Yesterday was quite something.<\/p>\n
The Sahara desert flew into the UK, creating a sandy haze and brilliant red sun.<\/p>\n
To be honest, the sun was absolutely incredible, I’ve never seen anything quite like it here before.<\/p>\n
Then last night we were meant to have a hurricane.<\/p>\n
I’m not sure if that happened, but today it could be mid-summer, beautiful sunshine and a light breeze.<\/p>\n
Of course, it’s only just 9am, so everything could change.<\/p>\n
Something that’s definitely changing is technology.<\/p>\n
I was reading this morning, on a schoolfriend’s LinkedIn page, that Alibaba have just released a facial recognition payment system in China.<\/p>\n
WTF?!<\/p>\n
That means you don’t need to carry anything with you to be able to pay.<\/p>\n
On the one hand that’s kinda cool, but on the other…<\/p>\n
…it’s kinda freaky that companies will be able to get all the data they need just with a camera on your face.<\/p>\n
Some folk think it’s creepy how internet advertising follows you around, but doesn’t that open up all sorts of creepyness?<\/p>\n
For example, a billboard could change it’s advertising when it recognises your face, as could shop windows.<\/p>\n
TV sets could have cameras built into them so they know who’s watching them and target the advertising towards the viewers interests.<\/p>\n
If you logged into your TV with Facebook (or another social media app), they’d then know who was watching them and be able to determine huge amounts of information about you to target products towards you.<\/p>\n
And let’s be honest… it’s all gonna be about making money!<\/p>\n
What do you think?<\/p>\n
Michael<\/p>\n
P.S. It’s nearly time for next months edition of the Business Ignition magazine to be released.<\/p>\n
Here’s your link to join:<\/p>\n