Data breaches are mounting, from the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the massive Equifax credit breach to the recent Ecuador data leak. As the frequency and severity of these breaches escalate, data privacy has become a critical issue for consumers around the world. Today, with so much of modern life occurring in the digital realm, consumers are increasingly conscious and protective of their digital fingerprints. In response, brands are introducing new products and service that protect data by keeping online activity private.
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2019, tech brands took pains to emphasize their privacy credentials. From Qualcomm to Byton cars to Samsung, data privacy was heroized as a key pillar of new initiatives. Snips took home a CES innovation award for their private AI voice assistant that runs locally and on-device to safeguard digital data. Unlike Amazon Alexa and Google Home, Snips AI ensures that no end-user voice data is transferred to or analyzed in the cloud. And, with 5+ billion unique mobile users globally, Yubico announced plans to release a new iPhone-compatible version of its YubiKey, a device that encrypts passwords for an extra layer of security.
In August 2019, US startup Winston Privacy released a hardware filter that masks digital activity and protects personal data by scrambling, encrypting and anonymizing internet activity. Winston works across a home’s entire network of devices, protecting computers as well as smartphones and connected home accessories operating on the internet of things, such as smart speakers and smart refrigerators.
