{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1","expired":false,"language":"en-au","title":"Blog on Sam Petherbridge","description":"Founder, technologist, and advisor based in Brisbane, Australia. Building Chippy Tools, consulting through Forest Green Digital, and developing Tryvex.","home_page_url":"https://peth.me/blog/","feed_url":"https://peth.me/blog/index.json","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}],"favicon":"https://peth.me/favicon.ico","items":[{"title":"Chippy Tools - Featured By Telemetry Deck","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2023/01/chippy-tools-telemetrydeck/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2023/01/chippy-tools-telemetrydeck/","summary":"When I first launched Chippy.Tools my privacy focused mind wanted to avoid as much tracking and analytics as possible. TelemetryDeck helped me to do this, without having to go to the effort of building my own basic analytics.","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eRecently I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Lisa \u0026amp; Daniel from Telemetry Deck and how \u003ca href=\"https://chippy.tools\"\u003eChippy Tools\u003c/a\u003e uses Telemetry Deck to understand how our customers use our product while maintaining customer privacy. When I first launched Chippy Tools my privacy focused mind wanted to avoid as much tracking and analytics as possible. TelemetryDeck helped me to do this, without having to go to the effort of building my own basic analytics.\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":"Recently I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Lisa \u0026amp; Daniel from Telemetry Deck and how Chippy Tools uses Telemetry Deck to understand how our customers use our product while maintaining customer privacy. When I first launched Chippy Tools my privacy focused mind wanted to avoid as much tracking and analytics as possible. TelemetryDeck helped me to do this, without having to go to the effort of building my own basic analytics.\n","date_published":"2023-28-01T08:01:03+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"App Update - GST \u0026 VAT Calculator v3.0","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2022/05/gst-vat-calculator-v3.0/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2022/05/gst-vat-calculator-v3.0/","summary":"GST \u0026 VAT Calculator has received its latest update which is packed full of bug fixes and performance improvements!","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eThe latest update to GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator has been released. This update introduces the new ability to change the application\u0026rsquo;s icon. The app\u0026rsquo;s icon is now available in blue, light green, dark green, pink and yellow. Under the hood the apps third-party dependencies have been updated to ensure everything keeps working as it should.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"full-change-log\"\u003eFull Change Log\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e✨Added new option to change the apps icon\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e⬆️ Upgrade Revenue Cat dependency to v4.3.0\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChange version numbering scheme. This changes from major.minor.patch to major.minor. Moving forward any feature updates will be consider major.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"about-gst--vat-calculator\"\u003eAbout GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGST, VAT \u0026amp; Sales Tax Calculator, is a quick and easy to use application to calculate values including or excluding GST, VAT or any percentage-based tax. With a customisable tax rate, it is perfect for any country or situation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCheckout \u003ca href=\"https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1592788063?pt=1325369\u0026amp;ct=peth.me\u0026amp;mt=8\"\u003eGST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator on the AppStore\u003c/a\u003e today!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore information about \u003ca href=\"https://peth.me/projects/gst-vat-calculator/\"\u003eGST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator\u003c/a\u003e can be found on its \u003ca href=\"https://peth.me/projects/gst-vat-calculator/\"\u003ewebsite\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":"The latest update to GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator has been released. This update introduces the new ability to change the application\u0026rsquo;s icon. The app\u0026rsquo;s icon is now available in blue, light green, dark green, pink and yellow. Under the hood the apps third-party dependencies have been updated to ensure everything keeps working as it should.\nFull Change Log ✨Added new option to change the apps icon ⬆️ Upgrade Revenue Cat dependency to v4.3.0 Change version numbering scheme. This changes from major.minor.patch to major.minor. Moving forward any feature updates will be consider major. About GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator GST, VAT \u0026amp; Sales Tax Calculator, is a quick and easy to use application to calculate values including or excluding GST, VAT or any percentage-based tax. With a customisable tax rate, it is perfect for any country or situation.\nCheckout GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator on the AppStore today!\nMore information about GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator can be found on its website.\n","date_published":"2022-13-05T16:01:14+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Chippy Tools Update v2.1.5","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2022/05/chippy-tools-v2.1.5/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2022/05/chippy-tools-v2.1.5/","summary":"Chippy Tools has received its latest update which is packed full of bug fixed and performance improvements!","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eThe latest update to Chippy Tools has been released. This update focuses on the experience for users that use Imperial Measurement units. Most of these changes are under the hood and do not have visible changes visible to our users. While both metric and imperial measurement users see mostly the same interface the way calculations occur differ significantly.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"full-change-log\"\u003eFull Change Log\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e🐛 Fixes bug where the baluster calulator would not invalidate values when the measurement units where changed.\n🐛 Fixes crash in the triangle calculator when the base is larger than the hypotenuse.\n🐛 Fixes an issue where the first value in equal spacings and running measurements would not display for imperial users if it was 0.\n💄 Automatically hides keyboard after manual calculation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"about-chippy-tools\"\u003eAbout Chippy Tools\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChippy Tools is a market leading go-to tool for carpenters and home handymen looking to take the hassle out of maths on the job site. Whether you are using your iPhone or your iPad Chippy Tools is the app for you. With its easy to use design Chippy Tools allows you to think about the Carpentry and let the app do the maths.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCheckout \u003ca href=\"https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1579138717?pt=1325369\u0026amp;ct=peth.me\u0026amp;mt=8\"\u003eChippy Tools on the AppStore\u003c/a\u003e today!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore information about \u003ca href=\"https://chippy.tools/\"\u003eChippy Tools\u003c/a\u003e can be found on its \u003ca href=\"https://chippy.tools/\"\u003ewebsite\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":"The latest update to Chippy Tools has been released. This update focuses on the experience for users that use Imperial Measurement units. Most of these changes are under the hood and do not have visible changes visible to our users. While both metric and imperial measurement users see mostly the same interface the way calculations occur differ significantly.\nFull Change Log 🐛 Fixes bug where the baluster calulator would not invalidate values when the measurement units where changed. 🐛 Fixes crash in the triangle calculator when the base is larger than the hypotenuse. 🐛 Fixes an issue where the first value in equal spacings and running measurements would not display for imperial users if it was 0. 💄 Automatically hides keyboard after manual calculation.\nAbout Chippy Tools Chippy Tools is a market leading go-to tool for carpenters and home handymen looking to take the hassle out of maths on the job site. Whether you are using your iPhone or your iPad Chippy Tools is the app for you. With its easy to use design Chippy Tools allows you to think about the Carpentry and let the app do the maths.\nCheckout Chippy Tools on the AppStore today!\nMore information about Chippy Tools can be found on its website.\n","date_published":"2022-13-05T14:01:14+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Introducing Media Calculator","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2022/01/media-calculator/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2022/01/media-calculator/","summary":"Introducing Media Calculator. A simple to use application packed full of calculations that are used daily by media and marketing professionals.","content_html":"\u003cfigure class=\"img-fluid rounded-5 float-end\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/blog/media/2022/01/media_calculator-logo.png\"\n    alt=\"Media Calculator Logo\" height=\"250\"\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing a soft launch in early December I am happy to announce the launch of my latest app on the App Store, Media Calculator. Media Calculator is built from my knowledge of the media space and is an app that I wish I had in many meetings. It provides simple calculations that are used daily by almost everyone in media \u0026amp; marketing roles.  From seasoned professionals to those just starting out Media Calculator will save you time. Best of all there are no ads ever!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 id=\"features-include\"\u003eFeatures Include\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCost Per Thousand Calculator (CPM Calculator)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCost Per Action Calculator (CPA Calculator)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCost Per Click Calculator (CPC Calculator)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCost Per TARP Calculator (CPT Calculator)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCost Per View Calculator (CPV Calculator)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCost Per Viewable Cost Per Thousand Calculator (vCPM Calculator)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePaid Search Available Impressions Calculator\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCheckout \u003ca href=\"https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1593785150?pt=1325369\u0026amp;ct=peth.me\u0026amp;mt=8\"\u003eMedia Calculator on the AppStore\u003c/a\u003e today!\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":" Following a soft launch in early December I am happy to announce the launch of my latest app on the App Store, Media Calculator. Media Calculator is built from my knowledge of the media space and is an app that I wish I had in many meetings. It provides simple calculations that are used daily by almost everyone in media \u0026amp; marketing roles. From seasoned professionals to those just starting out Media Calculator will save you time. Best of all there are no ads ever!\nFeatures Include Cost Per Thousand Calculator (CPM Calculator) Cost Per Action Calculator (CPA Calculator) Cost Per Click Calculator (CPC Calculator) Cost Per TARP Calculator (CPT Calculator) Cost Per View Calculator (CPV Calculator) Cost Per Viewable Cost Per Thousand Calculator (vCPM Calculator) Paid Search Available Impressions Calculator Checkout Media Calculator on the AppStore today!\n","date_published":"2022-05-01T14:01:14+1000","image":"https://peth.me/img/blog/2022/01/introducing-media-calculator.png","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"From 0 to App Store Charts in 2 Months","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/11/2-months-to-appstore-charts/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/11/2-months-to-appstore-charts/","summary":"Announcing GST \u0026 VAT Calculator. A simple to use application that allows you to add or remove a percentage based goods and services or value added tax.","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eJust over 2 months ago, I released my second app into the iOS App Store. Having had a specialised app for rowing coaches in the store for over 7 years, with many thousands of users around the world I was unsure how my new app Chippy Tools for carpenters and DYI enthusiasts would perform. While I knew there was demand for the application and it was by no means new, I dramatically underestimated the overall demand in what I had assessed in a very crowded space with strong incumbent apps.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure class=\"text-center rounded-5 mx-auto d-block\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/blog/media/2021/11/2021-11-chippy-tools-unit-sales.png\"\n    alt=\"Graph - Chippy Tools Unit Sales to Early November 2021\" height=\"300\"\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a very slow first month with a handful of people knowing that I had created Chippy Tools, its second month has been a very different story! Chippy tools is now routinely in the top paid utilities and has on occasion made its way into the top paid apps, on the iOS App Store in Australia, and multiple other countries around the world. Needless to say, these were both rather unexpected for an idea that had been on my someday list since 2013.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLooking forward to seeing how this evolves over the coming years.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eChippy Tools, is the go-to tool for carpenters and home handymen looking to take the hassle out of maths on the job site. Whether you are using your iPhone or your iPad Chippy Tools is the app for you. With its easy to use design Chippy Tools allows you to think about the Carpentry and let the app do the maths. Download Chippy Tools on the \u003ca href=\"https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1579138717?pt=1325369\u0026amp;ct=peth.me\u0026amp;mt=8\"\u003eAppStore\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":"Just over 2 months ago, I released my second app into the iOS App Store. Having had a specialised app for rowing coaches in the store for over 7 years, with many thousands of users around the world I was unsure how my new app Chippy Tools for carpenters and DYI enthusiasts would perform. While I knew there was demand for the application and it was by no means new, I dramatically underestimated the overall demand in what I had assessed in a very crowded space with strong incumbent apps.\nAfter a very slow first month with a handful of people knowing that I had created Chippy Tools, its second month has been a very different story! Chippy tools is now routinely in the top paid utilities and has on occasion made its way into the top paid apps, on the iOS App Store in Australia, and multiple other countries around the world. Needless to say, these were both rather unexpected for an idea that had been on my someday list since 2013.\nLooking forward to seeing how this evolves over the coming years.\nChippy Tools, is the go-to tool for carpenters and home handymen looking to take the hassle out of maths on the job site. Whether you are using your iPhone or your iPad Chippy Tools is the app for you. With its easy to use design Chippy Tools allows you to think about the Carpentry and let the app do the maths. Download Chippy Tools on the AppStore.\n","date_published":"2021-25-11T06:01:14+1000","image":"https://peth.me/img/blog/2021/11/2021-11-chippy-tools-app-store%20charts.png","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"GST \u0026 VAT Calculator","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/11/gst-vat-calculator/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/11/gst-vat-calculator/","summary":"Announcing GST \u0026 VAT Calculator. A simple to use application that allows you to add or remove a percentage based goods and services or value added tax.","content_html":"\u003cfigure class=\"img-fluid rounded-5 float-end\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/blog/media/2021/11/gst-calculator-logo.png\"\n    alt=\"GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator Logo\" height=\"250\"\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eToday I am happy to announce the release of another app on the App Store, GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator. GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator is a simple to use application that allows you to add or remove percentage-based goods and services or value-added tax.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile there are plenty of competing apps that have similar functionality on the App Store, I found overwhelmingly that they were packed full of ads, resulting in a poor experience for the user and an unsustainable unmaintained application.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCheckout \u003ca href=\"https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1592788063?pt=1325369\u0026amp;ct=peth.me\u0026amp;mt=8\"\u003eGST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator on the AppStore\u003c/a\u003e today!\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":" Today I am happy to announce the release of another app on the App Store, GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator. GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator is a simple to use application that allows you to add or remove percentage-based goods and services or value-added tax.\nWhile there are plenty of competing apps that have similar functionality on the App Store, I found overwhelmingly that they were packed full of ads, resulting in a poor experience for the user and an unsustainable unmaintained application.\nCheckout GST \u0026amp; VAT Calculator on the AppStore today!\n","date_published":"2021-18-11T07:01:14+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Chippy Tools","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/08/chippy-tools/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/08/chippy-tools/","summary":"Announcing Chippy Tools. The go-to tool for carpenters looking to take the hassle out of maths on the job site.","content_html":"\u003cfigure class=\"img-fluid rounded-5 float-end\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/blog/media/2020/08/chippy-tools-logo.png\"\n    alt=\"Chippy Tools Logo\" height=\"250\"\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBack in 2013, I was in a car driving back from a function with my brother dreaming about releasing an app to the App Store. On that day we spoke about an app that would be useful for him as a carpenter. An app that would fill a gap in the market. After many years of thinking about it today, I can say the app has been released to the App Store!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile I don\u0026rsquo;t know how many copies it will sell this was not the end goal for me, rather this is one of a few long term goals that I have now achieved. More to come on those long term goals soon\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCheckout \u003ca href=\"https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1579138717?pt=1325369\u0026amp;ct=peth.me\u0026amp;mt=8\"\u003eChippy Tools on the AppStore\u003c/a\u003e today!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore information about \u003ca href=\"https://chippy.tools/\"\u003eChippy Tools\u003c/a\u003e can be found on its \u003ca href=\"https://chippy.tools/\"\u003ewebsite\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":" Back in 2013, I was in a car driving back from a function with my brother dreaming about releasing an app to the App Store. On that day we spoke about an app that would be useful for him as a carpenter. An app that would fill a gap in the market. After many years of thinking about it today, I can say the app has been released to the App Store!\nWhile I don\u0026rsquo;t know how many copies it will sell this was not the end goal for me, rather this is one of a few long term goals that I have now achieved. More to come on those long term goals soon\u0026hellip;\nCheckout Chippy Tools on the AppStore today!\nMore information about Chippy Tools can be found on its website.\n","date_published":"2021-24-08T08:01:14+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Marketing Tech Needs Alignment To Business Objectives","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/07/martech-business-alignment/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/07/martech-business-alignment/","summary":"Bottom-up approaches to marketing technology often result in tools and data that are misaligned with the business objectives. We need to move to a top-down approach.","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eWorking in media over the past 5 and a half years I have seen many company\u0026rsquo;s investing in marketing technology. Indeed investment in marketing technology is significant.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"quote\"\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"quote__text\"\u003eMartech is a $122 billion industry that’s growing by 22% year over year; 70% of CMOs are increasing their investments in it.\u003c/p\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"quote__attribution\"\u003e\n    \u0026mdash; Carl F. Mela \u0026amp; Brian Cooper,, \u003ccite\u003eHBR\u003c/cite\u003e\n  \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe investment I have seen has often existed in silos from the rest of the business or based on the tools that were available at the time, not necessarily the businesses objectives or a long term approach. Attracted by the shiny object I have seen marketers fail to define and evaluate the success of the marketing technology, which is characteristic of a bottom-up approach.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"quote\"\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"quote__text\"\u003eBottom-up approaches often result in tools and data that are misaligned with the business objective or unable to provide relevant insights.\u003c/p\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"quote__attribution\"\u003e\n    \u0026mdash; Carl F. Mela \u0026amp; Brian Cooper,, \u003ccite\u003eHBR\u003c/cite\u003e\n  \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn a recent Harvard Business Review article they explore the importance of aligning marking technology investment to business strategy and moving from a bottom-up to a top-down approach. While there will always be new shiny tools available, it is clear that fewer well-coordinated systems have a greater potential to drive sales up and costs down.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"https://hbr.org/2021/07/dont-buy-the-wrong-marketing-tech\"\u003eHBR article by Carl Mela \u0026amp; Brian Cooper\u003c/a\u003e is well worth a read for anyone that looks at marketing tech systems.\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":"Working in media over the past 5 and a half years I have seen many company\u0026rsquo;s investing in marketing technology. Indeed investment in marketing technology is significant.\nMartech is a $122 billion industry that’s growing by 22% year over year; 70% of CMOs are increasing their investments in it.\n\u0026mdash; Carl F. Mela \u0026amp; Brian Cooper,, HBR The investment I have seen has often existed in silos from the rest of the business or based on the tools that were available at the time, not necessarily the businesses objectives or a long term approach. Attracted by the shiny object I have seen marketers fail to define and evaluate the success of the marketing technology, which is characteristic of a bottom-up approach.\nBottom-up approaches often result in tools and data that are misaligned with the business objective or unable to provide relevant insights.\n\u0026mdash; Carl F. Mela \u0026amp; Brian Cooper,, HBR In a recent Harvard Business Review article they explore the importance of aligning marking technology investment to business strategy and moving from a bottom-up to a top-down approach. While there will always be new shiny tools available, it is clear that fewer well-coordinated systems have a greater potential to drive sales up and costs down.\nThe HBR article by Carl Mela \u0026amp; Brian Cooper is well worth a read for anyone that looks at marketing tech systems.\n","date_published":"2021-27-07T07:01:14+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Defining ourselves by our jobs","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/07/why-we-define-ourselves-by-our-jobs/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/07/why-we-define-ourselves-by-our-jobs/","summary":"All too often we find ourselves in a familiar conversation that starts with, \"so what do you do?\" The question is inherently asking about work one of the defining details that most people use to define themselves.","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eAll too often we find ourselves in a familiar conversation that starts with, \u0026ldquo;so what do you do?\u0026rdquo; The question is inherently asking about work one of the defining details that most people use to define themselves. This question is not new, though it is now no longer as easy to answer as it once was when our names defined what we did.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"quote\"\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"quote__text\"\u003e...it feels natural to see a person’s profession as a defining detail of who they are. It can be a clue into their values, interests or background (or simply help two strangers pass time at an awkward cocktail party). But many of us have come to actually define ourselves by our occupations – which often comes at our own expense.\u003c/p\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"quote__attribution\"\u003e\n    \u0026mdash; Kate Morgan,, \u003ccite\u003eBBC\u003c/cite\u003e\n  \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThough there is far more to our lives than just work, that I would suggest is a far more important part of our lives. After all, we need to ask how will we measure our life in our final days? Will it be by the profession that we had or family, experiences and friends?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe BBC has a great article on \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210409-why-we-define-ourselves-by-our-jobs\"\u003ewhy we define ourselves by our jobs\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":"All too often we find ourselves in a familiar conversation that starts with, \u0026ldquo;so what do you do?\u0026rdquo; The question is inherently asking about work one of the defining details that most people use to define themselves. This question is not new, though it is now no longer as easy to answer as it once was when our names defined what we did.\n...it feels natural to see a person’s profession as a defining detail of who they are. It can be a clue into their values, interests or background (or simply help two strangers pass time at an awkward cocktail party). But many of us have come to actually define ourselves by our occupations – which often comes at our own expense.\n\u0026mdash; Kate Morgan,, BBC Though there is far more to our lives than just work, that I would suggest is a far more important part of our lives. After all, we need to ask how will we measure our life in our final days? Will it be by the profession that we had or family, experiences and friends?\nThe BBC has a great article on why we define ourselves by our jobs.\n","date_published":"2021-26-07T07:01:14+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Simon Sinek - How to discover your \"why\" in difficult times","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/05/simon-sinek/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/05/simon-sinek/","summary":"Simon Sinek raises the very real point that, to varying degrees, we all suffered trauma, some of us have dealt with it and others are still dealing with it. While we might be starting to move forward, don't forget to check on your friends as they could still be dealing with this trauma.","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eThrough COVID we were reminded of the importance of real human connection, the importance of friends and just how fragile we are. I consider myself lucky to have had the time to been forced to reflect on my purpose and the impacts of COVID on my mental health last year, through my studies.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSimon Sinek raises the very real point that, to varying degrees, we all suffered trauma, some of us have dealt with it and others are still dealing with it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile we might be starting to move forward, don\u0026rsquo;t forget to check on your friends as they could still be dealing with this trauma.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"embed-responsive\"\u003e\n  \u003ciframe src=\"https://embed.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_to_discover_your_why_in_difficult_times\" loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c/iframe\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n","content_text":"Through COVID we were reminded of the importance of real human connection, the importance of friends and just how fragile we are. I consider myself lucky to have had the time to been forced to reflect on my purpose and the impacts of COVID on my mental health last year, through my studies.\nSimon Sinek raises the very real point that, to varying degrees, we all suffered trauma, some of us have dealt with it and others are still dealing with it.\nWhile we might be starting to move forward, don\u0026rsquo;t forget to check on your friends as they could still be dealing with this trauma.\n","date_published":"2021-27-05T08:01:03+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"James Allworth - Australia’s Proposed “Fox News Tax”","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/01/james-allworth/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/01/james-allworth/","summary":"Much has been said and written about the new proposed News Media Bargaining Code since the government released the draft laws in early December 2020. James captures what the proposed News Media Bargaining Code is and the significant influence of News Corp in Australia.","content_html":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;page=0;query=BillId:r6652%20Recstruct:billhome#sched\"\u003eMuch has been said and written about the new proposed News Media Bargaining Code\u003c/a\u003e since the government released the draft laws in early December 2020. James captures what the proposed News Media Bargaining Code is and the significant influence of News Corp in Australia.\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":"Much has been said and written about the new proposed News Media Bargaining Code since the government released the draft laws in early December 2020. James captures what the proposed News Media Bargaining Code is and the significant influence of News Corp in Australia.\n","date_published":"2021-28-01T08:01:03+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Freakonomics - Does Advertising Actually Work?","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/01/freakanomics/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2021/01/freakanomics/","summary":"In a 2 part series award-winning author \u0026 journalist Stephen Dubner looks into the research asking the question 'does advertising actually work?'","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eEach year around the world over half a trillion dollars\u003csup id=\"fnref:1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:1\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e1\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e is spent on advertising, which begs the question, does it work? In a 2 part series award-winning author, journalist and podcaster \u003ca href=\"https://freakonomics.com/about/\"\u003eStephen Dubner\u003c/a\u003e asked this question, engaging with academics and industry to understand the measurement challenges and interrogate the question.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://freakonomics.com/podcast/advertising-part-1/\"\u003ePart 1: TV\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://freakonomics.com/podcast/advertising-part-2/\"\u003ePart 2: Digital\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\"\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.statista.com/statistics/236943/global-advertising-spending/\"\u003eStatista - Global Advertsing Spending\u003c/a\u003e\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:1\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n","content_text":"Each year around the world over half a trillion dollars1 is spent on advertising, which begs the question, does it work? In a 2 part series award-winning author, journalist and podcaster Stephen Dubner asked this question, engaging with academics and industry to understand the measurement challenges and interrogate the question.\nPart 1: TV\nPart 2: Digital\nStatista - Global Advertsing Spending\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\n","date_published":"2021-22-01T08:01:03+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Apple Starting To Hit The Right Spot On User Privacy","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2020/2020-07-09-apple-user-privacy/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2020/2020-07-09-apple-user-privacy/","summary":"There is a need to innovate our use of mobile platforms to foster consumer relationships, ideally in ways that competitors cannot easily replicate.","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eOver the past few weeks since Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote (love the 3 am start to watch live), much has been written about the new steps they are taking to protect privacy.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe discourse online over the past few years has been much the same, as digital marketers seek to find a new way to mitigate the impact of Apple’s new initiatives.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom a data and marketing side, the current tap is slowly losing pressure, from a privacy side, Apple is shining a light on the methods that some, including myself, would suggest are unscrupulous. To put this in context, what possible reason do analytics organisations have for sending information like battery, storage, memory and CPU usage, among the metrics that you might expect?\u003csup id=\"fnref:1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:1\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e1\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e or TikTok, LinkedIn and others have to keep looking at your phone’s clipboard?\u003csup id=\"fnref:2\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:2\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e2\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat has become clear is that some groups are not very happy with the recent changes, with many complaining that Apple is not adhering to the industry standard in enforcing every app to a seek permission to track users. With some saying the new pop-up warning and the limited ability to customise still carries \u003cem\u003e“a high risk of user refusal.”\u003c/em\u003e\u003csup id=\"fnref:3\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:3\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e3\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e. Is this to say that some marketers are only interested in tracking the most possible users?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"what-is-apple-doing\"\u003eWhat is Apple doing\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn June each year, Apple holds its developer conference, announcing the next iteration of software to run on your Apple device. In this, they revise many of the inbuilt APIs (application programming interfaces) to enable innovation to occur on their platforms. In some cases, they add APIs, in others, they change them, and sometimes they deprecate them.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe biggest change announced last month is that any app that seeks to track a user, either through their application or third party software development kit (SDK) in their application, will need to seek permission displaying a notification like the image. Though it is worth noting the user’s ability to limit ad tracking is not new, this is simply bringing it to the user’s attention.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure class=\"rounded float-end\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/blog/media/2020/07/apple-tracking-popup.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Apple Tracking Dialogue\"\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhile many would argue that this change is solely to impact advertisers, I would disagree. From an Apple perspective, these changes are grounded in the culture and organisational values.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMarketers and advertisers are becoming challenged by the principles set down by Apple as an organisation. It is these principle which guide Apple in their relentless pursuit of delivering world-leading consumer experiences. A perspective often overlooked by marketers and advertisers who are oft prioritising user data over consumer centricity.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is these principles of one of the world’s biggest companies that will continue to cause friction among marketers and advertisers. The next most important change is not going to come from Apple; their pursuit of upholding their own standards is set. The most important change will now come from the industry forced to do so, courtesy of Apple’s benchmark and share of the advertising space.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn making these changes, they are forcing developers to understand what third party libraries such as analytics libraries are doing with the information that they collect. They are forcing developers to correctly declare what information their apps collect, how it is used and shared or risk being kicked off the App Store\u003csup id=\"fnref:4\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:4\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e4\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile this change is the driver behind most of the articles I have seen, it is worth noting that there are a number of other changes being made that may also impact the collecting of adverting data, both from the release of Apples next major software updates, likely September and in the next few years. In the next year, we are likely to see the ability for a user not to provide accurate location information and the further randomisation of device details when connecting to public wifi networks to be the most significant change. While the location changes will impact applications, it will not impact Telco’s from collecting this information using their towers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLooking beyond this year, Apple has started to provide more support to technologies that make DNS queries private and are working with industry bodies to develop a standard of enabling the privacy of SNI data. Both of which represent opportunities for Telco’s and ISPs to track users.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow I can hear many asking what DNS and SNI are. DNS or domain name system is like the phone book of the internet; it maps a domain like google.com.au to an IP address like 142.250.31.94. SNI or server name indication? In short, is the technology that allows servers to host multiple websites at a single IP address, without it we would not have been able to have the rate of growth we have seen on the internet\u003csup id=\"fnref:5\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:5\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e5\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough it is worth noting that Apple is not blind to the needs of advertisers and their own advertising revenue through App Store ads, in this release where they have added increased transparency for users, they have also added a new method to validate app install campaigns\u003csup id=\"fnref:6\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:6\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e6\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"the-path-forward\"\u003eThe path forward\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn my view, I feel that while there is still an opportunity to derive short term advantage in leveraging tracking on Apple devices. The opportunity for almost all organisations to derive sustained competitive advantage, which should be the ultimate goal of all business activities, through tracking on Apple devices is a thing of the past. This is not the first year, nor will it be the last that when one of the worlds largest companies puts the blow torch to advertiser data collecting in defence and promotion of user privacy. For those unsure still not convinced on this, I would encourage you to look at the amount of time Apple spends on this topic in the public presentations. It got just under 5% of their WWDC Keynote, which was arguably their biggest in years.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLooking to the future, there is a need to innovate our use of mobile platforms to foster consumer relationships, ideally in ways that competitors cannot easily replicate.  Indeed as Apple and many organisations have said there is an opportunity for brands to build trust through better privacy\u003csup id=\"fnref:7\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:7\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e7\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e. While the easy path out would be to keep adjusting to Apple’s changes, I believe that those that can pivot to a privacy and data minimisation approach will see the return over the long term.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\"\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://peth.me/blog/2020/2020-05-08-data-apps-collect/\"\u003eThe Need For More Transparency When It Comes To The Data Apps Collect\u003c/a\u003e\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:1\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.zdnet.com/article/linkedin-says-ios-clipboard-snooping-after-every-key-press-is-a-bug-will-fix/\"\u003eZDNet - The new clipboard access detection and warning feature in iOS 14 exposes another app.\u003c/a\u003e\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:2\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:3\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-google-apple/google-backed-groups-criticize-apples-new-warnings-on-user-tracking-idUKKBN2440VG\"\u003eGoogle-backed groups criticize Apple’s new warnings on user tracking - Reuters\u003c/a\u003e\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:3\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:4\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://developer.apple.com/app-store/user-privacy-and-data-use/\"\u003eUser Privacy and Data Use - App Store - Apple Developer\u003c/a\u003e\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:4\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:5\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ssl/what-is-sni/\"\u003eHow TLS Server Name Indication Works\u003c/a\u003e\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:5\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:6\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNote this is technical in nature \u003ca href=\"https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwork\"\u003eApple Developer Documentation - SKAdNetwork\u003c/a\u003e\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:6\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:7\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/10676/\"\u003eBuild trust through better privacy - WWDC 2020 - Videos - Apple Developer\u003c/a\u003e\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:7\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n","content_text":"Over the past few weeks since Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote (love the 3 am start to watch live), much has been written about the new steps they are taking to protect privacy.\nThe discourse online over the past few years has been much the same, as digital marketers seek to find a new way to mitigate the impact of Apple’s new initiatives.\nFrom a data and marketing side, the current tap is slowly losing pressure, from a privacy side, Apple is shining a light on the methods that some, including myself, would suggest are unscrupulous. To put this in context, what possible reason do analytics organisations have for sending information like battery, storage, memory and CPU usage, among the metrics that you might expect?1 or TikTok, LinkedIn and others have to keep looking at your phone’s clipboard?2\nWhat has become clear is that some groups are not very happy with the recent changes, with many complaining that Apple is not adhering to the industry standard in enforcing every app to a seek permission to track users. With some saying the new pop-up warning and the limited ability to customise still carries “a high risk of user refusal.”3. Is this to say that some marketers are only interested in tracking the most possible users?\nWhat is Apple doing In June each year, Apple holds its developer conference, announcing the next iteration of software to run on your Apple device. In this, they revise many of the inbuilt APIs (application programming interfaces) to enable innovation to occur on their platforms. In some cases, they add APIs, in others, they change them, and sometimes they deprecate them.\nThe biggest change announced last month is that any app that seeks to track a user, either through their application or third party software development kit (SDK) in their application, will need to seek permission displaying a notification like the image. Though it is worth noting the user’s ability to limit ad tracking is not new, this is simply bringing it to the user’s attention.\nWhile many would argue that this change is solely to impact advertisers, I would disagree. From an Apple perspective, these changes are grounded in the culture and organisational values.\nMarketers and advertisers are becoming challenged by the principles set down by Apple as an organisation. It is these principle which guide Apple in their relentless pursuit of delivering world-leading consumer experiences. A perspective often overlooked by marketers and advertisers who are oft prioritising user data over consumer centricity.\nIt is these principles of one of the world’s biggest companies that will continue to cause friction among marketers and advertisers. The next most important change is not going to come from Apple; their pursuit of upholding their own standards is set. The most important change will now come from the industry forced to do so, courtesy of Apple’s benchmark and share of the advertising space.\nIn making these changes, they are forcing developers to understand what third party libraries such as analytics libraries are doing with the information that they collect. They are forcing developers to correctly declare what information their apps collect, how it is used and shared or risk being kicked off the App Store4.\nWhile this change is the driver behind most of the articles I have seen, it is worth noting that there are a number of other changes being made that may also impact the collecting of adverting data, both from the release of Apples next major software updates, likely September and in the next few years. In the next year, we are likely to see the ability for a user not to provide accurate location information and the further randomisation of device details when connecting to public wifi networks to be the most significant change. While the location changes will impact applications, it will not impact Telco’s from collecting this information using their towers.\nLooking beyond this year, Apple has started to provide more support to technologies that make DNS queries private and are working with industry bodies to develop a standard of enabling the privacy of SNI data. Both of which represent opportunities for Telco’s and ISPs to track users.\nNow I can hear many asking what DNS and SNI are. DNS or domain name system is like the phone book of the internet; it maps a domain like google.com.au to an IP address like 142.250.31.94. SNI or server name indication? In short, is the technology that allows servers to host multiple websites at a single IP address, without it we would not have been able to have the rate of growth we have seen on the internet5.\nThough it is worth noting that Apple is not blind to the needs of advertisers and their own advertising revenue through App Store ads, in this release where they have added increased transparency for users, they have also added a new method to validate app install campaigns6.\nThe path forward In my view, I feel that while there is still an opportunity to derive short term advantage in leveraging tracking on Apple devices. The opportunity for almost all organisations to derive sustained competitive advantage, which should be the ultimate goal of all business activities, through tracking on Apple devices is a thing of the past. This is not the first year, nor will it be the last that when one of the worlds largest companies puts the blow torch to advertiser data collecting in defence and promotion of user privacy. For those unsure still not convinced on this, I would encourage you to look at the amount of time Apple spends on this topic in the public presentations. It got just under 5% of their WWDC Keynote, which was arguably their biggest in years.\nLooking to the future, there is a need to innovate our use of mobile platforms to foster consumer relationships, ideally in ways that competitors cannot easily replicate. Indeed as Apple and many organisations have said there is an opportunity for brands to build trust through better privacy7. While the easy path out would be to keep adjusting to Apple’s changes, I believe that those that can pivot to a privacy and data minimisation approach will see the return over the long term.\nThe Need For More Transparency When It Comes To The Data Apps Collect\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\nZDNet - The new clipboard access detection and warning feature in iOS 14 exposes another app.\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\nGoogle-backed groups criticize Apple’s new warnings on user tracking - Reuters\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\nUser Privacy and Data Use - App Store - Apple Developer\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\nHow TLS Server Name Indication Works\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\nNote this is technical in nature Apple Developer Documentation - SKAdNetwork\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\nBuild trust through better privacy - WWDC 2020 - Videos - Apple Developer\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\n","date_published":"2020-09-07T05:01:03+1000","image":"https://peth.me/img/blog/2020/07/privacy-thats-iphone.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"The Need For More Transparency When It Comes To The Data Apps Collect","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2020/2020-05-08-data-apps-collect/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2020/2020-05-08-data-apps-collect/","summary":"Apps on your phone do often have a legitimate need to access information about your device. Though we must ask the question of what are they collecting and what are they explicitly telling the user about.","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eOver the past few years, there has been a significant shift in rhetoric from Apple and Google as it relates to privacy. While Apple seeks to use privacy as a point of differentiation, the reality is Apple is the best of a bad bunch. There is much that needs to be done.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIndeed Apple has taken many steps to improve the privacy and sought to limit the data applications have access. They have not gone far enough.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe’ve all become familiar with their sleek brand positioning best captured in their “Privacy. That’s iPhone” campaign. A step that did wonders for the brand’s perception in market. But unfortunately for consumers, the big Apple is still complicit in enabling many applications to extract significant amounts of data from users phones / tablets for what can only be considered user profiling and tracking. Which prompts the question, why else would numerous apps need to send battery percentage or phone carrier information back to their servers? Further, why should any app be allowed to make calls out to servers before the app has fully launched?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApps do have a legitimate purpose for accessing these types of information to deliver better user experience, and there are valid reasons for some applications to connect to third parties and the internet upon launch. Its worth noting that any solution posed to limit their access would be complicated. But really the question worth posing is while consumers may accept dialogue boxes for Bluetooth, microphone and location, would they be accepting of the many more dialogues currently unbeknownst to them which occur every time they open an app?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmidst the array of arguments, the positioning around relevance and user experience, the onus is on the OS creators, app developers and ultimately brands to do more in controlling what applications extract from an individual’s personal device.\nSince the introduction of GDPR and CCPA, all companies should be seeking to limit what data they collect regardless of where they are in the world. A legal lead approach is not all ways the best approach and developers and brands need to be good global citizens. In marketing circles, the notation that our laws will change sooner or later, means we need to embrace that data minimisation, better consumer engagement and value exchanges for experience are the future.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is in this context that all organisations should seek to remove, to the greatest extent possible, any data collection that does not directly assist in them delivering value to consumers.  Brands need to wake up and realise that they must differentiate to succeed in the long term. Differentiation based on the data they collect on consumers is not a long-term strategy for competitive advantage. The collection of data should seek to improve the user experience - in ways beyond targeted advertising. In my view those organisations that collect data purely for the purpose of targeting ads are in danger of falling victim to the renowned academic Michael Porter\u0026rsquo;s famous notationl; being all things to all people is a path for strategic mediocrity\u003csup id=\"fnref:1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:1\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e1\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"so-what-data-are-they-collecting\"\u003eSo what data are they collecting?\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe data connected differs from application to application, tracking library to tracking library. The below has been extracted from a network request\u003csup id=\"fnref:2\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:2\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e2\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e for \u003ca href=\"https://www.flurry.com\"\u003eFlurry Analytics\u003c/a\u003e the \u0026ldquo;worlds most adopted app analytics\u0026rdquo; which is owned by Verizon Media. This information was collected upon simply opening a paid business focused application.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDevice\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOrientation\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCountry\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLanguage\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTimezone\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOS Version\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eScreen height and width\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDevice model\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiOS Advertising ID \u003csup id=\"fnref:3\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#fn:3\" class=\"footnote-ref\" role=\"doc-noteref\"\u003e3\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBattery Percentage\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDisk Usage\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePhone or iPad Carrier\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMemory available\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCPU Load\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eApplication\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eName\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVersion\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSession ID - Could only be for tracking.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSession duration in milliseconds\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWorth asking, is your data worth the experience?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnotes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\"\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:1\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=193\"\u003eThe Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance\u003c/a\u003e. \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Porter\"\u003eMichael Porter on Wikipedia\u003c/a\u003e\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:1\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:2\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInformation extracted using \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/app/charles-proxy/id1134218562?mt=8\"\u003eCharles Proxy\u003c/a\u003e. Importantly there are measures that some application developers take to stop Charles and similar tools working.\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:2\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli id=\"fn:3\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIntroduced in iOS 7 the identifier for advertising is an Apple supported id for advertising. The Android alternative is the Google Play Services identifier. Importantly these identifiers allow users to limit the extent to which they can be tracked by selecting limit ad tracking, though this is all but useless when users login to and app, unless the ads are being served programmatically with no other derived identifier.\u0026#160;\u003ca href=\"#fnref:3\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"\u003e\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n","content_text":"Over the past few years, there has been a significant shift in rhetoric from Apple and Google as it relates to privacy. While Apple seeks to use privacy as a point of differentiation, the reality is Apple is the best of a bad bunch. There is much that needs to be done.\nIndeed Apple has taken many steps to improve the privacy and sought to limit the data applications have access. They have not gone far enough.\nWe’ve all become familiar with their sleek brand positioning best captured in their “Privacy. That’s iPhone” campaign. A step that did wonders for the brand’s perception in market. But unfortunately for consumers, the big Apple is still complicit in enabling many applications to extract significant amounts of data from users phones / tablets for what can only be considered user profiling and tracking. Which prompts the question, why else would numerous apps need to send battery percentage or phone carrier information back to their servers? Further, why should any app be allowed to make calls out to servers before the app has fully launched?\nApps do have a legitimate purpose for accessing these types of information to deliver better user experience, and there are valid reasons for some applications to connect to third parties and the internet upon launch. Its worth noting that any solution posed to limit their access would be complicated. But really the question worth posing is while consumers may accept dialogue boxes for Bluetooth, microphone and location, would they be accepting of the many more dialogues currently unbeknownst to them which occur every time they open an app?\nAmidst the array of arguments, the positioning around relevance and user experience, the onus is on the OS creators, app developers and ultimately brands to do more in controlling what applications extract from an individual’s personal device. Since the introduction of GDPR and CCPA, all companies should be seeking to limit what data they collect regardless of where they are in the world. A legal lead approach is not all ways the best approach and developers and brands need to be good global citizens. In marketing circles, the notation that our laws will change sooner or later, means we need to embrace that data minimisation, better consumer engagement and value exchanges for experience are the future.\nIt is in this context that all organisations should seek to remove, to the greatest extent possible, any data collection that does not directly assist in them delivering value to consumers. Brands need to wake up and realise that they must differentiate to succeed in the long term. Differentiation based on the data they collect on consumers is not a long-term strategy for competitive advantage. The collection of data should seek to improve the user experience - in ways beyond targeted advertising. In my view those organisations that collect data purely for the purpose of targeting ads are in danger of falling victim to the renowned academic Michael Porter\u0026rsquo;s famous notationl; being all things to all people is a path for strategic mediocrity1.\nSo what data are they collecting? The data connected differs from application to application, tracking library to tracking library. The below has been extracted from a network request2 for Flurry Analytics the \u0026ldquo;worlds most adopted app analytics\u0026rdquo; which is owned by Verizon Media. This information was collected upon simply opening a paid business focused application.\nDevice Orientation Country Language Timezone OS Version Screen height and width Device model iOS Advertising ID 3 Battery Percentage Disk Usage Phone or iPad Carrier Memory available CPU Load Application Name Version Session ID - Could only be for tracking. Session duration in milliseconds Worth asking, is your data worth the experience?\nThe Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Michael Porter on Wikipedia\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\nInformation extracted using Charles Proxy. Importantly there are measures that some application developers take to stop Charles and similar tools working.\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\nIntroduced in iOS 7 the identifier for advertising is an Apple supported id for advertising. The Android alternative is the Google Play Services identifier. Importantly these identifiers allow users to limit the extent to which they can be tracked by selecting limit ad tracking, though this is all but useless when users login to and app, unless the ads are being served programmatically with no other derived identifier.\u0026#160;\u0026#x21a9;\u0026#xfe0e;\n","date_published":"2020-08-05T12:01:03+1000","image":"https://peth.me/img/blog/2020/05/2020-apps-data-they-collect.jpeg","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Metadata","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2014/2014-11-06-metadata/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2014/2014-11-06-metadata/","summary":"The Australian Government recently introduced new laws required the retention of metadata. Do we need to ask the question, does this represent an acceptable risk?","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eThe Australian Governments has recently introduced laws that would force telecommunications companies to store metadata for two years, under the banner of counter-terrorism. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong I have nothing wrong with the work that the government does in keeping us safe, however, given that number of hacks and breaches that occur these days, there are just too many risks.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMetadata that is collected by telecommunications companies can be used to track your every movement. In the hands of the wrong people, such information can be used to tell someone if you are at home.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeveral years ago a German politician, Malte Spitz sued German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom to get all the metadata that they had on him. He successfully got them to hand over a copy of this data, which he has turned into a \u003ca href=\"http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-data-retention\"\u003evisualisation\u003c/a\u003e that would scare many people and show just how invasive this data is. The 35830 data points used to make this visualisation have been made \u003ca href=\"https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0An0YnoiCbFHGdGp3WnJkbE4xWTdDTVV0ZDlQeWZmSXc\u0026amp;hl=en_GB\u0026amp;authkey=COCjw-kG\"\u003eavailable to the public\u003c/a\u003e. Malte has gone on to give a speech on at TED titled \u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/malte_spitz_your_phone_company_is_watching\"\u003e\u0026lsquo;Your Phone Company is Watching\u0026rsquo;\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe amount of detail that metadata contains is enough to scare me and make me question just how much information does my phone company have on me?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecently Telstra Australia\u0026rsquo;s largest telecommunications company has admitted that it currently has 3000 terabytes worth of metadata. In 3000 terabytes you could store approximately 1,500,000,000 photos!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile we live in an age where either government or private enterprise track most of our activities, we must start to question just how much information do they need?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the end of the day, we are always going to struggle to stop our telecommunications providers collecting information on us. However, when it comes to the Internet and companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google, we can try to stop trackers or decide which trackers to allow using services like \u003ca href=\"https://www.ghostery.com/en/\"\u003eGhostery\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNote: This article was updated in November 2019 to fix the typos of my younger self.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":"The Australian Governments has recently introduced laws that would force telecommunications companies to store metadata for two years, under the banner of counter-terrorism. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong I have nothing wrong with the work that the government does in keeping us safe, however, given that number of hacks and breaches that occur these days, there are just too many risks.\nMetadata that is collected by telecommunications companies can be used to track your every movement. In the hands of the wrong people, such information can be used to tell someone if you are at home.\nSeveral years ago a German politician, Malte Spitz sued German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom to get all the metadata that they had on him. He successfully got them to hand over a copy of this data, which he has turned into a visualisation that would scare many people and show just how invasive this data is. The 35830 data points used to make this visualisation have been made available to the public. Malte has gone on to give a speech on at TED titled \u0026lsquo;Your Phone Company is Watching\u0026rsquo;.\nThe amount of detail that metadata contains is enough to scare me and make me question just how much information does my phone company have on me?\nRecently Telstra Australia\u0026rsquo;s largest telecommunications company has admitted that it currently has 3000 terabytes worth of metadata. In 3000 terabytes you could store approximately 1,500,000,000 photos!\nWhile we live in an age where either government or private enterprise track most of our activities, we must start to question just how much information do they need?\nAt the end of the day, we are always going to struggle to stop our telecommunications providers collecting information on us. However, when it comes to the Internet and companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google, we can try to stop trackers or decide which trackers to allow using services like Ghostery.\nNote: This article was updated in November 2019 to fix the typos of my younger self.\n","date_published":"2014-06-11T21:15:40+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Aaron Swartz","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2014/2014-11-03-arron-swartz/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2014/2014-11-03-arron-swartz/","summary":"From reddit to RSS, Aaron Swartz is a name we should all know. He is responsible for many standards we today take for granted. Aaron's was tragicly cut short at the age of 26 in 2013.","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eWhichever way you look at it, Aaron Swartz has fundamentally changed the Internet. Aaron is one of the people behind \u003ca href=\"http://www.reddit.com/\"\u003ereddit\u003c/a\u003e, which has been called the front page of the Internet. However, many would suggest that Aarons biggest claim to fame is as a coauthor of \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS\"\u003eRSS or Rich Site Summary\u003c/a\u003e standard that is widely used across the Internet.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEarlier this year a movie was released telling Aarons story, his fight for an open Internet, his legal battle, and explores the questions of access to information and civil liberties that drove his work.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe movie is embedded below or is available to download for free from \u003ca href=\"https://archive.org/details/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryOfAaronSwartz\"\u003earchive.org\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"embed-responsive\"\u003e\n  \u003ciframe src=\"https://web.archive.org/web/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryOfAaronSwartz\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\u003c/iframe\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNote: This article was updated in November 2019 to fix the typos of my younger self.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":"Whichever way you look at it, Aaron Swartz has fundamentally changed the Internet. Aaron is one of the people behind reddit, which has been called the front page of the Internet. However, many would suggest that Aarons biggest claim to fame is as a coauthor of RSS or Rich Site Summary standard that is widely used across the Internet.\nEarlier this year a movie was released telling Aarons story, his fight for an open Internet, his legal battle, and explores the questions of access to information and civil liberties that drove his work.\nThe movie is embedded below or is available to download for free from archive.org.\nNote: This article was updated in November 2019 to fix the typos of my younger self.\n","date_published":"2014-03-11T21:17:39+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]},{"title":"Print Friendly","id":"https://peth.me/blog/2014/2014-03-08-print-friendly/","url":"https://peth.me/blog/2014/2014-03-08-print-friendly/","summary":"Print Friendly allows you to turn any webpage into a readable cleanly formatted PDF document at a click of a button.","content_html":"\u003cp\u003eAs a university student, I\u0026rsquo;m always having to read the information contained on various websites, that are often filled with ads. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong I don\u0026rsquo;t have an issue with ads. However, I do have an issue when this makes a website unfriendly to read.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI recently came across a fantastic tool, that makes it simple and easy to turn any website into a print friendly, E-mail friendly and PDF friendly format. Print friendly as it is called provides a simple easy to use interface to customise the sections of the website that you really wished print. Perhaps my favourite feature of print friendly is the way it lays out the downloadable PDF documents.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough I have only been using print friendly for a few short weeks, I\u0026rsquo;m convinced that this will be one of those tools that I continue to rely on for years to come. I would encourage you to give print friendly and go for yourself.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.printfriendly.com/\"\u003ePrint Friendly\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNote: This article was updated in November 2019 to fix the typos of my younger self.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","content_text":"As a university student, I\u0026rsquo;m always having to read the information contained on various websites, that are often filled with ads. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong I don\u0026rsquo;t have an issue with ads. However, I do have an issue when this makes a website unfriendly to read.\nI recently came across a fantastic tool, that makes it simple and easy to turn any website into a print friendly, E-mail friendly and PDF friendly format. Print friendly as it is called provides a simple easy to use interface to customise the sections of the website that you really wished print. Perhaps my favourite feature of print friendly is the way it lays out the downloadable PDF documents.\nAlthough I have only been using print friendly for a few short weeks, I\u0026rsquo;m convinced that this will be one of those tools that I continue to rely on for years to come. I would encourage you to give print friendly and go for yourself.\nPrint Friendly\nNote: This article was updated in November 2019 to fix the typos of my younger self.\n","date_published":"2014-08-03T20:33:03+1000","authors":[{"name":"Sam Petherbridge"}]}]}