This week we begin with an article on Google’s decision to eliminate the use of third-party cookies over the following year. Next is a piece on an open-source database that contains information and stories about those who were slaved, owned slaves, or participated in the historical slave trade. The following article is on the importance of harnessing accurate data and enabling data access to financial institutions for growth and economic stability. Following this, we assess China’s role in the recent cyberattack on Microsoft business email software, which claimed tens of thousands of victims globally. Next, we analyse how organizations with a strategic emphasis on data and its business value achieve economic prosperity. To end, we have a video on why central banks across the world are planning to introduce digital currencies.
Google Puts Lid on Cookie Jar and Ends an Internet Era
The cookie is dead. Long live the cookie. Google, the internet search giant, said this week that it’s done tracking us as we skate around the web. It promises that after fully eliminating its use of third-party cookies over the next year, it won’t adopt replacements that essentially do the same thing. That doesn’t mean Google won’t continue scooping up first-party information it collects directly from users when they visit sites and services it controls.
New database tracks data on slaves, slavers, and allies
Vele was 16 when she embarked a slave ship in 1832 at Cameroons River in West Africa. Precillia Cozzens, 35, was registered as a slave in New Orleans in 1846. Domingos, age 6, was listed in an inventory of enslaved people at Aguiar Plantation, Brazil, in 1806. The records of these three are among more than 750,000 people, places, events, and sources available to search in a new open-source database called Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade (Enslaved.org), a repository of information and stories about those who were enslaved or enslavers, worked in the slave trade or helped emancipate enslaved people.
Why Accurate Data is Critical for Economic Stability
The past year has felt similar to the 2008 economic crisis in many ways. Both crises were plagued with widespread unemployment, volatility in financial markets, and business closures. However, if there’s one key difference between the 2008 financial crisis and the current environment, it’s the availability, accuracy and immediacy of data. By harnessing accurate data and ensuring there is open access to credit, banks and financial institutions can not only lessen the burden of the economic downturn but also help the country move toward economic stability and growth.
Microsoft Attack Blamed on China Morphs Into Global Crisis
A sophisticated attack on Microsoft Corp.’s widely used business email software is morphing into a global cybersecurity crisis, as hackers race to infect as many victims as possible before companies can secure their computer systems. The attack, which Microsoft has said started with a Chinese government-backed hacking group, has so far claimed at least 60,000 known victims globally, according to a former senior U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation.
What’s Your Data Really Worth?
Data is the lifeblood of business. It’s what drives customer engagement, boosts employee productivity, streamlines operations, and in some cases, even transforms age-old companies into digital powerhouses. Take, for example, John Deere. The 180-year-old manufacturer of farming equipment is now a data-savvy technology giant whose deep neural networks and computer vision systems help farmers plant crops and apply pesticides with algorithmic accuracy.
Why Central Banks Want To Get Into Digital Currencies
Intense interest in cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, and the Covid-19 pandemic have sparked debate among central banks on whether they should issue digital currencies of their own. Advocates argue that central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, can make cross-border transactions easier, promote financial inclusion, and provide payment system stability. Here’s how central bank digital currencies could become the future of digital finance.
Source: https://mailchi.mp/zigram/data-asset-weekly-dispatch_08_march_3
