Monthly Archives: March 2021

Google has announced its plans to change how it tracks individuals online when using Chrome browsers.

Google stated last year that it would get rid of third-party cookies, which are used to enable online ads as they work across any website, not just the one you are currently on. Google in a recent post said that no similar replacement identifiers will be built to track individuals as they browse the web, nor will such be used in Google products. Google will instead by utilise APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which allow different applications to talk to each other whilst preserving privacy.

Google claims that this new approach will better preserve privacy, and that it is aiming for a balance between advertising and monetisation but with a private and secure experience. Whilst this may seem like a big win for individual privacy online, this may only serve to tighten Google’s control of the search industry – as this new approach will put the interpretation of this new tracking methodology entirely in Google’s hands.

Privacy advocates also warn that very specific targeted advertising will still happen, simply in a different way under a different name. The new approach will group individuals into cohorts for profiling and targeting, and if these groups are granular enough then individuals will still ultimately have the same level of targeting applied to them. A further complication could be that the level of automation in these new systems could mean that behaviours are incorrectly applied to individuals – for example, will sensitive attributes such as race or disability be considered?

A huge amount is spent and earned across the advertising market. In the fourth quarter of last year Google reported an increase of 22% in advertising revenue to $46.2 billion compared with a year earlier. Google also accounted for 52% of last year’s global digital ad spending of $292 billion.

WhatsApp announced in January that users must allow it to share data with its parent company Facebook, which resulted in millions of users downloading apps from competitors such as Signal. Government officials in India — WhatsApp’s largest market with over 340m users — asked WhatsApp to withdraw its planned changes. Despite this, WhatsApp are going ahead with these changes to its terms of service.

WhatsApp already shares information with Facebook, such as your IP address and information about your phone, as well as purchases made via the platform. Europe and the UK have different privacy laws which state users must permit the sharing of data, however, almost all users have previously accepted the type of data sharing involved in order to use the app.

The backlash highlights how unaware users were of how their data is being used until the recent announcements. WhatsApp stated that it has reflected on what it could have done better, and as to how its data sharing could be clearer explained.

The changes will allow more data sharing for the interactions users have with businesses on the platform, as well as paving the way for purchases and transactions directly on the platform. This follows the lead of platforms such as WeChat, on which users can do things such as get their credit score, order food deliveries and do their banking – all without ever leaving the app. The concern with WhatsApp is that this change is the first step to compromising personal conversations in the future, in order to enable wider services like these.

WhatsApp will now display a banner alert within the app in the coming weeks that encourages users to learn more about the update and changes. Messages informing users of the update will also be displayed in the status section. The new terms are scheduled to come into effect on 15 May, and users will have to accept them in order to continue using WhatsApp.

Microsoft are offering a free trial of Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing for one year.

Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing adds a dial-in conference option to your organisation for Teams meetings. This enables participants without the Microsoft Teams app to join a meeting via a phone number. Having a dial-in option is very useful for participants on the move or who are without a computer to use. Once set up, conference numbers appear automatically in the meeting invites to share.

Organisations that would benefit from a full phone system should consider Microsoft 365 Business Voice. This allows companies to stay connected with a centralised main phone number with specific numbers/extensions for each user.

As a Microsoft Partner we can offer special discounts on both products, please contact us for more information.

The government is currently considering an ecommerce tax that could increase taxes for leading UK retailers’ online sales.

Business rates have been called into discussion as they are said to be outdated and unfair. The Treasury is reviewing the future of business rates, which will be reported in the autumn.

One option being considered is a tax on sales made online, of about 2%. These proceeds could then be used to reduce business rates, which are calculated by applying a tax rate to the annual rental value of a property. The current level of this tax is 51%, which could be reduced to around 35%. However, despite the proposed reduction in business rates, with an ecommerce tax, some retailers may result in paying more than they previously did.

High street retailers such as John Lewis, Next and Dixons Carphone likely would not benefit from this change. Online sales have played a huge part in keeping some retailers afloat during national lockdowns during the pandemic, for example John Lewis’s revenue is currently made up of 60% of online sales compared to 40% before the coronavirus.

If implemented, the savings on business rates would likely be cancelled out if not more for some retailers. Amazon, as an online-only retailer, would see a huge increase in it’s tax, likely to be around £380m. But benefit would instead be seen by high street only retailers such as Primark, Aldi and B&M.

Arguably the Chancellor does need to recover the debt created by necessary spending during the pandemic, and with some larger businesses – who had the resources to be able to benefit from the situation – having moved much of their sales online, this could be a solution to tax those whilst allowing the high street to recover.

Microsoft will release Office 2021 in two forms later this year.

Office 2021 will be available as a one-time purchase option with five years of support, as with Office 2019 before it, where there is no need for a Microsoft 365 subscription. Office 2021 and its updated features will also come to Microsoft 365 later this year, delivered via the incremental software updates that form part of the Microsoft 365 subscription service.

Costs for the one-time purchase license version have not yet been confirmed, however, Microsoft have stated that previous pricing will not be changed.

Microsoft hasn’t yet published full details of the new features which will be included in Office 2021, however what we do know for sure is that it will ship with OneNote included and will support both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. OneNote was previously removed from the Office suite and looked like it might even be discontinued, so this represents an about turn, perhaps due to user feedback.

Microsoft are also giving Office 2021new features such as accessibility improvements, capabilities like Dynamic Arrays and XLOOKUP in Excel, dark mode support across multiple applications, and performance improvements across Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. It won’t come with Skype for Business, but it will come with Microsoft Teams, which reflects the deprecation of Skype for Business in favour of Teams.

For more information please see Microsoft’s announcement here on upcoming products.

Microsoft has announced that the legacy Edge browser will be removed from Windows 10 users’ machines from April 13, 2021. As previously reported, support and security updates will end for this browser on March 9, 2021.

When users update Windows 10 to April’s Update Tuesday release, the legacy Edge browser will be automatically replaced by the newer Chromium based Edge browser. If the latest Edge browser is already installed, the legacy browser will be removed rather than be replaced.

Users using Kiosk Mode need to install the Chromium-based Edge browser and set up Kiosk Mode prior to applying April’s Windows 10 Update Tuesday release to machines. For more information please see here.

Salesforce have announced that from February 1, 2022 customers will be required to enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) in order to access Salesforce products.

MFA (also known as Two Factor Authentication) is a secure login practice that requires users to verify their identity by supplying two or more pieces of evidence when logging in ~ this is generally a password and a code sent to a user’s phone. By using MFA, the risk of common threats like phishing attacks and account takeovers are reduced greatly.

It has been shown that there has been an increase in attacks recently, which could be due to businesses transitioning to remote working environments. It’s more important than ever to implement stronger security measures, and MFA is one of the most effective tools for enhancing login security and safeguarding your data and business.

Salesforce is working to make all of their products compatible with MFA by February 1, 2022, however you can enable MFA for these Salesforce products already:

Products built on the Salesforce Platform
Marketing Cloud–Datorama
Quip

For more information, please see Salesforce’s Frequently Asked Questions. They also offer a Guide for Admins and instructions on how to configure Single Sign-On (SSO) for enterprise users.