Donald Trump’s successful bid to become the next U.S. President has prompted the UK digital rights and freedom group ‘The Open Rights Group’ (ORG) to publicly express fears that UK citizens may now be the subject of greater surveillance.

Link With GCHQ.

One of the key concerns and the foundation for the views expressed by the ORG appears to be the fact that the UK’s GCHQ has been shown (through evidence from WikiLeaks) to carry out work for the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), and that NSA operatives can access GCHQ surveillance programmes. This could, in theory, mean that (based on the more controversial security views expressed by Mr Trump during his election campaign) he could potentially abuse his national security powers.

Integration Fears.

Another key concern expressed by the ORG is which effects the integration of the NSA and GCHQ could have on the UK’s surveillance capabilities, and on the balance of power in the surveillance and intelligence relationship between the U.S and the UK.

It is generally accepted among security and technology commentators that the UK depends heavily upon U.S. technology and data, and as such is the subservient partner. Furthermore, the integration of the NSA and GCHQ could mean that it would become incredibly difficult for the UK to separate its intelligence capabilities from those of the U.S. in future should it need / want / have to at any point.

With separation or staying together, there may also be implications for the UK as regards bulk data collection and surveillance. For example, ORG appears to perceive governments (the U.S. and UK) to prefer to carry out more bulk surveillance, and the UK would be more able (and arguably more likely) to do so with U.S. help and with Mr Trump at the helm.

Prime Minister For More Surveillance.

ORG has also spoken out publicly in the past about the implications of Theresa May being Prime Minister as far as her support for greater surveillance of UK citizens goes. For example, her championing of the Investigatory Powers Bill (also known as the Snooper’s Charter) and her support for the scrapping of the Human Rights Act have attracted warnings of the implications from ORG.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

If greater surveillance by the UK alone or in combination with the U.S. can thwart terrorist attacks or cybercrime, this would, of course, benefit individuals and businesses alike.

Abuse of any powers is, however, a worry. So too is the possibility of the erosion of democracy and freedom of speech. However,  it is still too early to say exactly what path the President-elect Trump will take.

Digital freedom campaigners are warning that the replacement of the Human Rights Act with a weaker UK version, plus the wrong approach to Brexit could have negative implications for our rights as UK citizens, protection, e-privacy, net-neutrality and copyright.

It appears that some U.S. voters were so horrified by the prospect of living in America with Donald Trump as President that they crashed immigration websites in New Zealand and Canada in their bid to find an alternative safe haven.

Massive Increase in Traffic From The U.S.

After the apparent shock of the Presidential election result, the New Zealand immigration website INZ (immigration.govt.nz) is reported to have received a massive 2,500% increase in traffic in a 24 hour period. For a website that would normally receive 5, 300 visitors in one day, a spike of 56,300 visits was a shock to the website administrators.

As well as taking to the INZ website in huge numbers, U.S. voters also took to the New Zealand’s partner immigration website NZ Now (newzealandnow.govt.nz) in their tens of thousands. According to reports from Forsythe, instead of the website’s normal 3,000 registrations of interest in any 24 hour period, the 24 hour period after the U.S election result attracted a mighty 7,300 registrations interest, the vast majority being from the U.S. The increase in traffic on this immigration website was even more marked with 70,500 people visiting the website in that one day as opposed to the normal daily average of 1,500.

Canada Immigration Website Crashed.

The 24 hour period after Mr Trump’s election victory reportedly brought visitors in such huge numbers to the official immigration website for Canada that it crashed. Most visitors to the website that day were only able to see a ‘This site can’t be reached’ message as Shared Services Canada reportedly worked through the night to put the website back up again.

Signs on Twitter.

The trail left by disgruntled and disillusioned U.S. voters could be seen last Wednesday as many took to Twitter to discuss potentially moving to other countries. Canada and New Zealand were popular suggestions.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Incidents such as these are indicators of the expected level of change in the country by the citizens themselves, and to UK businesses with U.S. customers, as well as the initial effects of changes in the money markets it is important to keep a close eye on the changing economic environment in the U.S. in the coming months and years.

If you travel to the U.S. for business it may also be important to take note of any changes to immigration and border control rules, as Mr Trump has focused on this area in many of his election messages. Some financial commentators have also warned that Mr Trump’s win could have an effect upon work ‘money purchase’ or ‘defined contribution’ pension schemes because they are linked to stock market performance.

A request by insurance company Admiral to trial a scheme whereby the contents of the Facebook profiles of young drivers would be used in order to judge their safety as drivers (and thereby influence their insurance premiums) has been given the thumbs down by Facebook.

Judged on Posts and Likes.

Admiral’s idea for the trial is reported to have been for the insurance company to look at the posts and likes on a young driver’s Facebook profile and to use them in deciding the level of risk of the driver.

In addition to viewing the details of the driver’s profile, the driver would be asked a series of questions, the answers of which would be used to build a personality profile.

If it was decided from the Facebook and personality profile that the driver’s risk was low, then they would be offered a discount of between 5% and 15% on their car insurance. Admiral would have sought the driver’s permission first to view the Facebook profile.

The trial was aimed at 17 to 21-year-old motorists and would have used an app to offer the quote, and the judgement about the driver’s level of risk would have involved the use of algorithms to judge a driver’s level of organisation.

Reason Why Facebook Said No.

Although Facebook was happy for drivers to use their Facebook accounts to log in to the Admiral app for verification, it was not willing to allow the insurance company to use the details of drivers’ profiles to decide on discount eligibility.

Facebook’s (stated) reason for saying no to what would have been the first trial of its kind in the UK was that the privacy of the people on Facebook must be protected. There may also be an element of needing to protect Facebook’s own reputation.

What Now For Admiral’s Idea?

Although the original scheme was refused (by Facebook at the eleventh hour) drivers will still be able to log in to the Admiral app via Facebook before answering questions from the insurer which could still lead to a discount, but their Facebook profile will not be used to help decide that discount.

Criticism of the Trial.

Popular criticisms of the idea for the trial from tech and consumer rights commentators (who have praised Facebook for saying no) have been that it could make social media users feel inhibited, non-financial factors could unjustly be used to help make financial decisions, and that the algorithms involved could conceivably perpetuate social biases that are based on race, gender, religion or sexuality.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

From a purely business perspective, it makes sense for a company such as an insurer (that has no previous evidence to go on) to try and devise a fast and workable method for attracting young customers. As business people and consumers, however, it could be argued that a scheme of this kind raised ethical questions, and would have set a dangerous precedent had it been given the green light.

For example, what if a private health insurer wanted access to your Facebook profile or even company page in search of details which could show that you have not been living a healthy lifestyle?

The fact that Facebook refused permission for the scheme and received good publicity, and the fact that perceptions of Admiral’s approach to ethics and its company reputation may have suffered some damage with the publicity are also a lesson in how important the protection and projection of sound business ethics are, particularly in this digital age where bad news travels faster than ever before.

With most of the media focus in recent weeks being on preventing and retaliating to state-sponsored cyber attacks, one key point about the UK’s National Cyber Security Strategy (NCSS) that has been largely ignored is how tough it may be on UK IT Suppliers.

What Is The NCCS?

As the name suggests, The National Cyber Security Strategy (NCSS) is a (five-year) plan for defending the UK’s systems and infrastructure, for deterring adversaries, and for developing a whole-society capability. The strategy, recently outlined in a speech at the recent ‘Future Decoded’ conference by UK Chancellor Philip Hammond, will be carried out with the help of a £1.9bn budget which was allocated by the previous Chancellor George Osborne.

The Impact For IT Suppliers.

In the Chancellor’s speech outlining the new strategy, although he focused on responding and retaliating to cyber attacks, some key issues relating to policy changes and the impact that the strategy will have on IT Suppliers were overlooked. These will mean that:

• Suppliers to the public sector will have to be subject more stringent checks and regulation to preserve cyber security. This looks likely to mean that if products or services are supplied to the government, it is the responsibility of the supplier to make sure that they already have high-level security features included in them. This means that the government’s job as the customer will be to remove those security features if they don’t believe they need them.

  With this new model, rather than the customer adding more security protection after receiving the products / services, it is the responsibility of the supplier to ensure that security features are maximised before delivery.

• There will be a rating system for suppliers, the results of which will be made public. This means that public sector companies and members of the public will have a means with which to judge the supplier in terms of how secure their products and services are, and this could  impact upon future business for that supplier.
• The government also looks likely to grant itself the power to test a supplier’s cyber security measures, and to force them to make changes to improve them where it thinks they are needed.
• Suppliers will be made liable for cyber breaches that affect public services.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Although the government appears to believe that there will be a general benefit from cyber security regulations in the UK (being seen as higher in the UK than in other comparative advanced economies), if you are an IT supplier to the public sector this new national strategy may dramatically affect you.

It will mean higher costs and greater risks and responsibilities, plus it could mean that smaller suppliers may find it harder to compete. The effects of a poor rating could also mean that future business is affected and this could cause greater anxiety for suppliers and put more pressure on them.

Microsoft has added a new toolkit called ‘Microsoft Team’ to Office 365. The new add-on will use intelligent services in an attempt to reinvent workplace communications and collaboration.

What Is ‘Microsoft Team’?

The Microsoft Team add-on is a reported to be a chat-based workspace that could enhance and improve teamwork within organisations. It uses video, voice communications, and threaded conversations. Team members can create ‘channels’ in order to organise conversations by topic. These channels can then be customised using the ‘Tabs’ feature. ‘Tabs’ allow participants to easily access frequently used documents and applications.

This new add-on to 365 is reported to work with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote, Planner, Power BI and Delve.

Microsoft Team is being seen as a way of taking greater account of what have become modern collaborative working practices, thereby making the Office 365 system more relevant and more productive for users.

The A.I. Element.

One of the most notable parts of this add-on is its incorporation of an artificial intelligence aspect.

This is the result of a push by Microsoft over several years to somehow deploy A.I. in their products to help users to manage modern digital communications workloads. Many people will already be familiar for example with the A.I. enabled Cortana at the front end of Windows 10.

The A.I. features in this Microsoft Team add-on come from Microsoft’s research lab projects such as natural language processing and deep learning. Microsoft Team uses a Bot framework whereby developers can tap into a collection A.I. components and apps and with just a few lines of code can use them within their Team’s environment. This could, for example,  involve being able to put a number of specialist A.I. algorithms to work.

According to Microsoft, the outcome of being able to use A.I. elements in this practical way should be to empower the collaborative team to augment their abilities and therefore achieve more. An application programming interface (API) and a Connector model have also been built-in to Microsoft Team to enable developers to add feeds to it. These feeds could be from services like Twitter, Facebook etc.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?
If you are looking for ways in which to get more leverage from collaborative working and to find ways to improve and enrich the experience of team working this new add-on to Office 365 could be a relatively easy way to help your business achieve that. Teams working remotely may find this especially useful.

The fact that it also gives access to A.I. elements means that it could have advantages over other collaborative systems and these could help translate into areas of competitive advantage.

If nothing else, it’s an opportunity to re-explore all the benefits of Office (beyond just Excel and Word)  which you may not be using.