It’s been a busy week at Gloo HQ, so we’ve had less time to discuss all the great content we’ve seen. However, these two stories really caught our eye—perhaps because they feature two of our favourite topics: cybersecurity and marketing.
Is it time to change your password?
Whether you’re aware of it or not, your email address and password could be floating around on the internet, courtesy of a data breach to a company that you’ve willingly given your information to. But if your online accounts don’t look like they’ve been hacked, and you haven’t had anything go missing, how can you check if your information was exposed? Luckily, Google has the answer.
And no, we’re not just talking about performing a Google search—though you could certainly try that. Google has developed a new Chrome extension that will warn you any time you log into a site using a username, email address or password that has previously been exposed by a major hack or breach. It then prompts you to update these details.
In its first month, the extension scanned 21 million usernames and passwords and flagged over 316,000 as unsafe. And of the users affected, 75% have heeded the warnings and reset their details. That’s pretty good going; we know from experience how difficult it can be to get people doing even the simplest things to improve security.
Bans for stereotypes
Gender and representation are topics that we discuss constantly at Gloo HQ, and something that we write about quite frequently too. We’re always looking out for what the wider marketing industry is doing to tackle this topic so were interested to see the first ads banned under the new Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) gender stereotyping regulations.
The first, an ad for Philadelphia cream cheese, features two dads taking their babies out for lunch. One distracted moment later and the baby is travelling along the food conveyor belt into the safety of his dad’s arms with the promise “not to tell mum”. The second, an ad for Volkswagen, shows men engaging in exciting activities like floating in space and competing in a long jump. The only woman seen in the ad is sat on a bench next to a pram. You can see both of the ads here.
These ads were banned for perpetuating harmful stereotypes: the incompetent father for Philadelphia; the woman prevented from participating in adventurous activities for Volkswagen. Both companies argued that their use of men and women wasn’t harmful, with Mondelez (the company behind Philadelphia) arguing it had chosen two dads specifically to avoid stereotyping women as the sole providers of childcare.
We were split in the office on whether the bans were justified or not. But we all agreed on one thing: what really matters is that the industry is taking strides to address stereotyping and misrepresentation.
Posted by John on 23 August 2019