This Week in Data – January 11

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Start giving credit for shared data!

We all love sharing. Warm fuzzies and all that. But here’s the thing: academic data sharing isn’t just about taking data and doing cool stuff with it. As the Association of American Medical Colleges points out, you’ve got to give credit where credit is due. Especially when data sharing actually becomes a requirement. So now the AAMC is working with colleges to better credit scientists with their work. Good stuff.

THE TAKEAWAY:

Even with the best of intentions, it is difficult to capture and quantify the value of shared data and recognize the contribution of the people who made that data valuable.”

 

Popular weather app is in hot water

Legally speaking, anyway. The city of Los Angeles is suing the IBM-owned creator of the official Weather Channel app after users’ location data were shared with advertisers. No surprise at the harsh crackdown – municipalities don’t want to be caught anywhere near privacy breakdowns given how many have occurred in the past year.

THE TAKEAWAY:

“The lawsuit cites some statistics, claiming the Weather Channel app is used by 45 million users a month, with 80 percent of users allowing the app access to geolocation information.”

 

Australia still doesn’t know how to give consumers their data

Woops. Remember that whole “consumers have access to their data” thing in Australia? Turns out the competition regulator doesn’t really have an idea for how consumers actually access that information. APIs were once the answer….not anymore. Back to the drawing board…

THE TAKEAWAY:

The ACCC added that an accredited data recipient must present each consumer with an active choice to give consent, and consent must not be the result of default settings, pre-selected options, inactivity, or silence.”

 

US television industry starts testing the blockchain

Well, kind of. Comcast has built a blockchain-based way for television and media groups to share information and NBCUniversal is testing it out. The idea is that clients can use targeted audiences without sharing any identifiable information. We’ll see how it goes – early days, yet.

THE TAKEAWAY:

TV networks are focused on competing with digital platforms in their data capabilities, and Comcast is positioning Blockgraph as a solution for helping media companies activate their user data.”

 

Morgan Stanley to start speeding things up

With startups, at least. The bank is now saying it wants to cut down the amount of time it spends investigating new technologies from months to weeks. Given the huge ramp-up in fintech products and data sharing services within the banking sector, this is a good sign such technology is beginning to have an impact.

THE TAKEAWAY:

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman has been vocal about the bank’s technology aspirations and in June pushed back against the perception that Wall Street is too bureaucratic to work with Silicon Valley.”

That’s our wrap for this week. Thanks for reading – we hope you found it entertaining and informational. We’d love to hear your thoughts on these articles and anything else data related! Email us anytime at enquiries@datarepublic.com!

Until next week,

Team Data Republic

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