Tag Archives: Lifestyle

AVG

The future of work-life balance and tech

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Many of us question the impact of technology on work-life balance, as our lives play out in the always on, always connected 24×7 workplace.

Now, in the heat of the late summer, the topic has become a hot one in the tech industry itself – from a controversial new New York Times expose that examines Amazon’s purported workplace culture to the highly-reported news of increased parental leave programs by key companies and, finally, a release of some annual  “top” ranked company lists.

First, a look at the expanded parental leave offerings unveiled this summer:

  • Netflix announced it is offering a year’s paid maternity or paternity leave to its employees.  Specifically, Netflix has put in place “an unlimited leave policy for new moms and dads that allow them to take off as much time as they want during the first year after a child’s birth or adoption.”
  • Microsoft said it would offer 20 weeks of paid leave to new mothers, up from its current 12 weeks paid and eight weeks of unpaid leave. New fathers will get 12 paid weeks, instead of four paid and eight unpaid.
  • Adobe said it would offer parents who are the primary caregivers 16 weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child – in addition to 10 weeks of paid medical leave following childbirth. That means a new mother could take a total of 26 weeks off — up from the current nine weeks.

Among offerings of other tech giants already in place: Google raised its paid maternity leave from 12 to 18 weeks in 2007. Facebook’s new parents receive four months of paid leave, as well as $4,000 in “baby cash.”

Analysts say the underlying goal of the newly updated parental leave programs is not totally altruistic,but are efforts for the companies to stay competitive in the super competitive Silicon Valley tech job market. They also expect that outside of the tech sector, little will change… particularly for startups and smaller businesses that cannot afford to provide equally rich programs.

While the new parental-leave policies of tech powerhouses are innovative, the U.S. is still playing catch-up when it comes to other nations. For example, the U.S. is the only developed country that does not mandate any paid leave for new mothers. (See Pew research on the topic from 2013 here.)  BTW, in most countries that offer paid time for mothers (a median of 5-6 months), their government picks up the tab and paternity leave is more limited (offered by only 25 of the 38 nations).

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut are pushing for a new law that would provide 12 weeks, but not unlimited leave, in the U.S. under their bill, employees and employers would make small contributions and pool them so that workers can draw a significant portion of their pay while caring for a newborn or for other serious personal or family illness.

To be sure, advances that are taking place toward work/life balance in the U.S. aren’t only in the domain of Silicon Valley. In its examination of the 25 companies that have “the best” work/life balance in the U.S, Forbes Magazine cited more exemplary non-tech companies than tech examples.  Forbes’ criteria went beyond time-off to other considerations.

According to the Forbes list, the best company for work/life balance for the third year in a row, is non-tech giant Colgate/Palmolive. Among tech companies to rank on the list were Google, Nokia, Philips, Motorola, and Intel… You can access the list here. (The Forbes survey, conducted in concert with the job search engine Indeed, ranked companies with least 100 employees which hire primarily full-time workers. The list does not include government or military organizations, colleges and universities, nonprofits, or staffing agencies.)

The Forbes survey also notes that in 2015 work/life balance, flexibility is fast rising up the ranks in importance. Though the number one consideration for people is still pay, number two is location and number three is flexibility – even ahead of benefits.

In the end, though it may be a culprit when it comes to taking away from our work/life balance, technology is also a driving factor in helping make the balance possible…

And there lies a conundrum that we in the tech industry and all companies must all continue to work on.

AVG

‘InstaPolicing’: Police departments are monitoring social media

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The golden rule of social media is ‘think before you post.’ In the age of Instagram and living in the moment online, people sometimes forget how that one digital moment can now and forever be captured.

It happens to the best of us – and it is also happening to the worst of us, sometimes with real consequences.

In terms of the latter, social media has become a tool for law enforcement to fight crime almost since its inception. Now, Instagram photos have become a popular mechanism for helping police to track criminals who, you might say, are ‘selfie-incriminating’ themselves on social media.

The San Francisco Police Department, for example, has dedicated resources for monitoring Instagrams to track individuals of interest, and the program has yielded results.  Officer Eduard Ochoa, who has been SFPD’s “Instagram Officer” for a number of years, has monitored and tracked individuals who were on probation and observed them doing things in violation of their probation. In one case, a minor on probation posted photos of himself in possession of a firearm. The Instagram spottings allowed officers to perform a probation search, and in the course of the investigation firearms were found.

Recently, an appeals court ruled that those Instagram photos of the incident were admissible even though no one who was present when the photographs were taken testified. (You can read the court ruling here.) The individuals involved were also wearing the same clothes as they were in the Instagram photos when police arrived, which no doubt helped seal the deal.

The SF Police Officers Association’s newsletter singled out Ochoa and other officers for performing “an extremely intensive investigation using the most modern techniques provided by our new electronic age” to locate the suspect in a shooting.

“If the criminals are getting smarter and more tech savvy, so should the police department,” SFPD spokesman Officer Albie Esparza told a reporter for Marketwatch.

The Instagram officer is only one example of police using social media to fight criminals. Many departments across the country now use Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in police work. According to a 2013 social media survey from the International Association of Chiefs of Police, 96% of police departments were using social media in their policing, and more than 80% said it was helping solve crimes. (Of course, it works both ways, and the defense can find evidence of alibis on social media as well.)

Indeed, while social media usage is now commonplace in law enforcement, one item of concern is that guidelines and procedures to govern it may be lagging. According to a November 2014 study by LexisNexis, “Social Media Used in Law Enforcement,” 52% of the law enforcement agencies surveyed lacked procedures governing social media use. Further, Government Technology research found there is little training when it comes to social media usage by law enforcement departments.

Policies and guidelines for law enforcement using social media seem critical. As Police Chief Magazine reported in a 2013,  “Written policies will ensure that agency executives know what their employees are doing and why they are doing it, as well as protect citizens’ privacy and civil rights and liberties…Many agencies already have policies to protect civil rights and civil liberties. Agencies should include references to agency privacy protections when drafting social media policies to collect intelligence and investigate crimes.”

In Minnesota, where police used Instagram photos to make indictments in a weapons-for-sale scheme, ACLU executive director Chuck Samuelson noted: “The law has not caught up with social media and other technology used to share and gather personal information and even law-abiding citizens should be aware that their personal information is being collected by all sorts of organizations and can be used against them.”

It would seem, as in many aspects of our digital lives, vigilance and ongoing work needs to be done to keep pace with the technology innovation, in order protect us all – our rights, our privacy and our security.

(Note to Hollywood: There’s plenty of material here to create a new series, CSI InstaPolice.)

AVG

Physical safety is becoming digital security

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Imagine rows of people hunched over soldering irons, carefully crafting systems designed to hack wireless devices and networks. Welcome to Defcon 23, a mash-up of talks, small vendor displays and hands-on hacking challenges/competitions dedicated to all things security—and how to break through it.

While browsing through booths of physical hacking paraphernalia, I ran across lock-picking tools from Toool. Scattered across the table were lock-picking sets as well as heaps of sample locks, so you could refine your technique.

lockpick

Picking analog locks is a lot of fun, but I would have expected to see more digital hacking tools, for electronic door locks for example. At AVG we’ve been studying how physical security systems are evolving to become more digital and the security challenges that emerge from this evolution.

Your home door lock will become digital soon (here are some examples), and those skilled with wireless hacking will replace those with lock-picking expertise. Your digital lock will have more functionality than your old analog one. For example, it will probably have a camera, and allow you to let the plumber in even though you are at the office.  It is easy to imagine the incremental security concerns that this opens up. While it may take years for this to occur, but it’s not too speculative to imagine that houses with high-value contents will become digital faster than others and provide an attractive target for theft.

Digitizing old technologies, like the door-lock, is just another part of the IoT trend. Next year at Defcon we might see an analog+digital hacking kit, combining lock picks and hacker hardware to open your door. This is something we’re keeping a close eye on as we also develop tools that help monitor and manage your security.

AVG

Vote for Todd Simpson’s upcoming talk at SXSW

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Vote for my proposed session at the SXSW (South by Southwest) 2016 Interactive Festival.  If you care about privacy, here are sme important questions that I aim to answer:

  • How are physical tracking mechanisms and traditional online mechanisms converging?
  • What does that mean for your privacy?
  • Why is privacy an important fundamental human right that we should all be protecting?

 

Click here now to vote for Todd

 

If you vote for my session, I’ll also introduce a breakthrough technology that can help tell the world when you’re not willing to be tracked called ‘Do Not Snap’.

Thank you for voting for me, and I to hope to see you at SXSW 2016.

AVG

Back to school: Are you prepared?

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Parents everywhere have been preparing for the back to school rush. It’s a ritual of making sure that the children are equipped with new backpacks, new binders, sports gear and uniforms and so on. For some parents, there is the complexity of purchasing a new laptop or tablet and having to decide which one to buy.

If you are still in the depths of deciding which device to purchase, my earlier blog may help you and can be found here:  7 tips for picking the right back to school device.

I sent my son off to school with the same laptop he had last year. If you’re doing the same, I recommend you take the time to ensure it’s working as expected and in a clean state – just like you would with the backpacks and other gear.

As part of being a responsible parent, it’s important to have visibility to what our kids are doing on those laptops and tablets, especially on hand-held devices such as a smartphone.  While we don’t want to be intrusive, we do want to ensure our kids are being safe online and are using these connected devices in a responsible and mature way.

I feel that what kids do online is ultimately the parent’s responsibility. Just like children are taught to cross the road safely, guidance is needed in the online world.  Some schools have even supported this notion by requiring parents to sign school acceptable usage policy, which makes them responsible. See my previous blog on this:  Parents, have you signed a school digital policy?

AVG recently commissioned a Harris Poll which asked parents in the United States about their monitoring habits. First, 85% of parents said that their 3-17 year old does indeed have their own device – and most of them got that device by the 7th grade (or age 11)! I’d be willing to bet that the remaining 15% are in the younger age group because when we’re talking about older children, I believe it’s really closer to 100%.

Are parents looking and monitoring those gadgets? 88% of U.S. parents say they do check their child’s activity online with more than 60% checking at least once a week.  However, about 1 in 10 never check their child’s text messages, emails, social media, etc. Some say because they believe it’s an invasion of privacy. When my son was younger, he always used devices in a public setting in the home like the living room or the kitchen and as a minor; we didn’t consider his online use needing to be private.  Now that he’s older, I give him a lot more space.

More than half don’t know the password of their kid’s device. I think in reality though, parents may think they know the password but when placing the device in front of them and asked to unlock it, many probably couldn’t.

In my family environment we encourage dialogue about being online and it is understood to be a privilege to have devices. And its understood that if I want to have a look then I can. We also have other rules that mean no devices after 9pm, not in bedrooms and never at the meal table. Every family will have different rules but keeping some family time without devices is a good thing, especially if all the adults participate.

As your child heads of to school in the coming weeks remember that the devices the are carrying are a learning tool in the same way their text books and notebooks need to be in good order, so do their technology.  Making sure they are performing well and running securely is a parent’s responsibility, we have some free software that will assist you – AVG Antivirus FREE & AVG Antivirus for Android will do a quick cleanup.  To keep those devices working at their optimum, download a trial of AVG PC TuneUp and run the recommended maintenance items.

Good luck with the new school year.

Follow me on Twitter @TonyatAVG

AVG

Creating Smart Homes for Today – and Tomorrow

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Need some help imagining what a smart connected home could look like? American retail giant Target recently installed and opened it’s own version in downtown San Francisco’s Metreon center. Its 3,500 square-foot model home is a transparent acrylic house with rooms decorated with acrylic furniture and outfitted with the latest smart connected home products. Target’s “Open House”, as it is called, and store offers both consumers and the curious a way to view and experience smart living.

Interestingly enough, you can’t really call the installation a “home of the future”, because all of the products on display, with the exception of one, are available today!

Walking through the rooms, guests experience vignettes that demonstrate the ways these multiple smart connected devices can work together to create helpful real-life solutions today. Here are a few sample scenarios:

  • The baby wakes up early crying in the nursery: The Mimo baby monitor ($199.99) alerts your phone and soothing music automatically begins piping in from Sonos speakers until you can get there. Soft Hue lights ($199.99 three-pack) gently go on. The Nest Cam ($199) gives you a good view of Junior in distress. The Nest thermostat adjusts for the morning temp. Meanwhile Wemo turns off the humidifier and turns on your coffee pot in the kitchen.
  • In the kitchen: Coffee Smart Optimal Brew ($149.99) is ready and you prepare for a long day by putting on a CrockPot Smart Slow Cooker ($129.99) meal that you can monitor from the office. Your Drop app and kitchen scale ($99.95) gives you the recipe and measures the exact ingredients needed. Meanwhile, your Petnet ($149.99) pet feeder is set to automatically feed the dog just the right amount of food for lunch.
  • In the master bedroom that evening: After weighing in and taking your blood pressure with Withings devices, you’re ready for sleep. Your Jawbone Up3 ($149.99) wearable, after monitoring your activity all day, is now ready to track your ZZZs. Once the Hue lights go off, August Smart Lock ($249.99) automatically locks up. All is well… until a midnight storm rolls through and Quirky alerts you to a leak in the garage…

Most of us are familiar with Nest, which is one of 50 vendors on display. But it is truly pretty amazing to see just how many other smart products are out there – and capable of working together to provide useful solutions in the home today.

Still, the smart home of today is pretty much in the domain of early adopters. While this is changing, for most of us (even in Silicon Valley) it is happening one device at a time. This was reinforced at a recent panel discussion on “The Connected & Smart Home: What It Can Be and How Will We Get There” hosted by the Churchill Club in San Jose, California.

Target Smart Home

 

So, Target’s idea is really a smart one (no pun intended), because the model helps to demystify connected home products and inspire guests just like me to explore the world of connected home living. Target says it also plans to learn from Open House. Both Target and its partners are getting real-time feedback from the real consumers interacting with their products.

To be sure, there is still a lot that needs to be figured out about the future of the smart connected home by the industry and consumers alike. The industry vision is that all our smart connected devices (that make sense) can be controlled remotely, easily talk to each other (in industry speak “are interoperable”), and provide data that can be analyzed and acted upon and protected, for the betterment our lives.

That there is a lot of work to be done, particularly on interoperability and the data analysis and security front, was also reinforced by the Churchill Club panel that featured some of the top experts in the field from Nest, Intel, Qualcomm, Forrester Research and Accenture.

Today, security is a chief concern to people adopting smart home technology. That’s security as in “home security.” But as we all see more smart connected devices coming into our homes and realize the data is flowing—not only in our homes, but outside of them, data security is only going to become increasingly important to all of us.

Target’s Open House underscores just how fast the future is coming and the need to be ready for it. Hopefully, this will not only be a great starting point to get more consumers interested in the concept of the smart home, but will also get them engaged and thinking ahead about the need to secure all that data being generated in our smart connected homes now and in the future.

AVG

Parents, have you signed a school digital policy?

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When your child starts school in the next few weeks, they may be taking a laptop, tablet or phone to school so that they can access work and content to assist with their education. As parents, we assume that our kids will behave responsibly and obey school rules for online activity.

Most parents have had to sign a school digital policy, detailing exactly what “acceptable behavior” looks like, but how many of us really read the ‘acceptable usage policy’ before we signed it?

I recently had a conversation like this with a colleague here at AVG. They stated that they had signed no such policy and had no clue what I was talking about. Sure enough, a few days later they confirmed that they had signed it and did not read or know it even existed. We assume that all the signatures are for things we fully understand; after all, we went to school, how different can it be?

 

Check the school policy

Take a look at the policy from Virginia Minnesota Public Schools, in section XI – C, it states ’must be read and signed by the user, the parent or guardian, and the supervising teacher’. I bet the majority of parents signing this never read it and probably don’t even remember signing it.

It’s important that when we send our kids to school with gadgets, that we respect the school rules on devices and usage. My own son went to a school in the Bay Area that even stipulated a minimum specification for the machine, processor, memory etc.

 

Purchasing a device

As a basic principal, I think its accepted that laptops are productivity devices and tablets are content consumption devices. This is of course changing, as more tablets appear with keyboards and are becoming a hybrid of the two.

When we purchased my son’s laptop, I made sure it was robust ( in fact it has a metal case rather than plastic!) and on advice of the AVG IT department I purchased accidental breakage insurance for the laptop. Sure enough, they were right and we are already on the second one!

The school my son attends has strict rules on laptop use. A teacher needs to give permission for devices to be used in a classroom and there are penalties for use without permission. I like this structure. I watch my son doing homework and gone are the days when the homework needs to be carried back to school. Electronic delivery straight back to the teacher and a log system that shows submission dates and overdue work makes school life very different from my school days.

 

If in doubt, check

What I am keen to learn about is how school policies stand up to wearable devices. For example, take a smartwatch that allows texting, reading emails and some basic app functionality. Can a child wear this in class and look at their watch during a lesson? I think this makes policing device use challenging for educators as technology moves to devices that are less obvious and wearable by the user.

Be sure that when running to the shop to get your kids new devices this summer that you connect with the school and ensure what you are buying fits with both their recommendation and also that you understand the usage policy and can re-enforce this with your kids.

AVG

Unicorns: Perhaps Not As Rare As We Thought

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So what’s a Unicorn? Here’s the study’s definition: “Many entrepreneurs, and the venture investors who back them, seek to build big, impactful companies valued at a billion dollars or more. We called these companies ‘unicorns’ because what they had achieved seemed very difficult, rare, and relatively unstudied.”

The latest study, the second by the venerable tech startup news site, has some surprises, as well as corroborates what has become conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley.

There’s a lot of data to chew on in the study and you can read the full post here. But parsing through it, there is a lot to learn, whether you’re a start-up, an investor, or just curious about markets.

Here are some of the interesting takeaways that I gleaned.

First, the surprising:

 

Unicorns are not as rare as we thought

The latest study revels that there are more Unicorns than one might think. There were 84 companies profiled in this year’s study—more than a 100% increase from last year. Granted, a lot of the companies were “paper” Unicorns (companies valued on paper that have not had liquidity events.) But the total value of the companies was $327 Billion and 2.4x the last analysis (“excluding Facebook, which was almost half the value of our last list.”)

 

Old is the “New” New

As the study maintains, for every wunderkind out there, a seasoned leader or founder (and, perhaps more importantly, a co-founder) may be your best shot at becoming, or finding, a Unicorn.

The study found that companies with educated, tech-experienced, older co-founding teams with a history together have built the most successes in this rarified club. And the co-founding aspect was interesting as well. As the study noted, 86% of the companies had co-founders, or a “super-majority” according to its lingo.

While some of this may be counter-intuitive to the traditional Silicon Valley narrative, it makes sense to me on several levels. An experienced leader can gauge a market, and having a co-founder gives you a chance to bounce ideas off one another, whether it’s reigning in your partner or just having “green-light” time. (I’ve had co-founders in all three of my entrepreneurial ventures.)

 

In the not so surprising camp:

 

IoT is gaining impact

This year, the Unicorn study recognized the Consumer Electronics/Internet of Things as its own category. According to the study, five companies, which make up 6% of the list, have raised a combined $266 million on average and are valued at 18x the private capital raised. While it is the smallest of the categories (after E-Commerce, SaaS, Enterprise and “Audience” or ad-driven businesses– ranked by order of value from first to last), to me, this is just another sign that the Internet of Things is ripe for takeoff.

 

Diversity: Still too Little

This last survey statistic from the study that I’ll share is in diversity, where the numbers fall into the not-so-surprising camp.

While the study determined that 50% of founders or co-founders of Unicorns came from outside the U.S. (from India to Canada) it shows diversity among Unicorns diversity is trending up, but is still low. TechCrunch reports this year the list welcomed two companies with female leaders, compared to no female CEOs on its last list. As well 10% of the co-founders on this year’s list were female, double last year’s survey. Like its average startups counterparts in the valley, 70% of the companies surveyed had no gender diversity at the board level… Please note: the study was unable to track racial or ethnic diversity.

So in terms of diversity, this “rarest of the rare” breed of venture backed tech companies are doing about the same as run of the mill startups and tech companies in Silicon Valley.

Ultimately, when I look at this study, however, I am an encouraged to see that attributes like experience, collaboration, and inclusion, as well as innovation, are being called out as measures of success. These are all values worthy of attention, whether you aspire to be a Unicorn or not.

 

Title image courtesy of TechCrunch

AVG

Camp Google: Inspiring Kids to go Outside

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Do you remember your mother or grandmother saying, “It’s a beautiful summer day…what are you doing inside?” Well, online giant Google has heard that message, and wants young children to get offline too, with the help of its Camp Google.

Are the young children in your life starting to act a little restless as we enter the dog days of summer? Although school seems to start earlier than ever, we all know that feeling when waning summer days seem to stretch out longer and longer…Just in time, Google has launched its online summer camp (on July 13), starting with a bevy of science and tech themed adventures. The first was called Ocean Week. This week at camp is Space Week.

I know we’ve written a lot on the topic of kids online, and most of us are worried about the next generation being too connected—and mobile devices turning them into bigger couch potatoes than the previous generation. While it may sound counter-intuitive, Camp Google seems like a great strategy to get that generation (ages 7-10) excited about life and get them out of doors.

The camp explores the outdoors, science, and technology. You don’t even need a Google account to sign up. As Google says, “Camp Google is designed to get kids outside exploring and experimenting with fun science activities.”

And did I mention the camp is free? Sign me up!

There are activities that even sound fun to me: Creating a magnifying glass to explore your backyard? Building crystals? Making a constellation for your bedroom? A levitation device for Space Week?

For budding chefs out there, the current Google Camp Space Week also allows them to participate in a cook off between two junior chefs competing to create a signature dish for astronauts in space. Kids will get a front row seat for all the fun and learn about how space food is made and what’s needed to survive in space.

Exploring a volcano? Google’s got that too, coming July 29t, and with an online escort by a National Park Ranger. Miss a week of camp for a real vacation? Content is there for you to experience the camp after the designated week.

The engineers at Google worked with prestigious educational organizations like Khan Academy and with content experts such as National Geographic Kids, NASA and the National Park Service to develop the excellent content that will get kids to see the potential science has.

The directions and lessons are fun, simple to understand and motivating.

All activities list supplies required (usually basic household items) and also specify when parental supervision that is required as well. With this camp, there are even completion badges too.

To me it seems like the perfect mix of technology and outside awareness with content and interactive engagement really designed to inspire the next generation to pursue science and technology.

I also would like to point out that it seems like a great way to encourage young girls to learn about and explore science and technology in a non-threatening and fun way.

Empowerment, engagement, and exercise…Good job Google!

AVG

Introducing the new Facebook Security Checkup

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Earlier in August, the world’s largest social networking site, Facebook, unveiled their new Security Checkup feature.

The aim is to create a series of simple tools that help users control which devices are logged into Facebook, receive alerts when new devices log in and tips on creating a strong password.

Video

Facebook Security Checkup

 

Let’s take a look in more detail:

 

Log out of unused apps:

If you have multiple devices linked to your Facebook account, you may be surprised to see just how many apps have access to your account. Closely monitoring which apps have access to your account is a great way to help protect your account security and the privacy of your personal information.

It’s worth remembering that apps that have access to your Facebook account also have access to a lot of your personal information. Be selective about which apps you allow.

 

Login Alerts:

Setting up login alerts is a great way to help you manage access to your Facebook account. Used in conjunction with other security features such as Two-Factor Authentication, login alerts make it very difficult for any unauthorized party to gain access to your account. I’d highly recommend implementing both this and Facebook’s Login Approvals.

 

Password strength tips:

The final tool in the Security Checkup is some advice both for creating a strong password and also password safety advice.

The advice recommends using a password unique to Facebook, never sharing your password and avoiding dictionary or identifying words.

Your password is one of the most important parts of keeping all your online accounts safe, for more information on creating a strong, unique password that’s easy to remember, check out this infographic below.

 

Making a strong password