Every Internet of Things (IoT) salesman is hyping their products. Businesses have to be clear about their goals before they decide what to install and how. But if they get it right, it can be transformative. Supply chain ‘Ninja’ Patrick Strauss always asks the same question when he comes into a business as an Internet of Things (IoT) supply chain consultant. The simple question is ‘why do you need this IoT technology?’

In London’s Piccadilly Circus, an advertising screen the size of two basketball courts detects the ages, genders and moods of passers-by and responds by displaying targeted ads. The process uses facial-recognition cameras hidden behind the Piccadilly Lights billboards to pick out faces in the crowd and assess which adverts might be of interest.

Dutch data privacy campaigner Marleen Stikker had a revelation of the ‘Big Brother’ potential of digital technologies in 1994, just ten years after the iconic date of Orwell’s 1984. As a founder of Digital City – Europe’s first virtual community – Stikker was offered a demonstration of the dark side of what were then emerging technologies.

Few people walking around a modern city centre minding their own business will be aware that sophisticated surveillance technologies are monitoring their every move. These same individuals will have become belatedly aware of the abuses of social media companies, following the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal. But what they won’t know is how it’s not even necessary to be online for your data to be tracked and recorded by invisible agencies.

Even by Elon Musk’s standards, his plan to send 4,425 low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites into space to provide high-speed internet to the whole planet, is audacious and financially risky. The SpaceX constellation would more than double the world’s current number of functioning satellites and Musk is already planning to send up another 7,518 satellites for Phase 2 of the Starlink project after 2023.

These botnets are controlled by technologically proficient criminal gangs and hired out to spammers for a fee. The botnets are based all over the world, but hotspots include China, India, Vietnam, Russia and Brazil. Some are state-controlled and there is strong evidence that the Russian Government used them to sway the US presidential election.

AlphaZero taught itself to play chess in four hours by playing millions of games, then overwhelmed one of the world’s strongest chess computers, Stockfish 8, in a 100-game match in December. AlphaZero won 28 games and lost none against a chess engine that routinely dismantles human players.

Advances in high-speed rail (HSR) have enlarged the distances over which trains can theoretically “compete” with planes, fuelling the media myth of a dogfight between the two sectors.

E-commerce companies may need to change their marketing strategies to deal with GDPR, but as long as their actions remain transparent, there’s no need to panic.

Insisting on “explicit consent” for patient healthcare data to be used for research purposes makes process laborious and less effective, experts say.

Gender equality advocates tend to view Scandinavia as the shining example of true equality between the sexes. But the evidence suggests that the reality is different – especially for women working towards executive roles.

In the corporate world, men still dominate executive roles while women struggle to achieve high-up positions – despite outperforming their male counterparts in such roles. Social entrepreneur Isabella Lenarduzzi believes that an influx of women in such roles will see a revolution in management styles and corporate values.