Cheat Sheet: Search & Privacy
Here’s a list of 10 reporters who cover privacy-based search engines. They can probably be targeted for more general privacy-related pitches as well.
Here’s a list of 10 reporters who cover privacy-based search engines. They can probably be targeted for more general privacy-related pitches as well.
[SWMS contributor Rachel Odenweller writes:] Historically, few of us have thought much about data privacy, either from a personal perspective or the perspective of clients. But in 2020 privacy came into focus with several data breaches, fears of government surveillance and the continuing saga of Big Tech regulation challenges.
[SWMS contributor Rachel Odenweller writes:] As logic would suggest, the more we rely on data, the more at risk we are for cyber attacks. In addition to the myriad struggles 2020 presented us with, it was also the most active year for cybercrime. Reports suggest that cybercrime rates during COVID-19 — from ransomware to phishing — have spiked at rates between 40 and 400 percent.
[SWMS contributor Rachel Odenweller writes:] Over the past five or so years, we’ve been seeing more tech companies in the congressional hot seat as the attention on the ethics of their business practices grows, both in terms of data privacy and market activities.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
Well, for now it’s Jim Jordan… but such news illustrates the kind of world we seem to be headed for. Adweek has the details, subscription required.
No “predictions” post will appear on this site. That said, quite a number of subscribers have asked for a Zoom/MS Teams presentation on what 2025 will bring. A conversation is precisely the right tool for the job. After the election — and with AI transforming publishing and life — “2025” is best discussed among peers, not predicted. So if you’d like to have a confidential group exchange on what stands to unfold, and why, and how comms pros can come out on top in spite of it all, drop a line and we shall schedule something.
According to Adweek, Omnicom CEO John Wren and IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky were in merger talks for eleven and a half months before the transaction was announced this week. Amazing that it didn’t leak.
Should PR pros stop visiting X, with all its lies and hate? It’s only going to get worse. Or are tidbits from targets too important to walk away from? Click here to watch tech edit vet David Strom and I disagree (at high speed) about this, as one compelling visual after another pops up on your screen. In 2025, SWMS will officially launch “SWMS Sound Thinking,” designed to be “argumentative insight in six minutes or less.” Each segment will explore a timely and controversial topic of interest to tech comms pros. This prototype runs 5:25. Hope you enjoy it — feedback vital and welcome! –Sam
New EIC Jamie Heller has asked her reporters to start going on camera — for the BI TikTok channel — to explain the big, deep-divey story they just published. Other publications do this — especially archival Fortune. BI is now on that too. Game on.
At this time last year, Eric Newcomer and his two podcast co-hosts — Max Child and James Wilsterman — each formed an “AI startup fantasy team” and picked five AI startups to seed their rosters. We’re now in year 2 and it’s time to draft again. The podcasters wonder… which startups do they dump? Which do they add? The player whose startups accumulate the most total value by Nov. 1, 2028 is the winner, so there’s plenty of time to make adjustments. Here’s a link to the AI fantasy team podcast — you may need a password. Not sure.