A small change

I am removing my post regarding the “Receiving Joy” game. It appears that one of the approved comments is some sort of tag for spam artists. I have received literally hundreds of comments by people pushing drugs, car insurance, and, of course, webcams, most with the suffix “Lit” at the end of their names. You have not seen them because posts on this site are moderated.

“Receiving Joy” will re-appear in a future post. Anyone interested in the meantime, can contact me via the Contact link found at the end of the page.

Thanks & Stay Safe!

Social Media Posts Need a Believability Rating

The Information & Social Media Industry needs to step up to help us differentiate higher quality submissions from poor ones.  Providing a rating for each post will help get us there.

Not all information has the same value. This is something that we all inherently know. However, when it comes to social media it is difficult to differentiate the quality information from the bad. An independent industry association is needed to provide some reference to help us determine the quality of the information we are subjected to every day.

To understand how we might address this chasm on social media, we need to explore how we validate information we receive in our physical lives. Let’s imagine that you are on an elevator and two women are talking. The daughter of the shorter woman in the elevator has an overbite and may need orthodontic treatment, as she is explaining to the taller, blondish woman. The shorter woman heads up a department in your company that you’re interested in and your Aunt is an excellent Orthodontist, so you are now very interested. You listen carefully. You decide to file this piece of information away for an introductory conversation that you might have with the department head in the next few weeks.

Of course, it’s not always that easy to determine the value of the information. In this case, you know who the shorter woman is, and you know that she is an expert on the primary subject of the conversation – her child! You also know that she could be important to your career. Each of these factors make this information valuable and believable, but how? Continue reading “Social Media Posts Need a Believability Rating”

Will Market Forces Drive Change at Equifax?

OK, so the Equifax breach is a big deal. A BIG deal. Nearly half of Americans are affected[1]. Their information (and possibly yours and mine) has been accessed by some entity who is probably up to no good. There’s been hemming and hawing and biting of fingernails, but, other than a fairly precipitous fall in Equifax’ stock price,[2] it’s unclear what penalties Equifax may suffer resulting from its potential mishandling of all of our financial data.

What potential penalties are in the pipeline?

  1. Class Action lawsuits – generally these turn my stomach. I always tend to picture a bunch of too tanned lawyers drinking tropical cocktails in the Caribbean comparing the numbers of persons who have joined their class action the way some overconfident men compare shoe sizes. I know this is likely unfair. However, like many Americans, I worry that we are an overly-litigious society.  There’s another reason I don’t think much of class actions. The companies at fault never seem to learn much. We’ve all received checks in the mail because this bank or this auto manufacturer did something wrong and is making it up to me by sending me a check for $19.47. Whoa, let me pay off the mortgage! Was the problem solved? You tell me. How many of you have received a second check from the same entity a few years later for another infraction?
  2. Government investigations. Several state Attorneys General and government agencies have indicated that they will be investigating the breach and the responses of Equifax, its Board, and “C” suite. These will likely be lengthy goings on and unlikely to result in any near-term change in Equifax’ data security policies and practices. With any luck, necessary policy and practice changes will result from the recommendations of the “independent cybersecurity firm” that Equifax has engaged[3]. Hopefully, these will occur earlier than any government orders or settlements could provide.

Continue reading “Will Market Forces Drive Change at Equifax?”