this small business focused blog, its a must read.  The blog offers a very unique insiders view of being a small business owner and includes excellent guidance. One of its contributors is Gene Marks who writes Dashboard and is a nationally recognized small business expert, speaker and small business owner (check out his Quicker, Better, Wiser service).  We owe Gene a special thanks for covering us in his This Week in Business post.  Now if only my hometown once a week delivered newspaper, the Stow Sentry would just cover KikScore!

The lesson learned for us from this coverage are at least three-fold:

1) Focus on Good Content – Keep trying to push out good, valuable content on a topic (for us its small business, startups, entrepreneurship all mixed with pop culture and humor) through various channels including your blog, Twitter, Facebook and sites like BizSugar and you will get noticed by being helpful to the community;

2) Value of Google Alerts – If you have not already done so, every small business and startup should set up Google Alerts for at least your company name, your management team members, your product names and industry relevant terms.  You may even want to set up alerts for your competitors too just so you can keep a watch on them.

3) Say Thanks – It is a small gesture, but once you get covered take a moment to say thank you and acknowledge the writer that covered your business.  This is our thank you to the New York Times and Gene Marks!

Let us know your thoughts on what you have done, when your business was covered by a major media outlet.

Photo Attribution: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid at laughingsquid.com.

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Advertising Evolves to Become More Effective and Relevant Amidst Privacy Concerns

If you own a house in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area or any state where door-to-door soliciting is legal, there’s a good chance you’ve had your fair share of canvassers come knock on your door. If the canvasser introduced himself as Mike and tried to say something about a free estimate for windows before you told him to get lost, we’ve probably already met. Like myself years ago, most canvassers are teenagers in high-school, attracted by the commission-based pay and opportunity to work outside. A backlash against door-to-door marketing has grown as disenchanted workers and homeowners accused companies of exploiting unskilled youth labor and invading personal privacy. Minors are barred from canvassing and telemarketing in many states, according to the US Department of Labor

Since beginning college at American University, I’ve left the unfortunate trade of canvassing in favor of unpaid internships that do not induce ego rot caused by constant rejection by cold-call leads. The state of advertising has evolved since, becoming more personalized by utilizing the personal information that most Americans make available online. Cold call marketing, such as through telemarketing and canvassing, is being replaced by personalized ads on the internet. Business owners are no longer left to shoot in the dark. Facebook has pioneered this front by allowing businesses to create ads (using this simple form) that appear to users based on personal information posted in their profiles. Although I’ve discovered a few good bands through these ads, aimed specifically toward me because I like 50+ artists, most are no more relevant than anything I’d expect to hear from a telemarketer. Despite Facebook’s efforts to deliver relevant ads, promotions for Methadone treatment and Doom Metal bands still make their way to bewildered consumers.

Those who have seen Steven Speilberg’s film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report remember a scene where Tom Cruise is immediately identified by ubiquitous retina scanners when walking into a mall, and bombarded with personal advertisements. “Hey, Tom, you really look like you could use a Guinness.”

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With the consistently growing presence of advertisements in our culture, this dystopia may be an accurate prediction of the future for consumers. Is Facebook already crossing the line by utilizing users’ personal information to direct advertisements? Or is this a better alternative to being harassed by telemarketers and canvassers?

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Returning an Unwanted Gift? It Might be a Little Easier This Year!

Now that we are 10 shopping days past Christmas I hope you have already returned all of the gifts that you didn’t want.  I was just reading this article in the Wall Street Journal about how most larger retailers are now starting to ease their return policies this holiday season. 

The article makes special note about how Best Buy has stopped charging their 15% restocking fee for certain items.  I think this is an interesting point because it shows how ridiculous some retailers return policies have been for the past few years.  The fact that Best Buy has actually been charging people so that they are happy with their shopping experience shows how far the pendulum has swung in the favor of the merchant in recent years when it comes to returns. Hopefully in a few years there will be no such thing as restocking fees and other return policies that retailers have in place will be eased considerably.

I actually have a recent first hand experience of trying to return a large ticket item that was purchased as a gift from Amazon which is one of the largest online retailers in the world.  Since the gift I was trying to return or even exchange (I was willing to do either) was purchased longer than 30 days previous to the day I was returning it within days after Christmas I was told that my only option was to return it, pay for return shipping, and only get reimbursed for 85% of the value of the item.  30 minutes on the phone with customer service later and Amazon was paying for the return shipping and I was getting a gift card for 100% of the value of the item but I had to put up a considerable fight and jump through a few hoops to make this happen!   Ridiculous!

Anyway, I think there are a lot of really non-consumer friendly return policies out there that are hopefully about to reversed over the course of the next few years.  Does anyone out there have another unbelievable return policy that they experienced first hand to share?

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Does the Better Business Bureau Sell Its Grades?

I was watching ABC News the other night when I saw this report that suggests that the Better Business Bureau is essentially selling good business ratings.  In this report, Brian Ross makes some fairly shocking realizations while interviewing a small business owner that had received a ‘C’ grade for her business and the day after paying the $400 membership fee to the BBB her rating immediately shot up to an ‘A’.  The small business owner indicated that she did not do anything else that would have resulted in her increase in grading. 

The report goes on to detail how some “pranksters” made up a business called “Hamas” which is a well known terrorist organization and paid the same $400 membership fee to the Better Business Bureau and, sure enough, this made up business received a grade of A! 

The ABC report also includes an interview with Wolfgang Puck, who has an ‘F’ rating by the way, and says that he thinks paying for a grade is wrong.  Other business owners interviewed in the piece say that they think the BBB is running a scam by trying to strong arm these small businesses into paying for their BBB membership in order to get a good rating through their system.

The end of the report seemed to indicate that the Connecticut District Attorney was in the process of requesting that the BBB stop rating businesses using this rating system as it seemed to be fraudulent.  If these allegations are true, this no doubt will have huge impacts to the small business community as a large number of them have purchased trust and rating seals from the Better Business Bureau and they would now most likely be requesting refunds for these products if the rating system is, in fact, fraudulent. 

Have you ever purchased any of these products for your business from the BBB and had similar issues in getting a good rating?

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20% Less Spam for Thanksgiving This Year!

To be honest with you, I actually really liked Spam when I was kid.  I don’t know what it was about that imitation, rubbery, ham-like substance but I am fairly certain that my Mom had me convinced it was real meat…either that, or I just didn’t know enough to think anything of it.  Jump forward 20 years, and Spam (emails) have become the bain of every Internet user’s existence.  Well, we are all in luck according to this article in the New York Times a couple days ago that indicates that these Spam emails should be decreasing by about 20% in the United States.

This article gives more details about how a major “spam kingpin” was recently arrested by Moscow police.  Apparently Igor Gusev was paying spammers handsomely to send emails promoting online pharmacies through his SpamIt.com domain.  The New York Times article goes on to talk about how known mass spammers and other cyber security threats have operated in public view for years but that recently the Russian government has started to try and clean up this image while also trying to partner with Silicon Valley to bring more commerce to the country.

While the reason for this Spam clean-up may be a little back-handed, I think that this is definitely good news for online security in general and a much needed step in the right direction.  Have you noticed a lower level of Spam email in your inbox over the course of the last 3-4 weeks?

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