A Question of Ethics — March 18, 2019

I'm not pulling any punches with the lack of ethics in some tech companies; how CMOs are using A.I.; fixing the robocall problem; the cost of autonomous vehicles is a concern; social video ads need your attention; a social media influencer study worth noting; some conditions in Amazon warehouses are brutal; Facebook's rough week; the hottest chat app for teens is...; the significant podcast statistic hiding in plain sight; the Spotify-Apple battle royale; phone numbers aren't good authentication data points; a new take on the data/oil analogy; your spouse doesn't know you as well as someone else; how museums are rethinking the way they collect art; and more in the A Question of Ethics edition of The Full Monty for the week of March 18, 2019.

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Top Story

"All the world's a stage"

— William Shakespeare (As You Like It)

The world saw the impact of a terrorist unleashed in two mosques in New Zealand late last week. Rather than try to describe the situation in my own words, I'll borrow from The New York Times:

"On Friday, a gunman strapped on a helmet camera, loaded his car with weapons, drove to a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, and began shooting at anyone who came into his line of vision. The act of mass terror was broadcast live for the world to watch on social media."

The original video was removed within the first hour, but by then, the damage was already done. Around the world, people copied and uploaded the horrific video to their own accounts and to additional platforms. And the tech companies had difficulty in taking them all down.

The A.I. that they've developed was too slow in flagging and shutting down violent videos. Some will say, "That's just how A.I. works. It's easier to match to known and expected things." Maybe so. But share a nipple on Instagram or a copyrighted song on YouTube and it'll get yanked immediately. Not to mention that Facebook says it can now detect revenge porn automatically.

The sad reality is this:

Tech companies don't care enough about curbing hate speech and violence. If they did, they'd have made this a priority.

“The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.”

– Albert Schweitzer

Tech companies have engineered a reality in which conspiracy theories and hate are allowed to fester and then go viral, both online and in real life. The power they have unleashed is beyond their comprehension (or at least their expectation). But hate and anger is what fuels the social web. And that drives clicks.

We've long believed that with great power comes great responsibility. And yet Mark Zuckerberg — who has operated Facebook by apology — wants to control the encrypted conversations of nearly a third of the world's population.

At some point, we need to hold such companies to account — not from a regulatory perspective, but from an ethical and human angle. Where is their moral compass?

At this point, their True North seems to be profitability and user growth. They worship at the altar of the golden calf. Sadly, the only way they may pay attention is from an exodus of users and advertisers.

Speaking of exodus, that's the book in the Torah and Old Testament that includes a story about the people worshiping a golden calf while waiting for Moses to return with the Ten Commandments.

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About this week's image: Garrit de Wet painted The Adoration of the Golden Calf in the first half of the 17th century to memorialize the scene described in Exodus in the Torah and the Old Testament, in which Aaron and the Israelites constructed a golden calf to worship while Moses went to Mount Sinai, from which he eventually descended with the Ten Commandments.

Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

The latest in A.I., machine learning, and bots; mobility and autonomous everything.
Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ

We should take care about how we treat A.I. machines today, because you never know if they'll decide to take revenge in the future. (The Conversation) Remember HAL from 2001?
DeepMind and Google aim to dominate A.G.I. — artificial general intelligence. Once they solve for intelligence, they can solve everything else. (1843 Magazine)
How should marketers get started with artificial intelligence? (AI Institute)

CMOs are using A.I. primarily for personalization and predictive analytics. See what else they've got planned. (Marketing Charts) As with any kind of machine learning, the more data you have to work with, the better the system will get.

Robocalls are a growing problem. If only we could make the FCC care a little bit more about fixing it. (Last Week Tonight) Warning: strong language. And strong ideas.

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

In Texas, two Kroger grocery stores are rolling out self-driving delivery vehicles for online orders. (Fox News)
President Trump has privately said that he thinks driverless cars are crazy. (Axios)
Alphabet's self-driving car division, Waymo, has been seeking financing from outside investors such as European automakers like Volkswagen. (Reuters)
If driverless cars are going to change the world, they need to be affordable. (Guardian) As with any cutting-edge technology, early versions are quite expensive. When Henry Ford introduced the Model T and a desire to create transportation for all, it took 10 years to get the price to drop.
The CDC is opening an investigation into e-scooter injuries. "Preliminary observations from the study found that the vast majority of injuries — 98 percent of them — happen to riders who aren't wearing helmets." (Engadget) Just a friendly reminder: if you're using a scooter, please wear a helmet.

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.

Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

Free TV streaming services, like Xumo, Tubi, and Pluto TV, are driving the adoption of digital TV ads. (Axios) All hope is not lost.
March Madness is here. And it's a good time to reflect on how video and mobile can boost sports sponsorships beyond the arena. (Digiday)
Social video ad spending in the U.S. will reach $14.89 billion in 2021, growing 44% from 2019. It will then account for 30.4% of total video ad spending. (eMarketer)

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

The psychology behind brand storytelling should be apparent by now. Creating empathy and using social proof are helpful in that regard. (AdWeek) But all too often, brands forget this: don't always make it about you.
And if you're going for empathy, the link between brand and leadership means connecting with your heart. How do you do that? (Foster Thinking)
If you work in influencer relations, you'll want to download this social media influencer study from Trust Insights that looks at engagement by platform, and by audience size. (Trust Insights) Bottom line: larger audience means less engagement.
Are influencers ignoring your emails? There's something you can do about it. (Agility PR) I receive a lot of pitches; one bit of advice is this: please take the time to read and understand the people whom you're pitching. Don't cut and paste.

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Retail Apocalypse

Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.

The Amazon Diaries is a series that contains stories from workers at every level of the Amazon empire. This is the story of the relentless misery of working inside an Amazon warehouse. (One Zero) This is a serious issue, and one that we as consumers don't have much control over. Perhaps as you consider your next Amazon purchases, consider bundling them rather than making multiple small orders, as a start.
Retailers will win on this value equation. (Forbes)
A bank analyzed 20 million transactions in Madrid and found that closing central Madrid to cars resulted in a 9.5% increase in retail spending over the holidays. (Forbes)

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Platforms

News to know about relevant social media and technology platforms that may affect your business.

Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ

Facebook had a rough week. It included a significant outage and a criminal investigation over its handling of data. (AFP)
Two important Facebook executives are leaving: Chris Cox, the head of product, who has 13 years at Facebook, and Chris Daniels, the head of WhatsApp. And Zuckerberg is taking full control. (Recode) It should be noted that this came directly on the heels of Zuckerberg's privacy/encryption announcement regarding the merging of Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Glad to see someone appears to have ethics.
One reason for this move is that Facebook's user base has shrunk by 15 million since 2017. (The Verge)

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

Twitter is introducing a new 'Subscribe to Conversation' feature to allow users to follow topics of interest. (TechCrunch) Now I'd like a feature that allows me to opt out of people who use the Twitter-equivalent of reply all.
New stats on video marketing on Twitter indicate that video is the best performing content type. (Social Media Today)
Twitter is getting snappy: when you swipe left on the Twitter timeline, it will immediately open the camera function. (TechCrunch) If this sounds close to Snapchat, you're right.

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

Snap is launching a gaming platform next month. (Cheddar) Gaming is certainly hot, and Snap is smart to capitalize on mobile eyeballs for gaming, when people are away from their gaming consoles.
The hottest chat app for teens is...Google Docs? (The Atlantic) Makes sense. They're not allowed to use their phones in school, but they're in GDocs all day, which has a chat feature. Boom! Teen ingenuity FTW.
The most downloaded iOS app of 2018, TikTok last month surpassed one billion downloads on Google Play and the App Store. (Quartz)

Media

The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

An AT&T executive recently said that Netflix has a brand problem. Does it? (Variety) Does it even matter? Side note: no one is saying "HBO and chill."
Netflix subscribers watch an average of two hours per day across multiple devices. (Variety)

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

Sparks are flying in audio-land, as Spotify filed an antistrust suit against Apple for its 30 percent cut. Tim Cook fired back with a critique of Spotify and a defense of Apple. (The Verge) We'll see how this plays out in court.
Last week, we shared the 2019 Infinite Dial report. Here are the 10 biggest takeaways. (Pacific Content)
The significant podcast statistic hiding in plain sight in that report. (Tom Webster)
Wondery does a masterful job of selecting shows that will work cross-media. In short, if there isn’t a potential to develop a show into another form of intellectual property (a movie or a TV show), Wondery probably won’t back it. (Fast Company) We've recommended a number of their shows here, particularly Business Wars.
When corporations join the podcast craze, you know it's mainstream. (WSJ) The question is: can they make it interesting?
Program of the Week: The featured show is Jensen & Holes: The Murder Squad. A cold case investigator and an investigative journalist try to solve a case each week. The twist is that you can help them. The show debuts the week of April 1.

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Privacy / Security / Regulatory

Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.

Pʀɪᴠᴀᴄʏ / Sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ / Hᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ

Phone numbers stink for security and authentication. Here's why. (Krebs on Security)
Facebook is facing explosive new questions about when senior executives knew of Cambridge Analytica’s abuse of users’ data. (The Guardian)
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke was a teenage hacker. He was part of the hacktivist group Cult of the Dead Cow. (Reuters) Not to worry. We're already covered in this regard.
Is [Facebook] data the new [Standard] Oil? (Timeless Wisdom)

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

A consortium that includes SoftBank Group is in late-stage talks to invest $1 billion or more in Uber’s self-driving vehicle unit. This would help Uber make its pitch to investors ahead of its eagerly-anticipated IPO. (The Wall Street Journal)
As Lyft, Pinterest, Postmates, Slack and Uber — among some of this decade’s most prominent start-ups — get ready to list on the stock market, investors are preparing to write checks to a new generation of companies created by their workers. (The New York Times)

Measurement / Analytics / Data

The future is not in plastics, but in data. Those who know how to measure and analyze it will rule the world.

Citizen data scientists desire to do data science but are not formally schooled in all the ins and outs of the data science life cycle. (ZDNet) With the advent of more machine learning solutions, this means they may not need such formal schooling to discern insights.
The traces we leave on the Web and on our digital devices can give advertisers and others surprising, and sometimes disturbing, insights into our psychology. The Internet Knows You Better Than Your Spouse Does. (Scientific American)
Measuring customer satisfaction is easier than you thought. With the right tools. (Agility PR_
Using the PESO model to deliver data- and results-driven stories. (Spin Sucks)

Speaking

I'm pleased to be heading to the Adobe Summit as an Adobe Insider. And you can join me — just use the code S19SMPC to save $200 on registration or watch the live keynotes here.

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Let's chat and see if I can customize a session for you.

Mental Nourishment

Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.

Ramin Djawadi may not be a household name, but you've most likely heard his music. He's the composer for Game of Thrones and this is how his music helped make the show a hit. (The Atlantic) Side note: he's also behind Westworld.
The 50 best spy movies of all time. (Vulture) I strongly agree with their #1 pick.
Comedian isn’t the first word you associate with Machiavelli. Most familiar today as the godfather of Realpolitik and as the eponym for all things cunning and devious, the Renaissance thinker Niccolò Machiavelli also had a lighter side. (The Public Domain Review)
With storage spaces filled with works that may never be shown, some museums are rethinking the way they collect art, and at least one is ranking what it owns. (The New York Times) No, the Marie Kondo effect hasn't reached museums, but they all have limited space, and bequests and gifts make it difficult to manage. They have to make some hard decisions.
How to avoid sources of stupidity and make smarter decisions. (Farnam Street)

“I regard it as a criminal waste of time to go through the slow and painful ordeal of ascertaining things for one’s self if these same things have already been ascertained and made available by others.”

—Thomas Edison

Top image credit: The Adoration of the Golden Calf by Gerrit de Wet, first half of the 17th century (Wikimedia Commons - public domain)

Monday, March 18, 2019