A Flash-Point Week For Facial Recognition

Last week, IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft came out and made some big announcements on how they intend to halt or ban the use of facial recognition technology for law enforcement. At a time when privacy and civil rights dominate the zeitgeist, these values-based decisions will force much-needed dialogue on the ethics of facial recognition technology (and, by extension, other AI-based tech). The debate about facial recognition is a complex one involving regulators, consumers and citizens, technology companies, and other entities, but now the pressure is on for lawmakers to properly consider the impact and lawful use of this technology. Abandoning facial recognition altogether or creating rules only for law enforcement agencies is not the answer. Enterprises that want to use facial recognition for security, marketing, customer service, or many other valuable use cases must develop a data and AI ethics program immediately. That includes disciplined testing for AI, reducing bias in facial recognition, creating an ethics oversight committee to vet uses of the tech, and deploying it using privacy-by-design principles.

Differentiate In Healthcare Now By Investing In Self-Triage

Many healthcare organizations have turned to virtual care during the pandemic as a way to stay connected to their patients and generate a much-needed revenue stream. But so far, the execution falls short. Our research shows that nearly one in four users is not confident in their ability to access virtual care. This is partly driven by design flaws such as not knowing where to start or even how to make an appointment. Enter self-triage, which provides the right path for patients and members to assess symptoms, determine if virtual care is appropriate, and, if endpoint integration is enabled, make the actual appointment. To address capability gaps in their digital front door strategies, health insurers and employers should partner with self-triage vendors. Specific design principles must be applied to improve consumer confidence in the advice delivered. Check out our recent research to see near- and long-term recommendations for optimizing these solutions during the pandemic and beyond.

Ransomware And Nuclear Missiles Is Peak 2020

Further confirming that it’s 2020, ransomware is having a moment. On June 3, it successfully infected a US nuclear missile contractor. Two days later, the city of Florence, Alabama was infected by ransomware and decided to pay $300,000 to a ransomware group named DoppelPaymer. Then, news broke that Honda experienced a targeted ransomware attack that forced it to shut down some of its US factories and offices. In the same week, another city, Knoxville, Tennessee, had to shut down its IT network due to ransomware. Luckily, we have some new research to help you close the doors on the lateral movement that ransomware often uses: “Mitigating Ransomware With Zero Trust.” Or if you find yourself in a similar position to the companies and cities mentioned above, “Forrester’s Guide To Paying Ransomware“ helps organizations understand how to successfully pay and recover their data.

This Open Innovation Program Will Help You Address COVID-19 Life And Work Impacts

Right now, one of the top innovation management platform vendors, Wellspring, is conducting a virtual open innovation program — the COVID-19 Research Collaborative — to help worldwide audiences prevent, respond, recover, and reemerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. It brings together enterprise technologists, universities, startups, and technology firms, collecting innovation ideas and then crafting and iterating implementations to address issues for their customers and employees. Open innovation campaigns like these are core to being and becoming an innovation leader because they yield broad and diverse ideas. They also cultivate a community of partners with whom you can further explore ideas, craft innovations, extend your skill set and talent pool, or overcome internal innovation blockers.