The IT Nerd

FleishmanHillard HighRoad today released a new report that looks at the reputational and trust challenges facing technology companies today amid increasing scrutiny from consumers in Canada on the use of data – the so-called ‘Techlash’.

Titled “Darlings to Damaged? Managing the Technology Sector’s Reputation in an Age of Heightened Scrutiny,” the report explores the thoughts from leading business and technology executives in Canada, the US and the UK around the topics of trust and regulation in the tech industry.

The findings come at a time where public scrutiny of data use in Canada is at an all-time high – for instance, the long-planned SideWalk Labs project on Toronto’s waterfront is receiving fresh calls from the public and investors to halt development over privacy concerns.

While the research in the report primarily compares attitudes Brits and Americans have towards technology companies, the full report has interesting perspectives from important players in the Canadian tech space – Twitter Canada (see page 14) and the CIO of Canada Alex Benay (see page 9). There are also many other global perspectives, including those from the CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, a Harvard professor and many more.

FleishmanHillard HighRoad (FHR) has released “Tech Trends 2019: The Fads. The Fears. The Future”, a report that offers insights and predictions for the technology industry. The report features an analysis of 1 billion tech-focused consumer conversations on Twitter between 2017 and 2018, along with insights from more than 25 technology thought leaders from around the world and discusses a variety of predictions including:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) will get detailed. Brands that use AI to engage in detailed and explanatory conversations – seeking to place AI in real-life contexts – will be next year’s big winners.
• Tech for good. FHR’s Authentic Insights report revealed that more than 80% of consumers rate data security and protection as ‘very important’
• Augmented analytics will go mainstream. AI’s potential to enhance human intelligence rather than replace it is central – consumers will want to understand both what augmented analytics means by itself, and what it means against technology’s other big trends.
• Edge computing will come to the fore. Edge computing streamlines the flow of traffic from IoT devices and provides real-time local data analysis.

The report can be viewed here.