FTC Confirms Facebook Data Security Investigation

The Federal Trade Commission has confirmed that it is conducting a non-public investigation of Facebook regarding Cambridge Analytica's use of its data. Just over a week ago, a number of reports detailed how Cambridge Analytica obtained Facebook profile information on over 50 million Facebook users through a researcher that collected the data with an app. Since then, the company has faced hard inquiries from a number of groups including Congress and the UK Parliament. Shareholders, Facebook users, and states have also filed a handful of class action lawsuits against the company while state attorneys general have opened their own probes as well. (engadget.com, 3/26/18)
Meanwhile, CNNMoney reports that Mark Zuckerberg has decided he will testify before Congress, according to Facebook sources. The sources believe Zuckerberg's willingness to testify will also put pressure on Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to do the same. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has officially invited all three CEOs to a hearing on data privacy on April 10. (money.cnn.com, 3/27/18)

Calif Consumer Privacy Act: Huge Data Battle Includes Tech Giants

The California Consumer Privacy Act is a grassroots initiative funded by business, legal, and political groups working to educate voters about the risks of their sensitive data being sold by corporations. It also aims to change the law, giving consumers whose data has been stolen, more legal protections. Representatives from the Act aim to get the initiative on the ballot in November. The group must submit approximately 365,000 valid signatures by the end of April to officially qualify for the November ballot. If enough valid signatures are collected, the initiative will need 50%+1 to pass in November. The initiative would do a number of things: *Give consumers the right to find out if their information is being sold and to whom, plus the right to prevent businesses from selling personal information. *Prohibit businesses from discriminating against consumers who exercise these rights. *Allow consumers to sue businesses if data is stolen, and even if consumer cannot prove injury. *Apply to online and brick-and-mortar businesses alike. *Cost to enforce these measures would be offset from penalty revenue. (ivn.us, 2/26/18)
Meanwhile, according to a recent Sacramento Bee article, Google, Facebook, AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast have contributed $200,000 each to a campaign finance committee opposing the California Consumer Privacy Act since mid-February. Initiative proponents expect the Internet behemoths will eventually pour in over $100 million to try to stop the measure from passing. Steve Maviglio, spokesperson for a coalition opposing the measure that includes the California Chamber of Commerce, Technet, and the Internet Association, said the proposal is flawed. His group, the Committee to Protect California Jobs, plans to make the case that it will lead major companies to flee California. (sacbee.com, 3/23/18)

Calif Wants to Govern Bots, Police User Privacy on Social Media

California legislator Rep. Marc Levine, D-District 10 has introduced legislation that will force social media sites to protect users from bots and create a state privacy agency to regulate and protect consumers' online information. A social media bot or chatterbot is a computer program that engages with users' conversation via text. The programs are designed to simulate how a human would behave in a discussion and are frequently mistaken for real people. In January, Levine introduced AB 1950, a bill that would require social media sites to identify and verify all social media advertising purchases to be linked to verifiable humans. In February, Levine also introduced AB 2182, designed to protect users from social media companies taking ownership of a user's social media material, and other vital data that is held by companies. The bill would create the California Data Protection Authority and oversee Californians' personal data on the Internet, including their names, social security and driver's license numbers, financial account data, medical data, and email addresses. According to Levine, key questions must be answered: "Who owns your data? Once you decide to leave Facebook, do you still want your information to continue (in perpetuity)?" The bill would create an agency or privacy czar that would oversee the actions of Internet companies and hold them responsible for data breaches and other actions.
Levine's legislation was inspired by the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect in late March. The GDPR forces companies to erase a user's identity upon request. It also requires that social media companies explicitly state what users agree to when they sign a consent to participate in the social media platform. The rule also addresses data breaches. In the case of a breach, the GDPR calls for users to be notified within 72 hours when personal and sensitive information has been released, and it also allows for an independent authority to monitor complaints and violation of the rule. The independent regulator could charge and fine those companies that have violated the law. (govtech.com, 2/23/18)
Meanwhile, a recent Los Angeles Times article - Silicon Valley played by a different set of rules. Facebook's crisis could put an end to that - reports that, federally, there are calls to eliminate "safe harbor" for platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook so that they be regulated like media companies. Other ideas include turning Google into a public utility like its counterparts in the telecommunications sector. And Amazon is forcing new ways of thinking about monopolistic powers beyond just consumer prices. One recent sign that Washington is willing to take on the industry occurred last week when the Senate overwhelmingly passed the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, which penalizes sites that facilitate prostitution. Silicon Valley opposed the law, fearing it was a slippery slope that would make tech companies liable for content. Already, Craigslist has removed its personals section, and Reddit said it would ban certain transactions. (latimes.com, 3/23/18)

Pentagon Wants Tech Industry's Help on Artificial Intelligence

Robert O. Work, a former deputy secretary of defense, recently announced that he is teaming up with the Center for a New American Security, an influential Washington think tank that specializes in national security, to create a task force of former government officials, academics, and representatives from private industry - with a goal to explore how the federal government should embrace artificial intelligence technology and work better with tech companies and other organizations. There is a growing sense of urgency to the question of what the U.S. is doing in AI. China has vowed to become the world's leader in AI by 2030, committing billions of dollars to the effort. The Pentagon needs help on AI from Silicon Valley because that's where the talent is. The tech industry's biggest companies have been hoarding AI expertise, sometimes offering multimillion-dollar pay packages that the government could never hope to match. Google illustrates the challenges that big internet companies face in working more closely with the Pentagon: Recently, two news outlets revealed that the Defense Department had been working with Google in developing AI technology that can analyze aerial footage captured by flying drones, and some employees were angered that the company was contributing to military work. Google runs two of the best AI research labs in the world - Google Brain in California and DeepMind in London. Top researchers inside both labs have expressed concern over the use of AI by the military. When Google acquired DeepMind, the company agreed to set up an internal board that would help ensure that the lab's technology was used in an ethical way. And one of the lab's founders, Demis Hassabis, has explicitly said its AI would not be used for military purposes. Google said it was working with the Defense Department to build technology for "non-offensive uses only." (nytimes.com, 3/15/18)

U.S. and China: A "Technology Cold War That's Freezing Over"

The New York Times reports that recent tit-for-tat trade actions could deepen what has become a global contest for technological dominance between the United States and China, home to the planet's largest population of internet users and a flourishing community of start-ups and innovative companies. The Trump administration last week accused Beijing of stealing valuable technological know-how from American companies as it proposed tariffs on $60 billion in Chinese goods and curbs on Chinese investments. China responded with its own set of penalties aimed at American products. The world's two biggest economies have each become increasingly protective of their own leading-edge industries, and mistrustful of the other's.
Both sides have been putting up defensive walls for years. To stay in business in China, Apple has had to set up a data center there to store Chinese customers' personal information. Amazon recently had to sell equipment to its Chinese cloud services partner to comply with new Chinese rules. Facebook and Twitter are blocked in the country; newer American players, such as Snap, are not even trying to enter anymore. In the U.S., regulators have repeatedly thwarted attempts by Chinese tech groups to acquire American firms. And espionage concerns have for years kept Huawei, one of the world's biggest suppliers of telecom gear, and a powerhouse of China's tech scene, largely out of the American market. The Trump administration says it wants to level the playing field, dishing out to Chinese companies the kind of treatment that American ones have been receiving in China for some time. (nytimes.com, 3/23/18)

Massive Biobank of Patient Data: Promising & Challenging

This spring, the National Institutes of Health will start recruiting participants for one of the most ambitious medical projects ever envisioned. The goal is to find 1 million people in the U.S., from all walks of life and all racial and ethnic groups, who are willing to have their genomes sequenced, and to provide their medical records and regular blood samples. They may choose to wear devices that continuously monitor physical activity, perhaps even devices not yet developed that will track heart rate and blood pressure. They will fill out surveys about what they eat and how much. If all goes well, experts say, the result will be a trove of health information like nothing the world has seen. The project, called the All of Us Research Program, should provide new insights into who gets sick and why, and how to prevent and treat chronic diseases. The All of Us program joins a wave of similar efforts to construct gigantic "biobanks" by, among others, the Department of Veterans Affairs, a British collaboration, and private companies like Geisinger Health Systems and Kaiser Permanente. But All of Us is the only one that attempts to capture a huge sample that is representative of the U.S. population. The diversity of participants makes the daunting task of retrieving medical records even more difficult - Americans tend to have medical records stored slapdash all over the place, and they change insurers and medical plans frequently. There is little uniformity in the country's electronic health systems. Meanwhile, even the most straightforward part of the project - DNA sequencing - is formidable, as there are not enough sequencing machines in the U.S. to serve even just this project. All of Us will depend on more sequencers being built, and prices falling for sequencing. (phillytrib.com, 3/20/18)

Catasys Launches Enrollment of OnTrak-H in 16 States

Catasys, Inc. has launched enrollment of its OnTrak-H solution with a leading national health plan partner. Eligible Commercial members in 16 states will now be able to take advantage of this integrated 52-week program that identifies, engages, and treats members with untreated behavioral health conditions and high medical costs. As part of this deployment, Catasys will integrate new artificial intelligence capabilities to identify those who are suffering from substance use disorders even if they have not yet been diagnosed. These expanded machine learning/ AI capabilities are expected to meaningfully expand the number of eligible members. (Rick Anderson, West Los Angeles)

Cornerstone OnDemand Identifies 5 Important Team Skills

The Entrepreneur article - The Future of Work Relies on Your Developing These 5 Team Skills - highlights a recent report from Cornerstone OnDemand and the Institute for the Future, which identifies five "super skills" that will "groom people for just about anything." By super skills, the organizations meant workplace training and experiences that will allow employees to adapt and succeed, no matter what the future brings. In summary, leaders who want to be forward-thinking should make sure their employees: 1.) Get credit: Provide acknowledgement for every skill they build and develop. 2.) Upgrade their digital fluency: Find new ways to utilize new technologies. 3.) Connect the dots: Create teams that include employees from all parts of the organization. 4.) Improve their multi-cultural dexterity: Value employees for their unique points of view. 5.) Grow a caring core: Develop empathetic employees via leading by example. (Adam Miller, West Los Angeles)

Decision Toolbox Has Become Engage2Excel Recruitment Solutions

Decision Toolbox has unified branding with its parent company, Engage2Excel, and is now known as Engage2Excel Recruitment Solutions. This provides a more seamless experience for customers as they attract, hire, motivate, and retain highly engaged employees. Engage2Excel acquired Decision Toolbox in December 2016 to complement its range of HR solutions for employee recognition and surveys and to significantly expand the capabilities of its Talent Acquisition division. Meanwhile, the results of a recent survey report from Trendicators, the research division of Engage2Excel, include: •81% of employees believe that performance recognition programs are effective, and 89% believe that they increase engagement. •Employees who work for employers with performance recognition programs are twice as likely to recommend their organization as a great place to work. •Significant gaps exist between what employees want and what employers offer in today's performance recognition programs. The greatest disparities exist in an employee's ability to accumulate points, have a choice of awards, and receive points for health and wellness activities. (Kim Shepherd, West Los Angeles)

GetVisible Tackles Google's Latest Core Algorithm Update

Jason Ciment, CEO of GetVisible, has taken particular note of a recent Google confirmation of an update to their core algorithm. Google acknowledged that, as a result, some websites may see drops or gains, and said there's no "fix" for pages that may perform less well. However, Jason disagrees and offers some practical advice based on what his team has learned in recent private discussions with peers in the SEO world: •Google is looking at the nature of your content differently. If you are familiar with the "answer box" that shows up in rankings results pages, you should now begin to focus on giving your viewers answers to questions. Solve problems for them. Don't just say "I practice personal injury law" and go on about how great you are. Put some practical questions into your practice areas content and provide answers and set expectations. •Check your page loading speed. Go to www.GtMetrix.com and test your site. If you get a low score, talk to your website developers. •Regarding blogging, create 2,000-word deeply informative posts, not 500-word scratching-the-surface regurgitations. For this, you'll need some more intensive keyword research. (Jason Ciment, Los Angeles)

Mentor's Tanner EDA Partners with VPIphotonics

Mentor, a Siemens business, announced that its Tanner EDA group is partnering with VPIphotonics to deliver dynamic and cost-effective design and analysis solutions for companies developing devices for the emerging silicon photonics market. Silicon photonics brings fiber optics directly into ICs for speed-of-light wired communication infrastructure and computing applications, as well as for more affordable LiDAR systems, which is seen as an essential step for the mass deployment of the autonomous vehicle market. Through this partnership, Mentor is leveraging VPIphotonics' 20+ years of photonic simulation for active/passive/hybrid integrated circuits and systems. The collaboration places unique capabilities in the hands of the designers of complex optoelectronic and photonic integrated circuits and systems. (Greg Lebsack, West Los Angeles)

myKaarma Unveils SmartAssist AI Tool & New App Feature

myKaarma, a software company that helps auto dealerships communicate better with their customers at every stage of the service process, has released a new artificial intelligence tool, SmartAssist, which acts as a personal assistant for service advisors, researching and providing answers to customer questions, providing information on previous recalls, and assisting in setting appointments. SmartAssist speeds up communication with customers, enables the service advisor to quickly move on to the next customer without missing anything, and improves the overall customer experience and service department profitability. Also, myKaarma has debuted a new app feature that enables simple video walkarounds for auto dealer service departments, in order to record any damage to a vehicle, speed up the check-in process, virtually eliminate damage claims, and increase upsell opportunities. (Ujj Nath, West Los Angeles)

PeopleG2 Offers Common Sense Approach to Company Culture

A recent review of The Power of Company Culture, the new book by Chris Dyer, CEO of PeopleG2, hails Chris's tactical steps that you can take to drive your company culture and deliver bottom-line success, including transparency, positivity, measurement, acknowledgement, uniqueness, listening, and mistakes. Meanwhile, Chris has penned several recent articles, including Are You Listening? How To Practice Meaningful Listening At Work, for Female First; Too Much Control, for Thrive Global; and Culture in Staffing: Taming the Three-Headed Beast, for Avionte. (Chris Dyer, Downtown Los Angeles)

Sidebench to Host "DesignHack" for OpenIDEO

On March 31, OpenIDEO will present a design-a-thon at Sidebench, for the Nike Circular Innovation Challenge, using circular design and Nike Grind materials. Over the course of the day, event leaders will facilitate exercises around the different stages of the design thinking process, ideation, prototyping, and testing, aimed at rethinking our relationship to product waste, designing for social impact, and learning more about human-centered design. (Kevin Yamazaki, West Los Angeles)

TechMedics Announces Casino Royale Networking Event

On the evening of May 19, TechMedics will present a Casino Royale Cyber Security Networking Event in downtown Los Angeles, featuring drinks, hors d'oeuvres, casino games, and prizes. Each ticket includes $1,000 in playing chips. "You must defeat our evil hacker dealers in a high stakes game of your choice," TechMedics declares, and "your next mission is to take as much cyber security knowledge back with you as you can." (James Moon, Downtown Los Angeles)

Water Planet Hailed as Solution by TD Ameritrade

In the article, Three Big Problems Companies Are Trying to Solve With AI, TD Ameritrade spotlights "Clean Water: Filtering and Infrastructure" and specifically points to Water Planet, a manufacturer of industrial water filtration systems and control technology, which "has also developed artificial intelligence to improve access to clean water. Water Planet has created software that analyzes data from a large number of sensors. They combine this data with historical information to determine protocols for keeping the filters clear and clean. When the water filtration system is not running optimally, it alerts the operators and provides instructions on what steps need to be taken to improve operations." (Eric Hoek, Downtown Los Angeles, & Subir Bhattacharjee, Orange County)

Dave Berkus on: Board Members' Time & D&O Insurance

In How about your board members' time commitments?, Dave says that early-stage boards usually meet once a month for two to four hours, and in addition, most all board members freely receive phone calls and emails from the CEO during the month, all considered part of service. There are also times when board members are called upon to give extraordinary time to the corporation, such as interviewing candidates, strategic planning, recovery from a cash flow crisis, or other urgent issues. Most often these are freely given by board members. Overall, the CEO needs to make expectations clear and be sure there is agreement about these expectations. And, in I won't serve on a board without D&O insurance!, Dave acknowledges that whenever there are outside shareholders or note holders, or unhappy employees, and when there is a product in release, there is a chance of a lawsuit against members of the board, as well as against the corporation itself. Directors and Officers insurance is meant to reduce that risk and provide for the legal defense of any such suit at the expense of the insurance company. (Dave Berkus, Downtown & West Los Angeles)

Express Analytics on: Marketers Use of Mobile Data Analytics

In How Digital Marketers Can Conquer The Mobile Data Analytics Challenge, Express Analytics (EA) shares the results of an Adobe report that found marketers are still lagging behind IT teams in the use of mobile analytics. Yet, Google and other search engines have started making mobile websites a priority, as consumers are spending more time on mobile, and less time on everything else. From 2016 to 2017, time spent per day on mobile had reportedly increased by seven minutes, reaching a total 3 hours and 15 minutes per day. In the same period, time spent on desktop decreased by one minute and TV viewing decreased by five minutes. Therefore, a complete mobile measurement framework needs to address the impact on the business and the customer as well as provide insight into operational and efficiency metrics for optimization. One way to do this is to use KPIs that answer key mobile marketing questions such as what is mobile marketing's impact on the business and on the customer experience. (Hemant Warudkar, Orange County)

Intellect on: Purpose of Document Control

In The Effects of Document Control on Certain Industries and Risk Management, Intellect explains that the purpose of document control is to enforce controlled processes and practices in industries where there is a need to create, review, modify, issue, distribute, and access documents. Document control ensures critical data is indexed and searchable, helps reduce errors in documentation, and allows automation of tasks. Document control applies to any business as it ensures efficiency, reliability, traceability, performance, quality, and safety. It's also a requirement from the ISO 9001 international standard which improves your market entry chances and gains your business a decisive competitive advantage. Meanwhile, on March 29, from 11 a.m. to noon, Intellect will present a webinar - Doc Control that Optimizes Your Business. (Romeo Elias, West Los Angeles)

Taylor Digital on: Teamwork

Taylor Digital (TD) celebrated the recent Digital Agency Day with several videotaped panel discussions, comprised of company members who sought to provide insight on what TD is all about. Questions included: *What happens when you get left-brained and right-brained people in a room and need them to problem solve for an out-of-the-box solution? *Why do we choose to work in the digital world? *What TD company value do we see actually lived out, time and again? *Collaboration is key - what do we mean by that? (Randy Taylor, Orange County)

Alvaka Networks Bolsters Cybersecurity Via Sessions & Blog

Upcoming Lunch & Learn sessions from Alvaka Networks include Meltdown & Spectre: Software Updates, New Firmware, & Lots of Problems, on March 27, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Alvaka's Irvine offices. Meanwhile, in his post, Average Ransomware Attack Infects 16 Workstations, 5 Servers and 22 Users, Alvaka CEO Oli Thordarson reports that data from 2017 shows that 29% of companies with 1,000 to 5,000 employees are getting struck by ransomware. "If companies that size - who presumably have the resources to guard against this scourge - are getting hit, then avoidance does not bode well for smaller firms," Oli notes. (Oli Thordarson, Orange County Healthcare)

AT&T Puts Connected Health Innovation on Display

At the recent HiMMS18 show in Las Vegas, AT&T showcased "some of the coolest, newest solutions" the company is bringing connectivity to in the healthcare space. This includes: the MXD-LTE, from Mytrex Inc., a cloud-based Personal Emergency Response System; the Astute CTR-01, a new LTE CAT M1 cellular health hub by Astute Medical; AED Sentinel, a technology-based remote AED monitoring system by Readiness Systems; and AlertGPS, a leading innovator in connected enterprise safety technology. Also, AT&T and Aira are developing and testing a solution designed to help people who are blind or have low vision better manage their prescription medication. And, Clairvoyant Networks chose AT&T to provide connectivity to its new line of caregiver solutions, and Dictum Health chose AT&T to provide mobile connectivity for its Virtual Exam Room product line. (Judi Manis, Healthcare)

Ceresti Health Proclaimed an Innovator by Inc. Magazine

In the article, How This Tiny Health Startup Wants to Improve the Lives of 5.5 Million Dementia Patients, Inc. magazine spotlights Ceresti Health and its use of technology to relieve the stress associated with in-home care of dementia patients. Article excerpts include: "Ceresti aims to boost caregivers' confidence and skills through digital education, monitoring tools, and human support. The business focuses on dementia patients also living with chronic conditions. (More than a third of dementia patients have coronary artery disease or diabetes, for example.) That's where medical costs are highest. It is also where caregivers with no nursing experience face the gravest challenges, because they are managing the health of people who are unable to express their symptoms. Ceresti is the second act of Dirk Soenksen, whose first company, Aperio, created digital slides used by pathologists to view tissue samples. Soenksen, an engineer by training, raised $50+ million for Aperio and sold it for an undisclosed sum to Leica Biosystems in 2012. . . Ceresti's first pilot is with Landmark Health, a home-based medical care provider that will soon be operating in 10 states. The trial has gone so well that Landmark plans to roll Ceresti's product out to potentially thousands of patients." (Dirk Soenksen, Orange County Healthcare)

Cigna Launches "Answers by Cigna" Skill for Alexa

Cigna is entering the voice control space with the launch of "Answers by Cigna" skill for Amazon Alexa. Cigna is the first global health service company to offer a skill aimed at personalizing and simplifying health benefits information. The new hands-free skill is designed to demystify language about healthcare by providing instant and easy-to-understand answers to 150+ commonly-asked healthcare questions. The Answers by Cigna skill for Alexa is available to everyone in the Amazon Alexa Skills Store or by saying, "Alexa, enable Answers by Cigna." To use it, users can simply ask their health-related questions, like "What's a formulary?" or "What's a premium?" and receive an easy-to-understand response. (Chris De Rosa, Orange County Healthcare)

PsycheAnalytics Accepted Into StartUp Health

Dave Haddick, CEO of PsycheAnalytics, shares that his company has been accepted into StartUp Health, which will give it a significant boost in resources and expertise. StartUp Health is investing in 10 Health Moonshots, with the long-term goal of improving the health and wellbeing of everyone in the world. StartUp Health has the world's largest digital health portfolio (200+ companies worldwide). Dave also shares an article from the California Health Report, which says that over $2.5 billion from the Mental Health Services Act of 2004 (MHSA) that has been distributed to California counties remains unspent. Millions in interest has also accumulated in the county accounts with no way to spend the interest. Mental health services under MHSA include the following spending categories: community support, prevention, innovation, workforce training, and capital facilities; PsycheAnalytics' products qualify for MHSA funding under prevention, innovation, and training. This funding is in addition to Medicaid payments to treat patients with behavioral health needs, which is also far underspent. PsycheAnalytics' first customer is Solano County, one of the first three counties to receive a fiscal audit of its MHSA spending. PsycheAnalytics is pleased with the timing of the report, as they are seeking equity funding and this amount of unspent money "will look like low-hanging fruit to an investor," Dave says. (Dave Haddick, Bay Area Healthcare)

Select Data Provides HIPAA Compliance Checklist

Select Data is offering a downloadable HIPAA Compliance Checklist, to help you self-assess the status of your home care and/or hospice organization's compliance. Also, Select Data is providing access to a live recording from February's Select Connects With Clinicians session, entitled Understanding the HH CAHPS Survey and How it Impacts Your Home Health Agency. (Ed Buckley, Orange County Healthcare, & Ted Schulte, Los Angeles Healthcare)