April 24, 2019
Ah, data, big and small, are everywhere. Believe ’em or not:
5. Number of US airports with facial recognition systems. Source: Quartz
2. Number of towns in Kansas which gave Facebook-infused educational program an F. Source: New York Times
12,000. Number of factoids the UK government added to Alexa. Source: The Inquirer
10 percent. Percentage of Americans who do not use the Internet. Source: Pew Research Center
$2.7 billion. FBI’s calculation of the losses to cyber crime in 2018. Source: DarkReading
$30 million. Amount Apple spends for Amazon services. Source: Apple Insider
1 million. Number of robotaxis Elon Musk promises in 2020. Source: Engadget
48 percent. Percentage of Canadians who would be broke if they had to come up with more than $200. Source: BNN Bloomberg
90 minutes. Length of time it took The Weather Channel to recover rom a ransomeware attack. Source: ZDNet
33 percent. Percentage of companies using open source to reduce costs. Source: Enterprisers Project
23 million, Number of people in the US using 123456 as a password. Source: Slashdot
40 million. Number of cyber attacks on Ecuador since forcing Wikileaks’ founder out of the UK Ecuador embassy. Source: The Inquirer
28 percent. Number of US drivers who ignore the road due to mobile phone use. Source: CNet
50 percent. Amount of alcohol 10 percent of Australian drinkers imbibe. Source: Online Library Wiley
Stephen E Arnold, April 24, 2019
April 17, 2019
Some of the data facts which caught my attention. My goodness. Believe ’em or not.
0. Number of Alexa killer apps out of the 80,000 apps available for the smart speaker. Source: Computerworld
5. Average number of mobile apps a person uses each day. Source: ZDNet
10 percent. The increase in distracted driving in 2019. Source: Road Show
35. The number of the IMDB top 250 available for streaming. Source: Streaming Observer
38 percent. The percentage of abusive tweets Twitter’s smart software stops. So only 62 percent get pumped out. Source: Engadget
48. Number of months a project lives before Google terminates it. Source: Next Web
50 percent. Number of records in Google local business listings with error. Source: Search Engine Journal
67 percent. The percentage of corporations not using blockchain technology. Source: Next Web
100. Number of pounds of iron the Titanic loses to hungry micro organisms. Source: Forbes
400. Number of people one can follow on Twitter. Source: CNet
$600. Cost of YouTube TV per year. Source: Engadget
5,860. Number of Amazon patent filings. Source: Failed Architecture
$50,000. Amount PewDiePie contributed in crypto currency to Alex Jones. Source: Next Web
200,000. Number of US government data sets available for free. Source: CIO
$4 million. Amount Goggle will pay for terminating the Google Fiber project. Source: Slashdot
$22.6 million. Facebook’s security bill for protecting Mark Zuckerberg. Source: Guardian
$58 million. Amount Uber paid Google for Maps between January 1, 2016, and December 2018. Source: Android Authority
1 billion. Number of records a hacker dumped in eight weeks. Source: Slashdot
$1.8 billion. Uber’s loss in 2018. Source: CNBC
Stephen E Arnold, April 17, 2019
April 10, 2019
Yes, data, information, anecdata, and good old marketing. Believe these outputs… or not.
74. Number of groups on Facebook selling hacking tools, stolen credit card information, and other products associated with the Dark Web. Source: Cisco Talos
$900,000. Apple’s losses after two student in Oregon sold fake iPhones. Source: Business Telegraph
$45 million. Amount generated by an accountant by selling iPhones and iPads in an illegal manner. Source: Apple Insider
$44.1 million. The amount by which the accountant’s scam exceeded the students’ scam. Source: DarkCyber
$600 billion. The value of images stolen every day by online users. Source: Techdirt
60,000. Number of Android users whose phones had software which allowed a stalker to follow the target. Source: IT Wire
145,000. Number of data items in a UK police unit’s gang matrix. Source: The Register
$12 million. The amount Motel 6 will pay to the US government after improperly giving guest data to the US Government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit. Source: NPR
300. Number of days since the Pentagon held a news conference. Source: National Interest
95 percent. The accuracy of IBM’s Watson technology when predicting when employees will quite. Source: CNBC
590 million. Number of résumés leaked by Chinese personnel firms. Source: Slashdot
190,410. Number of US people who lost their jobs in the first quarter of 2019. Axios
700,000. Number of people released from US prisons each year. Source: Big Think
$334 million. The amount VCs invested in blockchain startups in the first quarter of 2019. The amount invested in 2017 was $5.5 billion. Source: Technology Review
44. The number of banks “researching” blockchain technology. Source: Crypto Economy
2.7 million. Number of Americans getting Netflix DVDs via the US mail. Source: CNN
3,236. Number of Internet-delivering satellites Amazon will launch…soon. Source: Digital Trends
490,000. Number of MySpace tunes the Internet Archive recovered. Source: Digital Reader
$20. Amount paid to a person in Louisville, Kentucky, who allows a DNA sample to be taken. Source: Wave 3 TV News
26 minutes. The average amount of free time each day enjoyed by Americans. Source: Study Finds
Stephen E Arnold, April 10, 2019
April 3, 2019
Believe ‘em or not. Each week we ask ourselves, “What happened to those students who received D grades in Statistics 101? We think we know.
< 1 percent. The percentage of criminalized money seized by investigators from the funds flowing through the international financial system. Source: BBC
2 percent. Percentage of carbon emissions for which Volkswagen says it is responsible. Source: One News Page
3. Number of stickers required to crash a Tesla’s smart software. The stickers must be placed on the road on which the vehicle is traveling. Source: Extremetech
Four. Number of beers per day required to stunt developing brain growth by 47 percent. Source: New Atlas
13. Number of languages in which the US census will collect data. Source: NPR
21 days. If Mr. Trump closes the border, Americans run out of avocados in three weeks. Source: Guardian
30. Number of video games China’s information authority has just approved. Source: Reuters
33 percent. Businesses which will not invest in smart software. Source: Digital Journal
50 percent. Percentage of third generation keyboards at Basecamp which have failed. Source: TechRepublic
50 percent. The percentage of the Sony smartphone workforce to be terminated by 2020. Source: Nikkei
51.2 percent. Ownership stake of Google in Burning Man. Source: MixMag
70 percent. Chromium’s share of Web browsers. Source: Samuel Maddock
83 percent. Percentage of people happy to work alongside robots and 78 percent “are ready to take on new roles.” Source: Computer Weekly
300. The maximum number of search results Google returns for a query. Source: Digital Reader
1,000. The number of Google professionals objecting to the composition of the Google ethics group for artificial intelligence. Source: Technology Review
$172,222. The amount of money Knight Capital lost per second during a 45 minute outage. Source: Hmmz.org
$117 million. Amount Intel has recently invested in 14 start ups. Source: Venture Beat
1.5 billion. Number of Gmail users. Daiji World
Stephen E Arnold, April 3, 2019
March 27, 2019
Believe these numerical wonders or not.
5.7 percent. Percentage increase in mental health problems when companies shift to performance based pay. Source: Academy of Management
9. Number of hours the US iGen generation spends in front of a screen. The Conversation
4.2 million. Number of Sony virtual reality headsets sold since 2016. Source: Bit Tech
90 percent. Percentage of Americans with pesticides in their blood. Source: The Nation
61 percent. Percentage of chief information officers who believe employees leak data maliciously. Source: Help Net Security
37 percent. Percentage of worldwide mobile traffic consumed by YouTube viewers. Source: Search Engine Journal
$479 million. Value of Microsoft’s Hololens deal with the Pentagon which MSFT employees want the company to cancel. Source: Market.us
<3 percent. Computing devices properly wiped before recycling. Source: Dark Reading
10.5 billion. Number of malware attacks in 2018. Source:IT Pro Portal
33 percent. Percentage of time that television ads play to an empty room. Source: Quartz
73 percent. Amount of activity a person’s second most used app receives. Source: Discover
$76,000. Amount a scammer earned through domain squatting. Source: Next Web
$3.2 million. Amount Google will “give” to the Asia Pacific Innovation Challenge. Source: Branding in Asia
$123 million. Amount Facebook and Google paid to a Lithuanian who submitted fake invoices to the companies. Source: ZDNet
$3.1 billion. Amount Uber paid for Careem on demand taxi service. Source: SFGate
Stephen E Arnold, March 27, 2019
March 20, 2019
Our data rich world yields bounteous riches. Ponder these factualities.
0. Number of runaway hits among Amazon Alexa’s 80,000 apps. Source: Bloomberg
$0.14. Amount Amazon receives from each Lyft ride. Source: Twitter
30 percent. Decrease in Web traffic to Tumblr.com since December 2018. Source: Verge
33 percent. Percentage of youngsters in the US who are lonely. Source: Reddit citing a UPI story no longer online.
49 percent. Percentage of Israeli start ups purchased by American companies. Source: No Camels
67 percent. Percentage of Android anti virus apps which are non functional once installed. Source: Techspot
2. Hours per day spent searching for information. Source: IT Pro Portal
200. Android malware with SimBad removed from the Google App Store. Source: The Inquirer
4,000. The number of Facebook users who viewed the New Zealand live shooting. Source: Engadget
$5,200. Cost of 256 gigabytes of RAM for the new Apple iMac. Source: 9 to 5 Mac
1 million. Number of bad advertiser accounts Google removed in 2018. Source: VentureBeat
$1.4 million. Amount paid for a racing pigeon. Source: CNN
$23 million. Amount of the cash grant Amazon will receive from Arlington County, Virginia, over a five-year period. Source: Reuters
245 million. Number of people in India watching YouTube on a mobile phone each month. Source: Financial Times
$500 million. Cost of a new U S supercomputer. Source: New York Times
Stephen E Arnold, March 20, 2019
March 13, 2019
Ah, accurate data. Some gems to ponder.
68 percent. The percentage of those 18 to 37 are comfortable letting smart software access personal data to improve a “customer experience”. Source: Forbes
$17 million. Cost of voice search errors. Source: Forbes
44 percent. The percentage of votes cast online in Estonia’s most recent election. Source ZDNet
2 million. Uyghur’s not detained in China, just in the process of reeducation. Source: USNews
15 million. Number of Android devices with fraudulent advertising software installed. Source: Bitsight
18 percent. Percentage of Facebook users who are teens, an increase of 13 percent from a previous statement. Source:
$137 million. Amount of money not in the deceased crypto CEO’s laptop digital currency account. Source: Business Insider
700. Number of digital currency money laundering cases in 2018. Source: Finance Magnates
15 million. Number of Facebook users lost between 2017 and 2019. Source Marketplace
18 percent. Percentage of teens using Facebook, an increase of 13 percent from a previous statement. Source: Techcrunch
6,000 gigabytes. Amount of data stolen from Citrix’s internal server. Source: The Register
Stephen E Arnold, March 13, 2019
March 6, 2019
Believe the data or not. We believe everything we read on the Internet, including the ads, Facebook PR, and statements from any online source that presents information. That’s the way it should be.
1,600. The amount of horsepower in the Koenigsegg Jesko. Source: CNet
1,600. Number of Teslas held in Chinese customs. Sources: Caixing Global
28 days. The average life of a scooter in Louisville, Kentucky. The interval is almost as long as Google’s commitment to high speed Internet in the city. Source: Oversharing
36. The number of months Moldovan developers reported flows of misinformation and fake news to Facebook. Facebook took action in February 2019. Source: Buzzfeed
23 million. Number of times Chinese nationals with a low social credit (social behavior) score were stopped from buying train or airplane tickets. Source: AP
40 percent. Number of artificial intelligence start ups in Europe which are not involved in AI. Source: The Inquirer
45 percent. The percentage of Americans who have had a brother or sister, parent, spouse or child spend time in jail or prison. Source: Cornell University
32 billion. Number of “compromised credentials” in the SpyCloud database. Source: Venture Beat
18 percent. Percentage of minors in Facebook’s for-pay monitoring service. Source: TechCrunch
$23 million. Incentives to be paid to Amazon has to take “a certain amount” of office space in the once thriving Crystal City complex. Source: Washington Post
43. The number of patents Apple was granted on January 1, 2019. Source: Patently Apple
70,000. Number of Chromecasts seized by hackers to promote PewDiePie. Source: Android Authority
Stephen E Arnold, March 6, 2019
February 27, 2019
Data are wonderful. Especially when each and every fact is presented without context and without the constraints of Statistics 101. Here are some gems from the last few days:
24 percent. Percentage of adults who listen to podcasts each day. Country? Sample size? Demographics of “adults”? Not relevant. Source: Chartable
51 percent. Percentage of technology industry workers who believe that fake news is in line with President Trump’s view of the media. Source: Buzzfeed
$522 billion. Revenue from global sales of smartphones in 2018. Source: GFK
$3,500. Cost of Microsoft HoloLens 2 mixed reality headset. (The price is $900 more than the Huawei Mate X foldable 5G mobile phone.) Source: The Verge
1020. Number of hate groups tallied in 2018. Source: USA Today
$1,000. Initial fee for a Google dot dev domain name. Source: The Register
930. The number of exabytes consumed by mobile users in a single year by 2020. Source: Enterprise Networking Planet
500 or 50? Number of Microsoft employees who did not sign up to develop weapons. Source: Buzzfeed
47th. The rank of the US among 77 countries in 4G download speeds. Source: 9to5Mac. Note: The original document has been “disappeared.”
65. Number of days Signal has spent trying to contact Google about an app updating issue. Source: Twitter
1 terabyte. Size of new SanDisk micro secure digital card. Source: Engadget
Stephen E Arnold, February 27, 2019
February 20, 2019
There’s nothing like numbers, opaque data about sample size, and zero information about statistical methods to make one long for spring. Ponder these outputs, please.
800. The number of people terminated after Activision Blizzard announced record income for 2018. Source: Variety
620 million. The number of stolen accounts from 16 Web sites now offered on the “Dark Web.” Source: The Register
127 million. The number of additional stolen accounts offered by the bad actor who stole 620 accounts. Source: TechCrunch
33 percent. The percentage of businesses which can protect themselves from data breaches. Source IT Pro Portal
33 percent. Success of fishing Federal Housing Finance Agency employees. Source: Government Computer News
26. The number of key algorithms advancing post-quantum cryptography. No, ah, a post quantum something. Source: NIST
67 percent. The percentage of US bankruptcies caused by medical bills. Source: Christian Journal
37 percent. The percentage of Americans who have been harassed online. Source: Wired (pay wall may apply to you)
3,000. The number of Walgreen pharmacies and convenience shops which will accept Ant Financial’s digital wallet. Source: Ecommerce Daily News
6,250. Number of serial killers in a Calgary professor’s database. Source: Archive.org
$50. The amount per computer to get security updates for Windows 7 for one year. Price doubles each subsequent year. Source: ZDNet
$150,000. The amount per infringed movie a pirate must pay if guilty of illegal streaming. Source: Ars Technica
13X. The multiple of growth in marketing companies in the blockchain sector in the last 18 months. Source: Venture Beat
13%. The sales decline for notebook computers in the next 12 weeks. Source: Digitimes
$100,150. Amount an individual paid for a sticker sealed copy of Super Mario Brothers video game. Source: CNet
$9.4 billion. The amount Google allegedly paid Apple to be the default search engine in Safari. Source: Business Insider (pay wall may apply to you)
Until next week, happy analysis with solid data.
Stephen E Arnold, February 20, 2019
