As the cybersecurity industry works to address a shortage of skilled workers, an advertisement backed by the UK government may provide an example of what not to do.

The ad, which encouraged people working in the arts to retrain in cybersecurity, has been abandoned amid backlash online and even within the government, according to reports from The Guardian, The Washington Post and MarketWatch.

Although pulled from the official website, the ad was still easily viewable after going viral on social media with the hashtag “#SavetheArts.” The image displays a ballet dancer tying her shoes. The caption reads, “Fatima’s next job could be in cyber (she just doesn’t know it yet),” followed by the tagline “Rethink. Reskill. Reboot.”

Posted on the website of training firm QA, the ad was part of the UK cybersecurity agency’s Cyber First campaign, which promotes tech training for young people. Oliver Dowden, the British culture secretary, tweeted that the ad was “crass” and did not come from his agency. A spokesperson for the prime minister said, “This particular piece of content was not appropriate and has been removed from the campaign.”

The UK government’s volte-face followed widespread criticism that the ad showed disrespect toward the culture sector, which has been suffering catastrophic job losses. The author Caitlin Moran tweeted: “I don’t know if the government know they appear to have recently created a ‘Hopes & Dreams Crushing Department,’ but for a country already depressed and anxious, I would suggest it’s a bit of a ‘Not now, dudes’ moment?" The shadow health minister, Rosena Allin-Khan, chimed in: “Fatima, you be you. Don’t let anyone else tell you that you aren’t good enough because you don’t conform to their preconceived social norms.”

Meanwhile, a recent survey finds that most people say a career in cybersecurity isn’t for them, despite the sector’s demand for talent. Among 2,500 U.S. and UK workers surveyed by (ISC)2, 69% said that while cybersecurity seems like a good career path, it isn’t the right personal fit.

The world of analytics is changing.  Self-Service Analytical tools like Tableau, Qlik, and Power BI are enabling business users to perform reporting and analytics on their own with little to no support from the IT organization. This trend has evolved due to several factors including:

1)    Organizations are flooded with data and IT organizations are not able to keep up
2)    Easier to use Business Intelligence tools make it more efficient for business users to directly create their reports rather than go through IT for a project
3)    IT organizations analytical projects can take several months when a business needs this information in weeks

This trend has caused the efforts of IT Business Intelligence (BI) teams to spending most of their energy gathering, cleaning, and structuring data for the business to perform their own analytics through a self-service model. In special cases, they provide industrial strength reporting that can scale to thousands of users where trusted verified data is needed.  However, they are still being shown the door when it comes to some of the more interesting work.

What can IT BI teams do to stay relevant and valuable to the business? We have several suggestions that relate to embracing self-service analytics as the new reality and transitioning core competencies of the Business Intelligence team away from purely descriptive reporting and moving to diagnostic & predictive analytics.

Let’s explain that last concept before prescribing several solutions. The current state of most analytics is descriptive in nature and helps answer questions of, “what occurred?” Diagnostic and Predictive Analytics help answer the questions of, “Why did it occur?” and sets the stage to answer, “What can I do about it?”  Diagnostic Analytics helps organizations to not only understand what, but also why and what decisions and actions can be taken to solve for the issue. This type of analytics is more valuable to the business and requires competencies that IT BI teams are uniquely qualified to bring from their years of building analytical solutions.

To enable IT Business Intelligence teams to move up the value chain from providing commodity reports to business driving analytics, we recommend adding these four components:

1. Build out a Data Science capability– Data Scientists are starting to appear in analytical groups within companies. However, they are still not pervasive and the function is understaffed. In addition, most groups within a company cannot justify the cost of a full-time data scientist. By adding data scientists to the IT BI organization, you are creating a centralized team that can provide analytics to underserved parts of the organization.  This team is already focused on creating analytical data structures and reports and adding the ability to derive insights from the data is a natural extension.   
2. Make it about the Decision– In your requirements process, add Decision Architecture Methodology as a capability. Most methodologies for capturing analytical requirements focus on the questions asked of the data to surmise the Dimensions and Facts.  While this gives us great descriptive analytics, but it does not move the company along the analytical maturity curve.  A deeper focus on the decisions that the business makes and thereby centering analytical capabilities around helping to enable actionable insights will move the needle.
3. Add Decision Theory to your analytics– If Data Science helps you turn information into actionable insights, Decision Theory helps you structure the decision process to guide a person to the correct choice. Decision Theory, along with Behavioral Economics, is focused on understanding the components of the decision process to explain why we make the choices we do. It provides a systematic way to consider tradeoffs among attributes that helps us make better decisions. Tools such as thresholds, alerts, decision matrixes, and choice architecture should be considered important capabilities to add to your team’s tool chest.
4. Create a Report Certification process– As report proliferation occurs with self-service analytics, creating a standard for the health and validity of a report is going to be important if the analytics are to be consumed by a broader audience and are to be trusted.  For example, you may have one group create a report with key metrics sourced from uncertified data sources. By putting reports from individual departments through a certification process similar to UL labeling on electrical products, broader consumers will know the level of scrutiny that has been put on the report by Data Governance and IT teams and thereby trust the data and metrics contained within it.

As IT Business Intelligence teams look to move up the value chain in the capabilities they offer to their internal customers, adding addition skillsets, methods, and tools will be a necessity. The capabilities outlined are a great fit for a centralized team to own and this transformation in IT BI teams can speak to the value these enhanced capabilities provide to the business.

Andrew Roman Wells is the CEO of Aspirent, a management-consulting firm focused on analytics. Kathy Williams Chiang is VP, Business Insights, at Wunderman Data Management. They are the co-authors of Monetizing Your Data: A Guide to Turning Data into Profit-Driving Strategies and Solutions. For more information, please visit www.monetizingyourdata.com.

It’s no surprise that big data is on the rise in businesses around the world. Companies routinely use big data to analyze common trends in their practice; enabling them to make sophisticated decisions to ensure their businesses prosper. According to Statista, an online statistics, market research and business intelligence portal; companies routinely use data to drive process and cost efficiency; drive strategy; and to monitor and improve financial performance. When used in these ways, data has the ability to save the company a significant amount of money because they are able to spend their money efficiently.

While data does have the ability to improve a company’s performance; companies just aren’t catching up on the trends as fast as one would assume.  Big Data software company, Quoble along with Dimensional Research; recently published an e-book, “An In-Depth Look at Big Data Trends and Challenges”. As the name suggests, the data looks at global data trends in the workplace and the problems that businesses often face.

Among the issues that the research uncovered was, “the realization of value from big data in on-premises environments has lagged expectations, largely due to complexity, cost overruns, steep demands for specialized talent, and need for powerful computing platforms.” While companies may understand the value that big data brings their company; finding qualified candidates and obtaining funds to purchase the computing platforms needed to manage data sets are among the set backs employers are facing today. Nearly 75% of those surveyed sighted a gap between the necessary resources and tools that are available to them. And while 50% of businesses plan to moderately increase their data headcounts in the next year; 83% find it difficult to find the right candidate.  Not only does it take time to find the money to pay for data headcounts; finding the right candidate can often times be complex and time consuming.

The survey found that big data teams’ lack of experience creates a slow progress to get things done. 42% also sight that it is hard to keep up with big data trends and new data sources.  Big Data is constantly expanding. Five years ago machine learning and AI weren’t as mainstream as they are now. BI tools were available but not widely used and companies didn’t have big data teams. In fact their “team” often consisted of one or two data scientists. Big Data’s continuous growth has lead to expansion that many businesses can’t keep up with.

The intention of Quoble’s “An In-Depth Look at Bid Data Trends and Challenges” is  not to solve these problems, but to bring awareness to the issues that companies are facing when it comes to data.  As big data continues to surge, so will an influx of knowledgeable employees and efficient software that will guide the business to succeed in an age where big data is becoming the norm.

To view the full report, go to Quoble’s website and download the free e-book.

Colleagues think of data analysis much in the same way they think about marketing. Which is everyone thinks they are data analysts. With little to no practice they can put together graphs and visualize data at the drop of a hat. When interviewing Dave from accounting he made sure you knew that he has Tableau reader on his desktop which totally means he’s one step away from Tableau certification. Karen from Sales also discussed her extensive knowledge when it came to Excel. Yes, that same Karen who emailed you a month ago and asked how a pivot table worked.

If you’re interested in a career in big data it shouldn’t be daunting, but you should take the time to research and learn the tools and software needed to excel (pun intended) at the job. Data analysis is so much more than filtering data and pretty graphs. It takes someone who is curious and can think analytically to thrive in the job.

In his 2009 book, Now You See it: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis; author and information technology innovator Stephen Few lists 13 key traits of a data analyst. Among those traits include, self-motivation; open-mindedness; and the ability to spot patterns. An average data analyst can access a data set; scrub the data; and visualize it using one of numerous data visualization platforms available. She then comes to conclusions based on those visualizations and calls it a day. An exceptional data analyst can use that same data set and visualization tools and come to the same conclusions. The difference is that he will ask different questions and hypothesize about why conclusions are what they are. An exceptional data analyst asks why 9 out of 10 dentists prefer Colgate or why Rugby is becoming a more popular youth sport in the United States while lacrosse youth teams are declining.  For them, it isn’t enough that the data shows an increase in Rugby youth teams. They have to know why. Which will ultimately bring them to more questions which will lead to more data sets and more visualizations. In essence, is a data analyst’s job ever really done?

Another factor that separates a mediocre from an excellent analyst is the ability to tell a story. Unless you are speaking to a fellow analyst, chances are spewing out data isn’t going to capture the attention or the comprehension of what the statistics show. In fact, if you go that route, you may be met with a lot of blank stares. It’s important to tailor a narrative to the audience you are speaking to. Crafting a story beforehand makes it easy for your audience to follow and will help you answer any follow up questions that you might receive.

While you may have the skills that make an excellent data analyst, without practice you’ll never truly be outstanding at your job. And with data analysts and scientists being critical to the success of a company, it’s important that you push past mediocrity and aim for excellent. So tomorrow when you go into work remember that not everyone can be an analyst but by methodically thinking, crafting a perfect story from your data sets and asking questions, you’ll be on the road to greatness.

A Dutch regulator has fined travel website Booking.com €475,000 ($560,000) for not reporting a data breach as soon as required under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. So reports Forbes.com.

Netherlands-based Booking.com suffered a breach in 2018 and failed to report it within the GDPR’s required 72-hour notification period.

Monique Verdier, vice president of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, said in a statement announcing the fine, “This is a serious violation.”

Read the full article from Forbes.com.

Legislation to establish a national protocol for data protection has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives. So reports The Hill.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, a Washington state Democrat, said that the Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act would aim to “protect our most sensitive personal information from abuse.”

The bill is the first consumer privacy under the current Congress and arrives after Virginia became the second state to pass its own data-protection regime.

Read the full article from The Hill.

Virginia has become the second state with a consumer data privacy law, following California. Governor Ralph Northam has signed the Consumer Data Protection Act, as The Hill reports.

The Virginia bill would take effect on January 1, 2023. It would allow consumers to opt out of letting companies use their online data for various purposes, including marketing, as Virginia Business explains. Consumers would also be able to get copies of their online data and change or erase that information. The bill applies only to two groups of corporations: those that hold personal data for 100,000 or more consumers in Virginia and those that earn more than 50% of their income from selling the personal data of 25,000 or more consumers in Virginia.

Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act arrives more than two years after California passed its sweeping California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Cillian Kieran, CEO and founder of privacy compliance startup Ethyca, told AdExchanger that the Virginia law would probably apply to fewer businesses than its California predecessor. As other states and Congress mull their own privacy laws, one development to note is that Virginia’s law moved fast through the General Assembly, with broad-based bipartisan support. That’s according to WilmerHale attorneys Kirk Nahra and Ali Jessani, writing in Bloomberg.

The law isn’t ironclad. Indeed, it “includes an extraordinary number of exemptions,” write Nahra and Jessani. Banks, hospitals or even data analyst firms working for such institutions may be exempt under the law as written, according to the attorneys.

The Virginia measure’s definition of “sensitive data,” substantially borrowed from Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, includes data revealing ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and other sensitive facts, as well as genetic data, biometric data, and exact geolocation data. Nahra and Jessani write that many data elements treated as sensitive under the law are not currently treated that way in America. The law’s requirement of “consent” for processing “any” of this data, the attorneys add, “likely creates an untenable situation.”

As Ars Technica points out, Virginia would also not allow private citizens to sue for alleged violations of the law—only the attorney general would be able to advance claims.

Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, and Kentucky have all begun moving forward on data privacy bills, notes Mintz attorney Cynthia Larose, writing in JD Supra. Plus, Consumer Reports has drafted a “Model State Privacy Act,” which is like CPRA, except with tougher restrictions on data sharing.

A protracted European Union probe into the transparency of data sharing between WhatsApp and parent company Facebook has made its first big leap toward completion. So reports TechCrunch.

Ireland’s data protection watchdog recently confirmed that in late 2020 it shared a draft decision with fellow EU data regulators.

The draft is only the second such measure from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, following an investigation into a Twitter data breach that resulted in December in a $550,000 penalty.

Read the full article from TechCrunch. 

Florida’s legislative session has come and gone without the passage of a sweeping new consumer data protection bill.

As the Miami Herald reports, House Speaker Chris Sprowls prioritized the Florida Privacy Protection Act, also known as HB 969, and the bill had enjoyed wide bipartisan backing in both the state House and Senate. The measure, largely modeled after the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, would have forced Florida businesses to reveal the data they collect from their apps and websites.

Specifically, according to marketing publication The Drum, any company doing business in Florida with at least $50 million in annual revenue would have been subject to HB 969. Also covered would be any company that collects, sells or shares data on at least 50,000 customers a year, or that makes at least half of its revenue selling consumer data.

Under the bill, consumers would gain the right to request their data be deleted and choose whether they want their data to be gathered or resold. Businesses that sold data from consumers who opted out would have been potentially liable for civil damages.

This right for consumers to sue—a so-called private right of action—became a particular point of opposition for business lobbyists, as the Herald reports. Sprowls, a Republican, contended that a private citizen should be able to sue if an organization collects and resells their data after being denied permission. Of 334 lobbyists hired over the bill, most were reportedly trying to drown it.

In March, Virginia recently followed California as the second state to enact a consumer privacy law, though Virginia’s version doesn’t include a private right of action. Instead, the state attorney general’s office is in charge of enforcing the law.

Al Saikali, chair of the privacy and data security practice at law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, opposed the Florida House bill, as The Wall Street Journal reports. Saikali said that HB 969 would have gone further than California’s law, allowing businesses to be sued for a wider range of infringements. He said the Senate version would have more closely followed the California and Virginia laws.

“The Florida privacy legislation appears to be dead, and the best way to explain it is with the southern adage that ‘pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered,’” Saikali wrote in a separate blog post. “With a strong privacy bill in hand that gave privacy advocates 95% of everything they wanted and approved by the Senate, the House decided it wanted more. It really wanted its private right of action.”

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We’re glad you chose to visit a Progressive Media Group, Inc. (“PMG360”) site! We care about your privacy and the information you share with us and want you to understand how we are using and protecting the information we collect about you. PMG360 is respectful of data privacy and adopts best practice in compliance with applicable privacy law and regulations, including the CCPA and EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

PMG360 Privacy Policy

LAST UPDATED: January 07, 2021

PMG360 takes data privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy explains who we are, how we collect, use and share your personal information, and how you can exercise your privacy rights.

This Privacy Policy covers the personal information we collect (1) when providing services through applications and websites that are affiliated with PMG360 and that link to this Privacy Policy and (2) in the usual course of PMG360’s business, such as in connection with our recruitment, events, sales and/or marketing activities (collectively, the “Services”).

References to “PMG360,” may be construed as references to Progressive Media Group, Inc. (a New Jersey corporation with offices at 10 Tindall Road, Middletown, NJ 07748.) and its parents, subsidiaries, or divisions, including but not limited to, PMG360.

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), please also review Section 13 below which contains important additional information.

We recommend that you read this Privacy Policy in full to ensure you are fully informed. However, to make it easier for you to review those parts of this Privacy Policy which apply to you, we have divided up the document into the following sections:

WHO WE ARE

PMG360 is a business-to-business integrated global digital media company headquartered in the United States that produces multiple publications reaching 6.1 million U.S. decision makers in sectors such as accounting services, IT, financial services, legal services, healthcare and small business.

We provide a range of products and services that deliver premium content to professionals including publications and resources through PMG360’s brands, intelligence solutions, events, and marketing solutions.

We are dedicated to providing our customers with market-leading critical news, data, analysis, marketing solutions, and events that empower them to grow, compete, and win. We take well-earned pride in our mission to connect professionals with the information and people they need to solve the business challenges they face every day.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

The personal information that we may collect from and about you broadly falls into the following categories.

Information we collect directly. You may provide personal information to us through the Services – for example, when you sign up for, order, subscribe to, or make use of any of our Services, consult with our customer service team, or communicate with us in any way.

We may also collect personal information, such as your contact and professional details, when you attend our events, take part in surveys, or through other business or marketing interactions we may have with you. You may choose to provide additional information when you communicate with us or otherwise interact with us.

In most cases your provision of personal information to us is entirely voluntary. However, if you fail to provide such information, we may not be able to provide certain Services or information to you.

The personal information you provide may include:

Contact Information: When setting up an PMG360 account to access or subscribe to the Services, you will be asked to provide certain information, including contact information (such as name, address, email, or telephone number), and professional information (such as job title, department, or job role).

Financial Information: If you are paying for any of the Services (for example, through one of our online check-out pages), we may require you to provide credit card or other financial information in order to process a payment from you. You should never provide detailed credit card information directly to PMG360 via an unsecure form (such as email).

Transaction Information: We will maintain a record of your purchases, transactional information, your Services history, and usage. We may also retain your communications with us and our responses.

Partner Products & Services Offered on the Services: Third parties, such as our partners, sponsors, or advertisers whose services are promoted or advertised on the Services, may request that you provide personal information. Please see How We Share Information in Section 4 below for further details.

Research Surveys: You may elect to provide information in connection with research surveys in which you participate.

Emails to PMG360: If you send us emails, you should be aware that any information provided in an email may not be secure or encrypted and therefore may be available to others. Please exercise caution if you decide to disclose any personal or confidential information to us in any email.

Job Applicants to PMG360: When applying for select job postings at PMG360, we will ask you to send us your resume or other relevant information online.

Information we collect automatically. When you use the Services, we (or our third-party partners) may collect information about your device and usage of the Services. In some countries, including countries in the European Economic Area, this information may be considered personal information under applicable data protection laws.

We may use a variety of technologies (collectively, “Tracking Technologies”) to collect some of this information. Our use of Tracking Technologies is discussed in more detail in Tracking Technologies and Advertising and Analytics Services in Section 5 below.

We may use Tracking Technologies to automatically collect the information described below:

Device Information: We may collect certain information about the device you use to access the Services, including but not limited to IP addresses for your devices, unique device identifiers, browser types, and browser language.

User History: We may log certain usage information about your use of the Services, which may include a history of the pages you view. If you download and use any PMG360 software or application on your device, the log files will automatically be collected by the application and sent to our servers when your device syncs up for the latest content available.

Mobile/Location Information: We may collect additional information from you if you access the Services through a mobile device, for example we may collect your unique device identifier, your device’s operating system, mobile carrier, or your location when you opt in for us to do so. However the degree to which your location can be identified depends on the device you are using (e.g. laptop, smartphone, tablet) and how you are connected to the internet (e.g. via cable broadband connection, Wi-Fi, etc.). If you enable location services for the Services, we may collect your regional location data periodically as you use or leave open the Services. We may also collect your location information from your IP address or zip code.

We may also use location data internally or in conjunction with our third-party service providers to customize your experience and provide offers that may be relevant to you. Depending on the device you use to access the Services (e.g. Apple™ iOS, Google™ Android, Windows, etc.) you may be able to control whether location data is collected from the settings on your wireless device.

Information we collect from third party sources.

Third Party Sources: From time to time we may obtain personal information about you from third party sources, such as public databases, social networking services, third party data providers and our joint marketing partners. Examples of the information we may receive from third party sources include job title, company, location, updated contact information, and other demographic and professional information. We use this information, alone or in combination with other information (including personal information we collect), to enhance our ability to provide relevant marketing and content to you and to develop and provide you with more relevant products, features, and services.

Social Networking Accounts: When you choose to log into your PMG360 account through your social networking accounts, link your social networking accounts with the Services, or engage with the Services through third party social media platforms, you may be allowing us ongoing access to certain information stored on those platforms. In addition, as you interact with the Services, you may also be providing information about your activities to the third party social networking platforms, as applicable. You should make sure that you are comfortable with the information such services may make available to us by visiting the applicable platforms’ privacy policies and/or modifying your privacy settings directly with those platforms.

HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We may use the personal information that we collect through the Services to:

Provide the products and services you request, process transactions, and send you related information, including confirmations and receipts.

Provide support and improve the Services and to manage system administration and security.

Respond to your comments, inquiries, and requests and provide customer service.

Link or combine information that we collect directly with information from third-party sources or multiple devices to help understand your needs, provide you with personalized content, and provide you with better service.

Personalize and improve your experience and deliver content or features that match your profile and interests, including to show you targeted advertising as described in Tracking Technologies and Advertising and Analytics Services in Section 5 below. Please also review Section 6 below for further information about Your Choices/How to Opt Out.

Send you marketing and promotional communications (in accordance with your marketing preferences). Please see Your Choices/How to Opt Out in Section 6 below.

Send you e-mail newsletters and alerts (in accordance with your newsletter and alerts preferences). Please see Your Choices/How to Opt Out in Section 6 below.

Perform statistical and marketing analyses of user behavior.

Manage your account(s) and send you technical privacy policy and service updates, security alerts, and other administrative messages.

Send you push notifications. Please see Your Choices/How to Opt Out in Section 6 below.

Conduct surveys.

Process and deliver sweepstakes and other promotions.

Comply with or enforce legal requirements, agreements, and policies.

Evaluate candidate submissions for job postings.

Carry out any other purpose for which the information was collected.

Perform other activities that are in our legitimate business interests and consistent with this Privacy Policy.

HOW WE SHARE INFORMATION

We may share your personal information with the following types of third parties for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy:

Administrator Uses: If your use of the Services is managed for you by an account administrator then your account administrator and resellers who provide user support to your organization may have access to your personal information (including your email and other data). Please refer to your account administrator’s privacy policy for more information.

Partner Products & Services Offered on the PMG360 Services: If you provide personal information in order to access products or services of third parties, such as our partners, sponsors or advertisers, that are offered or promoted on or through the Services, you may be providing your information to both PMG360 and the third party. For example, when you enter your personal information to download a white paper offered by a partner on the Services, both PMG360 and the partner may receive your personal information. Your personal information will be subject to this Privacy Policy as well as the privacy policy and practices of such third party. PMG360 is not responsible for and this Privacy Policy does not cover such third party’s use of your personal information.

Sharing Information with Marketing Partners: PMG360 selectively makes its postal mailing address list and email list, for customers in the United States, available to third party partners so that they may provide you with information about product or service offerings, events or promotions, which may be of interest to you. You may opt-out of having such information shared for this purpose. Please see Your Choices/How to Opt-Out in Section 6 below.

Third Parties Providing Functionality: We also work with third parties to provide certain functionalities on the Services and to improve the effectiveness of the Services and its content. Separate and distinct from information PMG360 shares with third parties, third party companies may also use Tracking Technologies to independently collect and store information about you and your usage of the Services and may combine this information with information they collect from other sources. Please note, we do not control Tracking Technologies used by third parties, and their use of such Tracking Technologies may be governed by their own privacy policies.

Third Party Event Sponsors: When you register for an PMG360 event (including any webinars and recognition dinners), we may share the information you provide, such as your name, company name, postal address and email address, with third parties who are sponsoring the event. You may opt-out of having such information shared for this purpose, as described in greater detail in Your Choices/How to Opt Out in Section 6 below.

Mobile Carriers: If you access the Services through a device or app, we may share your information with mobile carriers, operating systems, and platforms.

Jobs: If you upload your resume onto any PMG360 related job sites, we will share your resume with prospective employers when you apply to a specific job or have given us consent to share your resume via our employer database.

Compliance with Law: PMG360 may release information if it is required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to: (1) comply with the law or comply with legal process served on PMG360; (2) protect and defend the legitimate business interests, rights or property of PMG360, its users, advertisers, customers, sponsors, advertisers, or affiliates; and (3) if we believe your actions are inconsistent with our Terms of Use or policies.

Service Providers: Sometimes we need to share your information with our third-party service providers, who help us provide and support the Services and other business functions. For example, we use service providers to assist with the following: analyzing data, hosting data, engaging technical support, processing payments, delivering content, mailing statements to subscribers, email distribution, and providing customer service.

Advertising Partners: We may partner with third party advertising networks and exchanges to display advertising on our websites or to manage and serve our advertising on other sites and may share your personal information with them for this purpose. Please see more information in Your Choices/How to Opt Out in Section 6 below.

Organizational Changes: Should PMG360 undergo a sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganization, or liquidation, PMG360’s accumulated customer information will be treated as an asset and, like other business assets, subject to transfer to or acquisition by a third party. We may also disclose information about our users in connection with a commercial transaction where we, or any one of our businesses, is seeking financing, investment, support, or funding.

With Your Consent or at Your Direction.

TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES AND ADVERTISING AND ANALYTICS SERVICES

Targeted Advertising: We and our third party partners and vendors may use Tracking Technologies, such as cookies, pixels, and web beacons and collect and store information about you when you use or interact with our Services, marketing communications, advertising content and/or third party websites, in order to provide you with targeted advertising based on your browsing activities and interests. These third parties automatically receive your IP address or mobile device identifier when you access the Services or third-party websites. They may also use Tracking Technologies to measure the effectiveness of advertisements, to personalize the advertising content, and to serve you advertisements that are relevant to your regional location. We may also use information collected using third party cookies and beacons on the Services and in our emails to deliver advertising about our Services when you visit third party websites. To find out more about our use of Tracking Technologies as well as how to manage your preferences please see our Tracking Technologies Notice.

Analytics and Ad Serving: Google, CDP, AdRoll and Bombora are some of the companies that we use to serve advertising and perform analytics on some of the Services. When you access the Services, our third-party vendors, including Google, use third-party cookies (such as the Google DoubleClick cookie) to serve you ads based on your previous visit to our website and other websites. To learn more about your choices and Google’s currently available opt-outs for the Web, please see Your Choices/How to Opt Out in Section 6 below.

Cross-Device Tracking: We (and our third-party service providers) also use Tracking Technologies that recognize and collect usage information and information about the devices you use to connect with our Services and third-party websites. When these tools are enabled, the data that we and our third-party service providers collect about these devices is used to enable the delivery of product recommendations, advertising, or other promotional materials across your devices that are more relevant information to you, or to measure the effectiveness of our Services and advertising. They automatically receive your IP address or mobile device identifier when you connect to the Services or third-party websites. This data may be combined with the same information from another browser or device if you use multiple browsers or devices. You may opt out of this type of tracking/information collection. This opt-out applies to the specific device/browser combination on which you are browsing, so you will need to opt-out on each device and browser separately. Please note opting out of targeted advertising does not opt you out of being served ads. You will continue to receive untargeted generic ads.

YOUR CHOICES/HOW TO OPT-OUT

Email:

Opt-out Links: Any recipient of email notices may opt out of receiving them at any time. To opt out of receiving emails, follow the unsubscribe instructions located near the bottom of each service update, newsletter, or promotional email, or email your request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Email Newsletters: You can view, change, or update any or all of your email newsletter subscriptions by going to your Newsletters preference center.

Alerts: You can view, change, or update any or all of your alerts subscriptions by going to your Alerts preference center/

Marketing Emails: You can view, change, or update any or all of your marketing email preferences by going to your Email Marketing preference center.

Transactional Emails: If you are a print subscriber and do not wish to receive email bills, renewal notices, and other communications regarding your print subscriptions by email, you can email your request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please note that even if you opt out of receiving subscriber communications by email, we may continue to send you subscriber communications by direct mail.

Research Surveys Sent by Email: You may elect not to receive research surveys conducted by PMG360’s Intelligence division that are sent by email by using the opt-out link contained in such emails. In addition, you may elect not to receive surveys conducted in conjunction with PMG360’s marketing partners by unsubscribing from third-party partner emails on your email marketing preference center.

Postal Addresses: PMG360 collects postal mailing address information from you so that PMG360 may fulfill the subscriptions and orders you submit and to inform you of PMG360 programs, products, and services in which you may be interested. If you want to opt-out of receiving marketing communications via postal mail from PMG360 in the future, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please note that even if you opt out of receiving marketing communications by postal mail, we may continue to send you transactional communications about your subscription or orders by postal mail.

Push Notifications: If you use our mobile apps, we may ask if you want to receive push notifications so that we can send you updates, communications, and other messages about the Services. To opt out of getting these push notifications or other messages, you must turn off the push notification function in your device settings.

Sharing with Third Party Partners: PMG360 selectively makes its postal mailing address list and email list of customers available to third parties whose products or service offerings may be of interest to you. If you do not wish for PMG360 to provide either your postal mailing or email information (or both) to third parties for this purpose, please send us a notice using the contact details provided in Contact Us in Section 16. California Residents please also see Section 8 below. You can also specify that you do not want your email information shared with third party marketing partners by going to your preference center and updating your third-party email marketing preferences.

Third-Party Event Sponsors: If you do not wish for PMG360 to share the information you supply when you register for an event (including any webinars and recognition dinners), such as your name, company name, postal address, or email address, with the event’s sponsors, please specify this in an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Turning Off Tracking Technologies: You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a persistent or session cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off such cookies through your browser settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser’s Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies. However, cookie management tools provided by your browser will not remove Flash cookies and may not disable HTML5 storage. To learn more about HTML5 storage, see our Tracking Technologies Notice. It is important to remember that many of PMG360’s services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. For example, PMG360 needs first-party cookies to log you into the Services that require registration or a subscription. In that case, you may set your browser to block third-party cookies and allow PMG360’s first-party cookies only.

“Do Not Track” Signals: Some third party browsers provide “do not track” machine readable signals for websites which are automatically applied by default and therefore do not necessarily reflect our visitor’s choice as to whether they wish to receive advertisements tailored to their interests. As a result, at this time, PMG360 does not respond to browser “do not track” signals or other similar mechanisms. Go to http://www.networkadvertising.orgor http://www.aboutads.info if you wish to learn more about your options to not accept tracking cookies for the purpose of receiving targeted interest-based advertisements. Please note that the-opt out is cookie-based and will only affect the specific computer and browser on which the opt-out is applied.

Network Advertising Initiative: Some of our advertising service providers may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative, which offers a single location to opt-out of ad targeting from member companies. If you opt out of receiving targeted ads in this manner, you will continue to receive advertising messages from us, but other members of the Network Advertising Initiative will not be able to target you based on your use of the Services and/or third-party websites.

Google Opt-Outs: Google is one of the companies that we use to serve to advertise and perform analytics on some of the Services. You can opt-out of receiving interest-based Google ads or customize the ads Google shows you. PMG360 also uses third-party services for remarketing PMG360’s products and services, such as Google’s Customer Match via the Google platform, whereby we will deliver targeted ads to you based on your prior usage of the Services. If you want to opt out of remarketing, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

RIGHT OF ACCESS

You may access, correct, or update the information you have provided to us. PMG360 takes reasonable steps to ensure that the data we collect is reliable for its intended use, accurate, complete, and up to date. You can update your account information by logging into your online account and updating your contact and profile information. You can view, change or update your editorial newsletter preferences, email marketing preferences and alert preferences by logging into your online account and going to your preference center. You may also contact us at any time by using the contact details provided in Contact Us in Section 16 below.

CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

A Notice to Californian Residents: Shine the Light Law

Under the California “Shine the Light” law (California Civil Code Section 1798.83), California residents may opt-out of PMG360’s disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Any California resident may choose to opt-out of the sharing of such personal information with third parties for marketing purposes at any time by directing such request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

A Notice to Californian Residents: CALIFORNIA CONSUMER PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) provides certain rights to residents of California. This notice refers to the collection and distribution of personal information in our Privacy Notice. Terms used but not defined shall have the meaning ascribed to them in the CCPA.

Personal Information Collected and Disclosed:

As described above in our general Privacy Policy, we collect CCPA Personal Information from you and/or from other categories of sources such as data brokers.

Consumer Rights:

This Act provides California residents with specific privacy rights, including:

The right to access and disclosure. You have the right to request, twice during a twelve-month period, the following information about the personal information we have collected about you.

The categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you;

The categories of sources from which we collected the personal information;

The business or commercial purpose for which we collected or sold the personal information;

The categories of third parties with whom we shared the personal information; and

The categories of personal information that we sold or disclosed for a business purpose, and the categories of third parties to whom we sold or disclosed that information for a business purpose.

CCPA Also gives California residents the right to opt-out of having their personal information sold, and the right to request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.

* We need certain types of information so that we can provide our Services to you.  If you ask us to delete it, you may no longer be able to access or use our Services.

You also have the right to not be discriminated against in pricing and services because you exercise any of your rights under the CCPA.

How to Exercise your rights:

If you are a California resident, you may exercise your rights or authorize another person to act on your behalf by:

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. This ensures that you provide us with the information we need to address your issues.

* Please note that we may need to verify your identity before we can fulfill your request.

* Please understand that PMG360 cannot delete personal information in those situations where our retention is required for our internal business purposes or otherwise permitted by CCPA (such as for fraud prevention or legal compliance).  In these situations, we will retain your information in accordance with our records retention program and securely delete it at the end of the retention period.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

PMG360 is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of websites to which it may link. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by PMG360. You should consult the respective privacy policies of any applicable third parties to learn more about their privacy practices.

HOW WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SECURE

To help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place appropriate technical, organizational, physical, electronic, and managerial procedures designed to protect the information we collect. Specific measures we use include installing anti-intrusion hardware and firewalls, conducting penetration testing and virus scans, monitoring Operating System and software logs and applying software patches. The measures we use are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing your personal information.

Please understand, however, that while we try our best to safeguard your personally identifiable information once we receive it, no transmission of data over the Internet or any social media or other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

To help protect the privacy of your own information, including maintaining the confidentiality of any account information or access credentials, we recommend you take precautions to protect the security of any personal information that you transmit over any public or untrusted network by using encryption and other techniques to prevent unauthorized persons from intercepting or receiving any of your personally identifiable information. You are responsible for the security of your information when using unencrypted, open access, public or otherwise unsecured networks.

CHILDREN

Our Services are directed at a general audience and not directed to those under the age of 18. PMG360 asks that minors not submit any personal information. PMG360 does not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 18 years of age and if we obtain actual knowledge that a user is under 18 years of age, we will take steps to remove that individual’s personal information from our systems.

HOW LONG DO WE RETAIN YOUR INFORMATION?

We retain personal information we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so. For example, we retain information in order to provide you with services, to comply with applicable legal, tax, or accounting requirements, and to enforce our agreements, prevent fraud, assist with investigations, resolve disputes, analyze or troubleshoot programs, enforce our terms of use, or take other actions permitted by law. We may also retain information to prevent re-registration in the event that your account has been suspended or terminated or to create an archival copy of your information, which might be used by us for record keeping and internal purposes.

ADDITIONAL NOTICE TO RESIDENTS OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA)

Your Data Protection Rights

You may request access to or ask us to correct, update, or delete your personal information. You can update account information by logging into your online account and updating your contact and profile information. You also can view, change, or update your editorial newsletter preferences, email marketing preferences, and alert preferences by logging into your online account and going to your preference center. However, if you don’t have an account with us or want to contact us directly about accessing, correcting, updating, or deleting your personal information or changing your marketing preferences, you can do so at any time by contacting us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.m or with the contact details provided in Contact Us in Section 16. We will consider your request in accordance with applicable laws.

In addition, you can object to processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information, or request portability of your personal information. Again, you can exercise these rights by contacting us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.m or contact details provided in Contact Us in Section 16.

Similarly, if we have collected and processed your personal information with your consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority (contact details for data protection authorities in the EEA.

We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. We may ask you to verify your identity in order to help us respond efficiently to your request.

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Information

If you are a resident of the EEA, our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described in this Privacy Policy will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.

However, we will normally collect personal information from you where the processing is in our legitimate interests and not overridden by your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms. Typically, our legitimate interests include: improving, maintaining, providing, and enhancing our technology, products, content, and services; ensuring the security of the Services; and conducting marketing activities.

If you have signed up for the Services on your own behalf, we may need your personal information to perform a contract with you. In some limited cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect personal information from you.

Where required by law, we will collect your personal information only where we have your consent to do so.

If you have any questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us using the contact details provided in Contact Us in Section 16.

International Data Transfers

The Services are operated in the United States. If you are located anywhere outside of the United States (including in the EEA), please be aware that information we collect, including personal information, will be transferred to, processed and stored in the United States. The data protection laws in the United States may differ from those of the country in which you are located, and your personal information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in the United States according to the laws of the United States.

However, we have taken appropriate safeguards to require that your personal information will remain protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy. These include implementing the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers of personal information between our group companies, which require all group companies to protect personal information they process from the EEA in accordance with European data protection law. Our standard Contractual Clauses can be provided upon request by contacting us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We have implemented similar appropriate safeguards with our third-party service providers and partners and further details can be provided upon request.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

From time to time, PMG360 may update its Privacy Policy. Where these changes are material in nature we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes prior to implementing them, by directly sending you a notification or by posting the most recent version of the Privacy Policy on the Services, with the “Last Updated” date posted at the top. You should check the Services frequently for updates. By accessing the Services after the “Last Updated” date, you are deemed to consent to our then-current Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy frequently to be informed of how PMG360 is collecting and protecting your information.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION FOR UNITED STATES RESIDENTS/ARBITRATION/LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

If you are a resident of the United States and you choose to use the Services, any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and PMG360’s Terms of Use including arbitration, limitations on damages, resolution of disputes, and application of the laws of the United States and the State of New Jersey.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please contact us using the details below:

For United States and other Non-EEA residents:

PMG360

Attn: Customer Service
125 Half Mile Road, Ste200
Red Bank, NJ 07701
Phone: 973-685-7979
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For EEA residents:

For the purposes of EU data protection legislation, Progressive Media Group, Inc. is the controller of your personal information. 

PMG360
Attn: Customer Service
125 Half Mile Road, Ste200
Red Bank, NJ 07701
Phone: 973-685-7979
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Recent revelations of FBI incursions into private computer systems have drawn scrutiny from cybersecurity experts.

The Department of Justice has announced that the FBI, with court approval, removed malware from hundreds of U.S. computers susceptible to Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities that were uncovered earlier this year. Microsoft has blamed attacks using the flaws, estimated to affect hundreds of thousand clients globally, on a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group called Hafnium.

Separately, The Washington Post has reported on how the FBI managed to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone when Apple refused to help. Privacy advocates and security experts argued at the time that if the FBI succeeded in court at forcing Apple to open up “backdoors” for law enforcement, customers would be put at risk.

As it turns out, investigators instead paid $1 million to use an iPhone hacking tool developed by a small Australian company, Azimuth, which has since been acquired by U.S. defense contractor L3Harris.

Such efforts are raising concerns among cybersecurity experts. David Brumley, CEO of cybersecurity firm ForAllSecure and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told ZDNet that the FBI’s Microsoft Exchange operation “sets a dangerous precedent where law enforcement is given broad permission to access private servers.” Brumley warned of a “slippery slope.”

Combined, the San Bernardino and Microsoft disclosures show that the federal government has unusual clout when it comes to cybersecurity, writes Inc.com columnist Jason Aten. He suggests that if organizations or individuals want to keep the FBI from stepping into their networks to thwart hackers, they had better make sure their systems are secure themselves.

John Demers, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement, “Today’s court-authorized removal of the malicious web shells demonstrates the Department’s commitment to disrupt hacking activity using all of our legal tools, not just prosecutions.