• LATEST ON B.Y.O.D. TECHNOLOGY: “Bring Your Own Device” to the workplace policy creates issues which many companies haven’t addressed, unaware that: (1) Companies have a duty to “preserve Data and collect information from personal devices (tablets, smart-phones, etc) for e-discovery purposes… and “failing to adhere can result in severe sanctions.” A recent U.S. District Court ruling confirmed that this duty “attaches to that area on personal phones dedicated to business” (e.g. business-related texts); (2) Operational policies should include saving all business-related documents & emails to some kind of “official repository” backed up on company servers, and requiring employees to “turn off auto-delete to make sure that no data is destroyed”; (3) Employees should be fully informed regarding the portability of devices, and cautioned that a “Wi-Fi hacking device can be purchased for less than $100 that allows access to a vast majority of wireless local area networks within seconds… which can access info and change control settings – with users having no indication a breach has occurred.” [LEGAL TECH NEWS – June 15]
  • THE FIFA SCANDAL: TIP OF AN ICEBERG. “Neither harmless nor victimless, sports corruption is perpetrated by crooked officials, abusive governments and gangsters, sometimes in concert… functioning under four main, related drivers: (1) The needlessly pharaonic scale of mega sporting events which, for kleptocratic regimes, are superb opportunities to embezzle public funds; (2) Vast sums available from marketers & broadcasters who need draws for live audiences, in a process where kickbacks sometimes lubricate the fat contracts that arise – making sports corruption inextricable from the wider scourge of corporate graft; (3) The under-regulated globalization of gambling, and its exploitation by match-fixers and money launderers; (4) governance which is opaque, juicily monopolistic, badly monitored, and wholly unsuited to the big money age… Because sports corruption is a reflection of wider problems – sport merely being an organism to which criminal succubi attaché themselves – it is too formidable for sporting organization to tackle alone, even if they are inclined to.” So not much will change.  [THE ECONOMIST – June 6,15]
  • T.C. HAS PROSECUTED THE FIRST FAILED KICKSTARTER SCAM – a campaign which raised $123K from more than 1,200 people to “create a monopoly-like board game’ based on horror books. Surprise! The con instead “alledgedly spent the money on unrelated projects.” His penalty: a suspended fine to pay back victims, and he’s now “barred from making misrepresentations about future crowd-funding campaigns.” [THE WEEK – June 26, 15]
  • OVER 95% OF PEOPLE GLOBALLY “LIVE WITH A HEALTH PROBLEM,” according to a major Gates Foundation backed study which covered 188 countries. The leading issues include Back Pain in the U.S., Major Depressive Disorder in Ireland, Diabetes in Saudi Arabia, Opioid Dependence in Qatar, Hearing Loss in Burma, and Iron-Deficiency Anemia in Iraq. [TIME – June 29, 15]
  • PUTTING PEOPLE IN PRISON costs Americans an average of $34,000 per inmate per year, double for those over 50 with ailments, and even higher for Californians thanks to the Prison Guards union. Some 2.3 million are incarcerated; around one in every 35 adults is in prison, on parole or on probation; around a third of Afro-American men get locked up at some point, impacting one in nine of their children and strongly “contributing to the breakdown of families… since men behind bars cannot support their offspring, and when released find that many states make it preposterously hard to find jobs.” Political posturing and incentives of people who run the system – which include district attorneys & judges, police forces, Guard unions, government agencies, and private prisons with minimum-occupancy contract terms – make it extremely difficult to reduce prison populations; additionally, in many rural areas, prisons are now the biggest employers.  Meanwhile, the vast majority of those incarcerated are non-violent, non-sex-offenders who’ve committed relatively minor crimes including pot use.  With less than 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. holds roughly 25% of its prisoners.  [THE ECONOMIST – June 20, 15] 
  • EMPLOYERS NOTE: California’s Paid Sick Leave Policy is effective July 1.  All employees, whether full- or part-time, are now entitled to accrue paid sick leave after 90 days of employment. Accrual can be capped 48 hours as long as employee Handbook is updated and distributed. Also, Notice must be posted.
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: Evening news is where they begin with ‘Good evening’, and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.

 The Amazon ‘Pizza Rule’:  “Never have a meeting where two pizzas couldn’t feed the entire group.”

W“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark Twain