The EU-US Privacy Shield Was Just Invalidated: What To Do Now

This week, the Court of Justice of the European Union handed down its ruling in the case popularly known as “Schrems II.” Why should you care about an obscure EU case? Because the ruling invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield, the mechanism by which American companies could process EU residents’ data on US soil. This is a fairly serious problem for any organization that does business with European consumers but doesn’t use European vendors for the storage and analysis of that data. We just published a five-step plan to manage this new risk. In addition, all CMO clients should immediately review all the marketing and advertising vendors that rely on the EU-US Privacy Shield for storing and processing data on your behalf. Enlist the help of your chief information security officer or general counsel to evaluate your vendors’ back-up plan. Do they plan to rely on binding corporate rules? Will they move your data to a European data center? Or are they counting on a lack of enforcement to keep doing business as usual? If you need more guidance, we’re here to help. 

Amazon Is Providing Its Own Primary Care Clinics For Employees

This week, Amazon launched the next phase in its quest to fix healthcare: It opened five primary care clinics focused on serving Amazon employees. These “Neighborhood Health Centers” add to Amazon’s broader endeavor to reduce medical costs and improve the healthcare experience of its employees — including the introduction of Amazon Care, its employee virtual care platform, and the launch of Haven for Healthcare, a joint venture aimed at reimagining employee health benefits. Amazon is doubling down on employee health as more Americans face higher costs for healthcare, are pushed into high-deductible health plans, and face higher costs for healthcare. Amazon’s medical cost-reduction efforts have yielded mixed results thus far but should not be ignored by employers, providers, and health insurers. Research shows that these models lead to consumers putting off necessary preventative care, which is key to identifying chronic conditions and mental health needs, reducing the risk of future high-cost events, and lowering medical spend for employers and health insurers. 

The Battle For Consumer TV Viewing Time Rages On

This week, NBCUniversal launched Peacock: its entrant in the streaming wars offering a full library of the network’s current season, original shows, and archival “must see TV” programs like “30 Rock,” “Parks and Recreation,” and “Saturday Night Live.” Content is important, but the experience viewers have when discovering and controlling the content is key to long-term success. Our ConsumerVoices Market Research Online Community is already voicing objections to the rising costs of multiple subscriptions and frustration with the time wasted hunting for desired content. Peacock’s answer to this content-discovery challenge is “channels” that revolve around content franchises like “The Office,” the “Today Show,” news, and sports. Their aim: to encourage a new form of channel surfing, which they claim viewers in their prelaunch pilot found to be an easier content discovery experience. For the ad-supported streaming service, more time viewing content and less time searching for it means more advertising to sell. It also means happier couch potatoes who may just make Peacock their first stop for streaming, stealing time from Netflix and others. Check out our in–depth digital experience review of US streaming apps, and stay tuned for the latest iteration, which is scheduled to publish in August.