Month: January 2020

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Esports, It’s a Thing

Just in case you hadn’t heard, Esports has arrived. If you’re not already familiar with the term, Esports refers to organized video gaming competitions. You can find plenty of background information on the Esports wikipedia page.

So, how big of a thing is Esports? Well, you know something has entered popular consciousness when SNL and Chance the Rapper poke fun at it.

Esports exists on various levels from amateur to college to pro. Professional Esports players earn on average $300,000/year, not too bad for playing video games, but far less than the average salaries for major league sports.

Among colleges and universities in the region, Colorado College in Colorado Springs has a well-established program. Last spring they won first place at the SCAC Esports Showdown where they competed in Overwatch, League of Legends, Smash Bros Ultimate, and Fortnite.

This year the Summer Olympic Games will be held in Tokyo, Japan, and while Esports will not be an official game of the 2020 Olympics, it will be featured in the days preceding the official games. According to engadget, “Players will compete in Street Fighter V and Rocket League for a price of $250,000 for each game.”

And for those who like to watch, VENN is launching this year and promises to be a new 24/7 post-cable network aimed at gaming, esports and entertainment audiences.

Maybe my next post should explore the idea of a “post-cable network.”

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The Cost of Personal Privacy and Security

If you’re the richest man in the world you would think that you could afford the highest level of security for your personal data and information. And if you’re Jeff Bezos, you would hope that your phone would be safe from hacking by enemies wanting to expose your secret affairs.

According to allegations by United Nations investigators, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may be behind the hack of Bezos’ iPhone gaining access through the WhatsApp messaging service. Possible motivation for the hack is the fact that Bezos owns the Washington Post newspaper, who employed writer and columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a staunch critic of the Crown Prince. Despite denials by the Saudi Prince, the alleged murder of Khashoggi in October of 2018 is believed to have been carried out by hit men employed by bin Salman.

There are multiple stories and plot lines of interest to Hollywood producers, but also for those of us interested in the intersection of media, politics, and technology. As our phones become more and more intertwined with our moment-by-moment activities and our most private and intimate actions, they leave us vulnerable to commercial manipulations and privacy violations. No one is safe. WhatsApp, one of the most popular encrypted messaging apps in the world, prides itself in a high level of security. According to their website, “Privacy and security is in our DNA.” 

According to Vox, “The alleged hack shows that security online is never guaranteed, even on this very popular Facebook-owned encrypted messaging app. And that’s something to keep in mind even if you aren’t a billionaire.”

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YouTube Takes Action to Protect Children

If you have children of your own, a younger sibling, or nephews and nieces, there’s a good chance that they spend a good amount of time online, and often that time is spent on YouTube. For preteens, YouTube is the top destination for streaming media content. And why not? It’s free, constantly updated with fresh content, and a lot of it is pretty entertaining.

But in recent years YouTube has attracted criticism for not sufficiently protecting children from potentially harmful content. They’ve also been criticized for profiting off of children’s personal data. In 2019 that led to a $170M fine from the FTC for a violation of COPPA (the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act).

In response, YouTube has just rolled out new policies to limit the downside for children and (let’s be honest) to minimize YouTube’s exposure to future fines and litigation.

Starting today YouTube will require content creators to identify content designed for a younger audience. That content will no longer allow commenting, live chats, push notifications, and the ability to save videos to a playlist. All of these changes are designed to reduce the amount of data that YouTube collects on its younger audience members. YouTube is also eliminating targeted ads around this content.

While this is a great first step, critics say that more needs to be done to ensure that YouTube is a safe environment for children. One options for parents is to use the separate app, YouTube Kids. This app provides more parental control features and its content is more carefully curated by YouTube.

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