No ratings yet.

As all of you probably know, the ‘Sleepwet’, which is a law that states that intelligence service are allowed to collect even more data than before, is a very controversial subject these days. The aim of this legislation is to combat terrorism. The petition about this law has already been signed by 300.000 civilians, which means that there will be a referendum next year.

 

The new legislation broadly expands the power of Dutch intelligence and security services. The main concern about this law is the fact that these services are now allowed to gather and intercept online communication and data from people who aren’t suspicious at all. On top of that, Dutch services may share collected data with foreign services as well. There is no obligation to investigate the potential harm and sensitivity of this data, and what the consequences of sharing could be. Several NGO’s posit that this violates human rights regarding privacy.

 

But as I mentioned before, the goal of this law is to track terrorist and criminals who communicate online. As prime minister Mark Rutte said; ‘It’s about catching the bastards who are responsible for the attacks’. The AIVD is not interested in the online activities of innocent people. Another interesting fact is that England has a similar that didn’t raise as much attention as the Sleepwet. A possible explanation for this could be the fact that England has been the target of several terroristic attacks already, while The Netherlands remained safe up to now.

 

Of course, these privacy concerns are correct in my opinion. Therefore, I support the petition about this law in the hope that it will be adjusted in a way that it takes away the privacy violations, whereas it still maintains the effectiveness to track potential terrorist and criminals. It is very hard to find the balance between privacy and protection.

 

Feel free to share your opinion on this topic.

 

References;

https://big.nl/de-nieuwe-sleepwet-helemaal-niet-om-de-privacy-van-burgers-maar-om-terrorismebestrijding/

https://big.nl/deze-studenten-zijn-op-weg-naar-een-referendum-over-jouw-privacy/

https://www.nhc.nl/nhc-joins-call-referendum-dutch-law-intelligence-security-services/

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2017/07/12/met-een-sleepnet-door-het-internet-op-zoek-naar-terroristen-6580813-a1544813

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/snoopers-charter-bill-becomes-law-extending-uk-state-surveillance

https://tweakers.net/nieuws/130519/sleepwet-referendum-behaalt-vereiste-300000-handtekeningen.html

http://www.rtllatenight.nl/item/5387/rutte_wil_quot_klootzakken_die_aanslagen

No ratings yet.

When people are looking for a specific product, most of the time the first results provided by the search engine are hyperlinks to the websites from big online retailers such as Amazon. Even though local companies offer the same product as well, customers often find it hard to check whether the physical store offers a certain product. And when it’s offered, they doubt whether the product is still in stock. Therefore, these niche products are bought at an online retailer such as Amazon.

 

However, a new start-up has been founded that is trying to help local shops in their battle against online giants; Pointy. This is an Irish company that helps physical retailers put their products and stock online and make it findable for potential customers. Pointy’s slogan is: “Keep it local”. The start-up raised 6m capital initially. Around 1500 shops are using Pointy right now.

It’s a small gadget that makes use of both hardware and software supports retailers to fight back against online giants. How does it work? Shop owners must plug-in a simple box, which connects with their barcode scanner and Point of Sale data. Scanned products automatically appear on the Pointy page from that particular shop. Based on data, an algorithm estimates the current stock. If the data is unclear, the page advices the customer to call the shop personnel.

 

Besides, Pointy helps to get your shop higher up in the search engines. For instance, inhabitants from Los Altos see ‘True Value Hardware’, which is a local shop, higher on the search results than Amazon when looking for LED lights. Niche or obscure products benefit the most from the service provided by Pointy, since nobody is searching on terms as Coca-Cola.

 

So, this new gadget provides a helping hand for physical retailers to compete against online retailers. However, I doubt if technologies like these can prevent local shops from losing more market share to online retailers.

Feel free to share your opinion about the developments in the retail market.

 

References:

https://www.pointy.com/us

https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/20/pointy/?ncid=rss

https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2017/09/21/16299-startup-gadget-pointy-amazon-google-retail/#4b461cdfa728

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pointy-raises-6-million-to-move-local-stores-online-1505973600

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/09/21/how-bricks-and-mortar-stores-can-fight-off-amazon.html