Important headlines for February 13th
Bottom Line: These are stories you don't want to miss and my hot takes on them...
Excerpt: Criminals, like the rest of us, conduct a lot of business on cellphones — personal hand-held devices that have fast become primary targets for law enforcement. But accessing the information in them isn’t as easy as a detective asking Siri to spill what’s inside.
Miami’s police force, which purchased the software a little over a year ago, is the latest South Florida police department to join the growing wave of cellphone spyware users. Miami-Dade, the largest police department in the southeast U.S., has had such devices for more than a decade, but has purchased several newer versions, the latest last August.
There are technical barriers as well as complicated and unresolved legal questions and civil rights concerns before police can begin digging through a suspect’s cellphone data.
In the face of those challenges, police departments around the country have increasingly turned to what some critics have dubbed cellphone spyware. It’s a device with software that when attached to a cellphone can extract and store contacts, pictures, GPS locations and frequented social media sites — information that can potentially help make criminal cases.
Law enforcement agencies stress that there are strict laws that limit how they can employ cellphone spyware. They can’t just suck out the data from a suspect via Bluetooth or Wifi, for instance. They’ve got to seize it first. And police insist they don’t use the system without the consent of an owner or without a search warrant.
Hot Take: The key is the last line (insist they don't use the system without consent or a warrant). This is where cynicism sets in. Is it possible that our local police departments are telling the truth? Wouldn't it make sense that being able to recover information from mobile devices could be highly valuable when warrants have been attained? At the same time - yes, this technology in the wrong hands obviously could create issues. I believe that generally our police should be given the benefit of the doubt unless there's evidence to the contrary. In today's charged environment that's likely not going to be universal so don't be surprised to hear about challenges to the use of this technology in SFL.
Excerpt: Facebook is losing young users even quicker than expected, according to new estimates by eMarketer.
The reality: The number of U.S. Facebook users in the 12- to 17-year-old demographic declined by 9.9 percent in 2017, eMarketer found, or about 1.4 million total users. That’s almost three times the decline expected. There were roughly 12.1 million U.S. Facebook users in the 12- to 17-year-old demographic by the end of the year.
There are likely multiple reasons for the decline. Facebook has been losing its “cool” factor for years, and young people have more options than ever for staying in touch with friends and family. Facebook’s service also serves as a digital record keeper — but many young people don’t seem to care about saving their life online, at least not publicly. That explains why Snapchat and Instagram, which offer popular features for sharing photos and videos that disappear, are growing in popularity among this demographic.
Hot Take: It's not surprising for any number of reasons. Politics, feed changes, increased advertising all which have chipped away at the experience with users but the most obvious was the platform itself. Why was MySpace a flash in the pan? It was the first social platform of size that was a trend outdone by Facebook. Here's the next question. How many youthful trends have held up overtime? How many companies that were the coolest in 70's, 80's & 90's are still the coolest today? How many are even still in business? For these reasons Facebook is quickly becoming a platform for more established adults. As the ReCode story suggests another 2.1 million people under 25 are expected to drop the platform.
Outside of Facebook the implications are most notable to businesses. If you've leveraged your business to the platform - you've probably already noticed issues with some of the recent changes (Facebook recently disclosed much less engagement/time spent with the platform).
Until tomorrow...