People First: Security in Tech

Hey Techie,

You need to read this!

So, you're making waves in the tech industry or at least, you're on your way to

making those waves... you're building apps, software, websites, solutions! You've got these great ideas that can make the world a better place and solve the problems in the society. Your dreams are valid and the world is your oyster.

From our observation and experience, one aspect is often ignored- Security. How safe are your solutions? Let's have a 'moment of silence' to think about that, shall we?

Are the users of your solutions at risk? Do you think of the security of their details first as you design and build? Seeing that every app/software/website will require personal details or at least have access to information like location, security in tech cannot be ignored.

At this year's Facebook 'F8" Conference, Mark Zuckerberg during his speech shared certain steps taken and new features all geared towards ensuring the security of the users of Facebook. Here's an excerpt from the keynote speech:

"Now I also want to share one new thing that we’re working on with data privacy, and we have a lot more updates like this coming. But this is an example of the kind of thing that we are working on. In your web browser, you today have a simple way to clear cookies and clear browsing history. And the idea is that a lot of sites need this data to work; you need cookies, but you should have the ability to go in and clear your history at any point you want. So we’re working on a version of this for Facebook, too. It’s a simple control where you can clear your browsing history; what you’ve clicked on, the websites you visited and so on. And we’re going to call it clear history.

And we’re starting with something that a lot of people have asked about recently and that’s the information that we get from websites and apps who are using Facebook’s advertising and analytics tools, so you can — you’re going to able to use this tool to see the information about the apps and websites you’ve interacted with; you’ll be able to clear all this information from your account and you’ll even be able to turn it off having this information stored with your account going forward.

So overall we’re going to keep investing heavily in security and privacy. But security isn’t a problem that you ever fully solve. This is an arms race and we’re going to be working to stay ahead of our adversaries forever. So while we’re doing this, we also have a responsibility to keep building services that bring people together in new ways."

In building your solutions, you cannot downplay the importance of the security of your users, neither should you make data privacy less than a priority. So much has gone on the world to make users wary of websites, apps and solutions, it is your duty to do the work necessary to ensure data security and win the trust of the users... and hey, using data security as part of your USP (Unique Selling Point) isn't a bad idea, it's actually an edge!

Stay SHARP!