Welcome to the EMPIST Tech News Roundup! We’re sharing headlines and recent news stories from around the web to keep you informed on tech news surrounding IT, business, marketing, and everything in between. This week, read the news about the impending GDPR deadline, Mark Zuckerberg’s upcoming conversation with European lawmakers, a new Instagram feature and more.
SugarCRM Rolls Out GDPR Compliance Features
Forbes | May 22, 2018 — Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have heard the news that the GDPR is going into effect on Friday, March 25th. This deadline has caused several enterprises that collect data from people who live in or visit an EU country to make sure they are compliant in time. The GDPR is designed to protect people’s privacy, and not complying with the regulation can cost organizations big money. About $24 million to be exact, or 4% of a company’s annual revenue if that’s higher. Many businesses will be affected by GDPR, especially those with CRM systems.
A slew of CRM vendors have recently taken steps to make sure they are compliant, including Salesforce and Microsoft, and the latest to join them is SugarCRM. Some of the new features include a command center for data privacy and a new user role of “data privacy manager” within an organization. The company has also updated its internal policies for securing customer data.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is Heading to Brussels – Here’s What European Lawmakers Want to Know
CNBC | May 22, 2018 — After several unsatisfactory answers of “I don’t know” from Mark Zuckerberg last month at Capitol Hill, European lawmakers want better answers. Mark Zuckerberg is meeting with EU officials to address Facebook’s approach to data protection and how the social platform was misused to sway the election. The event will be broadcasted live to ensure total transparency of exchanged information, and will also address how Facebook plans to protect data in the future and how it will not be used to interfere in national or local decision-making again.
Adobe Acquires Magento in Bid to Become Salesforce for SMBs
TechRepublic | May 22, 2018 — Adobe announced on Monday that it has officially acquired Magento Commerce for $1.68 billion. The merger has come to life due to Adobe’s desire to ramp up its e-commerce capabilities. The Magento Commerce Cloud will now be enveloped in the Adobe Experience Cloud. This acquisition will bring more SMBs to Adobe, and make Adobe a competitor with Salesforce as a provider of business cloud-tools.
Instagram’s New ‘Mute’ Options Will Give You More Control Over Your Feed
Business Insider | May 22, 2018— The times of unwanted ads or suggested followers popping up in your Instagram feed are a thing of the past. Instagram has now unveiled a new ‘mute’ option that will allow users to better dictate what they do and don’t want to see or follow. Users will be able to remove selected Stories and account posts without fully unfollowing the profile itself.
This capability is being rolled out for Instagram after showing great success on other platforms like Facebook and SnapChat. As this feature rolls out over the next few weeks, all you have to do to use it is select Mute from the list of options under the three dots in the upper right corner of a post. If you want to select certain things to mute from a user, you will have to do the same thing directly from their profile.
Amazon Pushes Facial Recognition to Police, Prompting Outcry Over Surveillance
New York Times | May 22, 2018 — A service that was released in 2016 is now gathering heat from the American Civil Liberties Union. Amazon Rekognition is a facial recognition software that Amazon released at a low cost through its cloud computing division Amazon Web services. After its initial release, Amazon began offering the software to law enforcement organizations to aid in identifying criminals. The action has caused a divided response between those who see it as useful for law enforcement and those who believe the software will be an abuse of surveillance power. The ACLU and more than two dozen civil rights organizations are asking Amazon now to stop selling the software to law enforcement agencies.
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