Friday Funday . . .

IS THE FOURTH SCREEN REALLY A SCREEN AT ALL?:  When you hear the term “Third Screen” you think smartphones and mobile devices, right?  That’s been the standard definition for the past decade.  But what about the next gen “Fourth Screen”?  One thoughtful definition has been put forth by Pandora CRO John Trimble in the attached Recode article.  According to Mr. Trimble the Fourth Screen is the ever-growing array of IoT connected devices which will define tomorrow’s connected homes, connected cars, etc..  One important differentiator between Third and Fourth Screen technology is the growing importance of auditory communication over visual interaction.  Today you don’t use a keyboard to type into a smart speaker, you just give a voice command which the device’s AI interprets.  Tomorrow you won’t even read the instruments on your car’s dashboard as you drive along, you’ll just tell your Cruise AV where you want to go and it will do the rest.  So in an ironic way tomorrow’s Fourth Screen might not be a screen at all.  Worth thinking about . . .

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT RIDESHARING COULDN’T GET ANY CREEPIER:  It looks like a God View 2.0 scandal could be breaking at Lyft.  For the uneducated, God View was Uber’s controversial data platform that allowed staffers to match personal data with rideshare usage history.  When the program was exposed in 2014 Uber promptly shut it down.  You’d think Lyft would have learned a valuable lesson from its competitor on the importance of managing sensitive data, but apparently they didn’t.  According to Tech Crunch in the attached link, Lyft has been letting staffers access rideshare data which can easily be “unmasked” to show the riders’ personal data.  Yes, there are legitimate uses for this, like if you lose an item in a Lyft car and need to track down the driver.  But how about something more nefarious, like the disgruntled lover working at Lyft who could track their ex’s pick-ups/drop-offs.  Besides the obvious PR problem for Lyft, this brings up a larger data management concern for our industry.  As tech advances allow us to collect more and more individual-level data, we need to develop safeguards to keep that data secure.  I think Lyft is going to figure that out the hard way.

FACEBOOK AT THE TIPPING POINT:  To send you into the weekend I’d like to share a provocative Vanity Fair article about Mark Zuckerberg and the crossroads Facebook now finds itself at.  It chronicles the rise of FB from a budding social platform to a global tech powerhouse by using a take-no-prisoners approach to business, complete with bullying and idea stealing.  While looking back on FB’s history is interesting, the real guts of the article are in the back half.  The author calls out FB’s pivot from doing what’s right for the user (and even mankind), to doing what’s right for Wall Street.  The emphasis on the latter has created a manipulative algorithm that literally addicts users who devote their time and attention, but only get sponsored blabber, feelings of inadequacy, and even depression in return.  I know that sounds pretty extreme but it’s that poignant of an article.  It’s a longer read so maybe save it for some quiet time this weekend.  And special thanks to Pandora’s Hunter Bradford for digging this one up.

Have a great Friday (and weekend) guys!

44 thoughts on “Friday Funday . . .

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