Microsoft take Privacy issues up a notch – Our Privacy is their Priority

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Tom Hacon

“The lines between public and private may never be perfect, but at Microsoft we are going to keep on trying, because your privacy is our priority.”

- Microsoft

Data privacy issues were taken up another notch on the public interest spectrum recently with Microsoft’s primetime advertising of its commitment to our privacy and IE10′s default Do Not Track setting.

With Google’s well publicised privacy violations and potential privacy violations (ala Google Glass); privacy issues are penetrating the public pysche further and further.

The tech giants have had to sit up and listen to the public’s ever increasing privacy concerns. As these concerns continue to grow it could be the firm that has privacy at the heart of its future browsers, devices and above all its users that comes out on top.

From the look of it. Microsoft is making a real commitment to privacy. Whether the other giants follow suit depends on whether privacy concerns continue to rise.

Don’t be a Glasshole

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Tom Hacon

Believe.in – The next step in charity giving

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Tom Hacon

Believe.in is a true product of the modern digital age.

Heavily influenced by social media, the site is like a trimmed down Facebook. Each user has their own profile to share their latest philanthropic exploits, charities have their own pages accessed via fellow believers news feeds or by search and instead of liking a charity you now believe in it.

The site also integrates with social media so when you donate, believe or fundraise; your followers, friends and connections can see what you have been up to. Never before has social media played such a huge part in a charity giving website.

Currently the profile pages and charity pages only occupy the left margin but I expect the aim of these pages is to have the charities they represent managing them and providing content such as fundraising opportunities, projects, and success stories.

I would also expect the profile pages to expand to the centre of the screen to show a timeline of charitable activity, preparations for events such as photos of a marathon, mountain climb, bake sale etc. The aim must be to mimic Facebook and Twitter in their applications and user experience.

Take a guy training for the London Marathon for example. He runs 3 times a week and records his route and time on his iPhone and then posts the completed distance and time on Facebook. This is prime opportunity for Believe.in to hijack these status updates and have them feed directly into the Believe.in profile page instead of Facebook. This type of update would of course be synced with the fundraiser’s Facebook and Twitter to maximise his exposure and that of the Believe.in platform.

JustGiving is the market leader in the digital charity sector by a country mile. Believe.in’s biggest challenge is to try and challenge JustGiving’s dominance. This has to be done in two ways. Firstly, Believe.in proudly proclaims that 100% of donations made go to charity whereas only 94% of a donation makes it to the charity via JustGiving. Impressive stuff.

Secondly, the major feather in the cap is Believe.in’s accessibility. Social media is at the heart of this platform as is ease-of-use. Although JustGiving isn’t exactly a minefield to navigate, it pales in comparison to Believe.in.

What next?

For Believe.in to succeed it firstly needs buy-in from charities both large and small. At the bottom of most charity pages is a question asking you if you work for the charity and want to manage the page. We come back again to the hurdle of JustGiving and whether charities will see it as too much hassle to abandon JustGiving and their 6% cut of donations or relocate to Believe.in, revisit all their marketing materials and sacrifice their visibility to their donors for a while.

The second hurdle is to build its members. As with any start-up, members will be slow but Believe.in needs the floodgates to open to draw the attention of charities away from JustGiving. Catch 22 seems an applicable phrase to use. Charities won’t set-up shop until the users are there and the users won’t be there until the charities stop using JustGiving. Tricky one.

In the meantime, I expect the user experience to continue to evolve along the same lines as Facebook and Twitter to hopefully sit alongside them as the social media charity platform.

What is Bitcoin anyway?

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Tom Hacon

All currencies require a certain amount of buy-in from their users.

We all know that a piece of paper with $20 written on it is actually worthless but everyone has bought into the concept that paper can be exchanged for goods.

Bitcoin is an even less tangible concept though.

Ah that’s what it is. Will it be around for much longer though? Who knows.

The non-Evolution of Apple Ads

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Tom Hacon

Windows adverts along with their products have never found a consistent theme/brand.

This chronology of Apple’s desktop and laptop adverts shows the exact opposite for the branding of Apple products and adverts over the past 29 years.

Three words sum up both the ads and the hardware: Cool, simple, clean.

1984 – Macintosh

1992 – Powerbook

1994 – Power Macintosh

1997 – Power Mac G3

1998 – Power Mac G4 Cube

1998 – iMac

2002 – iMac G4

2003 – Powerbook G4

2008 – MacBook Air

2013 – MacBook Pro

There aren’t many companies that would maintain this level of brand consistency for this long.

Cool, simple, clean. Exactly what the Windows brand has been missing.

Apple have a brand image and they are sticking with it. And why wouldn’t they? They seem to be doing alright.

Stop The Cyborgs – Has the digital backlash begun?

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Tom Hacon

Smartphones, smart TVs, Google Glass, iWatches etc.

All of the above have a part to play in the increasingly blurred line between digital and real worlds.

The days of reading a map, deciding on your route, discovering you read the map wrong and then trying to find out where the hell you are while arguing with disgruntled family and friends are slowly dying. Now all you need to do is punch the postcode into your Sat Nav or phone and away you go. Any wrong turns you make will be refactored into your route plan. Where’s the fun in that?

When watching a TV show or movie in my house or local cinema the immortal words “What’s he been in?” or “Who’s that?” will not be far from my girlfriend’s lips. Now, instead of lamenting over the fact that I can’t remember and getting annoyed for X minutes while racking my brain to remember, my girlfriend goes on imdb.com. I enjoy getting annoyed for those minutes and then rejoicing in the glory of my memory when I proudly pronounce that Bane from The Dark Knight Rises is Tom Hardy.

Google Glass, iWatch and the other wearable tech that will be rolled out over the coming months and years will continue to blur the lines between the digital world and the real world. Is this blurring of the lines something that the consumer actively seeks or is it being thrust upon us and adopted without any conscious desire for it?

Current innovation is driven by the tech firms to largely passive consumers. The pace of innovation over the past decade has continued to quicken. The danger for tech firms is that in their constant innovation they have set themselves a dangerous precedent. It may be the case that in their constant strive to out-innovate their rivals; they lose sight of the level to which the consumer will accept their products. When this level is reached a digital backlash with varying degrees of severity is imminent.

In all likelihood a backlash will not result in widespread disillusion with the digital influence on the real world but may end with consumers thinking twice about their reliance on digital technology in their day-to-day lives.

Is the backlash starting now? Stop The Cyborgs

Sign the petition if you like.

Tom Hacon

Digital insight