Yep, that is what I am hearing these days, reminiscent of the scene from the Wizard of Oz when they are entering the forest, knowing that there are animals and possible danger hiding in the shadows. Yet they choose to enter anyway.

Now we have Facebook, and news that information was collected and used by Cambridge Analytica. So how does this happen? Have you ever agreed to play a game, use and app, or participate in any other social media activity where you are asked to allow the app to access your Facebook information and contacts? Hmmm, could that be a way they collect some of your data? Do you share information, videos, and messages with friends who then share them with others who share them with others, and so on? Could that be a way your data is being collected? Is it possible that like the characters from Oz, we are all willing participants in allowing our data to be shared with others, and then surprised when it shows up somewhere outside of Kansas unexpected, or is potentially part of a major data breach that has suddenly been exposed?

I was invited to attend the IBM Think 2018 event last week in Las Vegas. There were so many interesting aspects of the event, but most notable to me as someone who has attended multiple versions of this event over the years under multiple names (multiple event names, not my aliases) were: 1) the sheer scale of the event; and 2) the convergence of content and data.

This is the ninth post in a series on privacy by Andrew Pery. You might also be interested in:

• Three Critical Steps for GDPR Compliance
• Mitigate Data Privacy and Security Risks with Machine Learning
• The Privacy and Security Dichotomy
• GDPR and Cross Border Data Flows between the EU and the US: Current State of the Law
• Privacy by Design: The Intersection of Law and Technology
• What Do the GDPR and new Privacy Laws Mean for U.S. Companies?  
• Balancing Privacy Rights with Social Utility in the Age of the Internet of Things.
• GDPR Compliance Starts with Data Discovery

Consider this – over ninety percent of world’s data, estimated to be a staggering sixteen zettabytes, was created in the past 5 to 6 years.  And, it is estimated that by 2025 the world’s digital data will grow to one hundred and sixty three zettabytes.  

I was reflecting a bit on some of the themes raised by Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, during her opening keynote at Think 2018 and their alignment with some of the concepts we at AIIM have been raising over the past year under the banner of Intelligent Information Management. I suppose it may seem a bit cheeky as the “Chief Evangelist of AIIM” to be commenting upon the comments of the “Chief Executive” of IBM, so for those who want to hear her thoughts without the benefit of my interpretation, the replay is HERE.

The movement to the cloud is past the tipping point. Cloud solutions are no longer a question of “should we?” but rather “when?” Organizations may not be ready to go 100% to the cloud, but for nearly 80% of organizations, cloud is a critical part of their strategy. Consider this data from a Fall 2017 AIIM survey of 182 end user organizations:

It’s bad enough that those of us in the technology space use three letter acronyms as if we’re being paid per usage. So here's a quick definition of terms for those mystified by the title of this post. If you are not conversant in Dr. Doolittle (even the Eddie Murphy version), Pushmi-Pullyu is a "gazelle-unicorn cross that has two heads (one of each) at opposite ends of its body."

Many of you are aware that I’ve been working on a personal mystery project on the weekends that I’m publishing on Medium since it goes beyond the kind of thing we usually cover in this space (In search of my Grandparents -- A records management journey).

Over 100 eBooks, Guest articles, and Tip Sheets from the past year or so -- 107 of them to be exact. Enjoy.

A new eBook that might be of interest...A winning recipe: SaaS + Cloud Content Management + IaaS.

A new eBook that might be of interest... Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions.

“Digital Transformation is a game changer,” and “leaders embrace digital transformation”—but is it really a game changer and have we actually embraced it?