Tuesday Buzz: Personalization and Privacy—Polar Opposites?

Privacy and personalization are often on alternate sides of the scale—but there’s a good chance your members want both.

See the problem? Gigya does. In its just-released 2015 State of Consumer Privacy & Personalization study  (opens in a new tab), the firm breaks down the challenges that arise between these opposing poles.

The company’s study found that 96 percent of U.S. consumers are concerned about data privacy issues. At the same time, many consumers are more likely to ignore or unsubscribe from communications that are irrelevant to their interests.

One way the marketing industry is getting around this, the study explains, is by the increasingly popular use of the social login, such as that offered by Twitter, Facebook, and Google.

“The good news for marketers is that the use of social login is increasing, which means marketers can more easily capture profile attributes than with traditional login,” notes VentureBeat  (opens in a new tab). “Consumers benefit, too, removing friction from filling out… yet another form.”

You can check out the full study  (opens in a new tab) over this way.

A Flash Mob

BIG NEWS!! All versions of Flash are blocked by default in Firefox as of now. https://t.co/4SjVoqKPrR  (opens in a new tab) #tech  (opens in a new tab) #infosec  (opens in a new tab) pic.twitter.com/VRws3L0CBW  (opens in a new tab)

— Mark Schmidt 🌐 (@MarkSchmidty) July 14, 2015  (opens in a new tab)

If you’re a fan of the Firefox browser, you’ll either love this news or find it a little hard to swallow. On Monday, the makers of the browser decided to block Adobe Flash by default, essentially striking another near-fatal blow on the legacy browser plugin.

The reason was related to two recent security vulnerabilities that were out in the wild—vulnerabilities that Adobe quickly patched  (opens in a new tab)—but it’s a reminder that the ongoing march of technology could leave Flash behind.

Also on Monday, Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos called for Adobe  (opens in a new tab) to “announce the end-of-life date for Flash and to ask the browsers to set killbits on the same day.”

It’s been a long road to this point, started by late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, who, five years ago, wrote a famous open letter about the Flash technology  (opens in a new tab) in relation to the iPhone and iPad.

“Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs,” Jobs wrote. “But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards—all areas where Flash falls short.”

His words may be gaining ground among the rest of the tech community.

Other Links of Note

If you need a keyboard that works on just about anything, Microsoft’s newly released Universal Foldable Keyboard might do the trick. The device, which goes on sale today  (opens in a new tab), is getting some strong early reviews for its size and versatility.

The future of WiFi: A new type of WiFi technology called WiFi Aware could make it possible  (opens in a new tab) for devices to connect to one another without a hotspot—which could be a breakthrough technology for event planners.

The ends matter, too: National Fluid Power Association CEO Eric Lanke breaks down how his organization put together an ends statement  (opens in a new tab) for its strategy agenda.

(iStock/Thinkstock)