bredemarket

Friction is Bad

Some time ago I read a story (which may or may not have been true) about an employer who called multiple job applicants to the office for a morning interview. As time passed and the employer didn’t interview anyone, some of the applicants got tired of waiting and left. At the end of the day, only one applicant remained. That applicant got the job.

The person who told the story thought that it demonstrated that perseverance pays off.
Most of the readers thought that it demonstrated that the employer was a jerk and that the work environment was probably toxic.

If this were to happen in real life, the employer would paradoxically lose out on the BEST candidates who had better things to do than sit around an office all day.

Why?

Because people avoid friction. If job applicants can obtain jobs without playing silly games, they will.

Friction is bad.

Waiting room in an airport. — Waiting room image by User:Mattes – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1732601.

The evolution of fingerprint capture

When I started in the biometric industry 30 years ago, many police agencies were capturing fingerprints by putting ink on a person’s fingers and rolling/slapping the prints on a card.

FBI fingerprint card. — From Certifix, https://store.certifixlivescan.com/products/criminal-fingerprint-record-card.

That was messy and time-consuming, so companies like Digital Biometrics and Identix developed “livescan” devices, which did not require ANY ink and which let police agencies capture fingerprints by rolling/slapping the prints on a glass platen. This process could require a minute or two for the livescan operator to capture all fourteen images.

That’s a long time.

As I’ve previously noted, it was TOO long for some people in the federal government, who began asking in 2004 if technology could capture a complete set of fingerprints in 15 seconds.

20 years later, we can capture fingerprints (at least 8 of them) in a couple of seconds.

How?

By avoiding friction. Rather than forcing people to place their fingerprints on a card or a platen, “contactless” technology lets the “wave” (or “fly”) their fingers over a capture device, or hold their fingerprints in front of a smartphone camera.

Friction is bad.

The sound of silence

Despite what lyricists say, silence is NOT your old friend.

When a prospect wants to find out about your biometric solution, how does silence help you?

Let’s say that a prospect hears that MegaCorp offers a biometric solution, but MegaCorp’s blog and social media haven’t posted anything lately.

What are the chances that the prospect will search far and wide to find out about MegaCorp’s biometric solution?

Actually, the chances are better that the prospect won’t search at all, and will turn to the competitors who are NOT silent.

Blogging benefits: 55% more website visitors, 67% more leads, 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI, 92% acquire customers.

Are you going to look for the information that is easily available, or the information that is hard to obtain?

Friction is bad.

Eating my own wildebeest food

I’m trying to reduce friction in Bredemarket’s own practices.

While I still use landing pages for some thing that require further explanation for some prospects, I’m trying to avoid them in some instances.

I’m working on a marketing campaign for a client, and my first “draft 0.5” of the campaign was loaded with friction.

The prospect had to open an email.
In the email, the prospect had to click on a landing page.
On the landing page, the prospect had to fill out a form to book a meeting.

Huge numbers of people drop out of the process at every step. So why not eliminate a step, and let the prospect book a meeting in a form embedded in the email?

Friction is bad.

And I’m applying this same principle to this post.

If your identity/biometric firm is desperate for content to convert prospects into paying customers, why don’t you schedule a free 30-minute meeting with Bredemarket to discuss your needs and what I can offer?

Incidentally, while I often repurpose blog content on Bredemarket’s social media channels, this post WON’T be one of them. I can’t embed a Calendly form into an Instagram or LinkedIn post.

And I can’t embed YouTube videos either.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkUOACGtGfA.

Do You Know Your Identity/Biometric Competitors…And Yourself?

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Do you need:

Competitor and competitor product analysis?
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Analysis of your own company?

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Do All 5 Identity Factors Apply to Non-Human Identities?

I’ve talked ad nauseam about the five factors of identity verification and authentication. In case you’ve forgotten, these factors are:

Something you know.
Something you have.
Something you are.
Something you do.
Somewhere you are.

I’ll leave “somewhat you why” out of the discussion for now, but perhaps I’ll bring it back later.

These five (or six) factors are traditionally used to identify people.

Identifying “Non-Person Entities”

But what happens when the entity you want to identify is not a person? I’ll give two examples:

Kwebbelkop AI? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l4KCbTyXQ4.

Kwebbelkop AI, discussed in “Human Cloning Via Artificial Intelligence: It’s Starting,” is not a human. But is there a way to identify the “real” Kwebbelkop AI from a “fake” one?
In “On Attribute-Based Access Control,” I noted that NIST defined a subject as “a human user or NPE (Non-Person Entity), such as a device that issues access requests to perform operations on objects.” Again, there’s a need to determine that the NPE has the right attributes, and is not a fake, deep or shallow.

There’s clearly a need to identify non-person entities. If I work for IBM and have a computer issued by IBM, the internal network needs to know that this is my computer, and not the computer of a North Korean hacker.

But I was curious. Can the five (or six) factors identify non-person entities?

Let’s consider factor applicability, going from the easiest to the hardest.

The easy factors

Somewhere you are. Not only is this extremely applicable to non-person entities, but in truth this factor doesn’t identify persons, but non-person entities. Think about it: a standard geolocation application doesn’t identify where YOU are. It identities where YOUR SMARTPHONE is. Unless you have a chip implant, there is nothing on your body that can identify your location. So obviously “somewhere you are” applies to NPEs.
Something you have. Another no brainer. If a person has “something,” that something is by definition an NPE. So “something you have” applies to NPEs.
Something you do. NPEs can do things. My favorite example is Kraftwerk’s pocket calculator. You will recall that “by pressing down this special key it plays a little melody.” I actually had a Casio pocket calculator that did exactly that, playing a tune that is associated with Casio. Later, Brian Eno composed a startup sound for Windows 95. So “something you do” applies to NPEs. (Although I’m forced to admit that an illegal clone computer and operating system could reproduce the Eno sound.)

Something you do, 1980s version. Advance to 1:49 to hear the little melody. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ozWOe9WEU8.

Something you do, 1990s version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miZHa7ZC6Z0.

Those three were easy. Now it gets harder.

The hard factors

Something you know. This one is a conceptual challenge. What does an NPE “know”? For artificial intelligence creations such as Kwebbelkop AI, you can look at the training data used to create it and maintain it. For a German musician’s (or an Oregon college student’s) pocket calculator, you can look at the code used in the device, from the little melody itself to the action to take when the user enters a 1, a plus sign, and another 1. But is this knowledge? I lean toward saying yes—I can teach a bot my mother’s maiden name just as easily as I can teach myself my maiden name. But perhaps some would disagree.

Something you are. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll stick to physical objects here, ranging from pocket calculators to hand-made ceramic plates. The major reason that we like to use “something you are” as a factor is the promise of uniqueness. We believe that fingerprints are unique (well, most of us), and that irises are unique, and that DNA is unique except for identical twins. But is a pocket calculator truly unique, given that the same assembly line manufactures many pocket calculators? Perhaps ceramic plates exhibit uniqueness, perhaps not.

That’s all five factors, right?

Well, let’s look at the sixth one.

Somewhat you why

You know that I like the “why” question, and some time ago I tried to apply it to identity.

Why is a person using a credit card at a McDonald’s in Atlantic City? (Link) Or, was the credit card stolen, or was it being used legitimately?
Why is a person boarding a bus? (Link) Or, was the bus pass stolen, or was it being used legitimately?
Why is a person standing outside a corporate office with a laptop and monitor? (Link) Or, is there a legitimate reason for an ex-employee to gain access to the corporate office?

The first example is fundamental from an identity standpoint. It’s taken from real life, because I had never used any credit card in Atlantic City before. However, there was data that indicated that someone with my name (but not my REAL ID; they didn’t exist yet) flew to Atlantic City, so a reasonable person (or identity verification system) could conclude that I might want to eat while I was there.

But can you measure intent for an NPE?

Does Kwebbelkop AI have a reason to perform a particular activity?
Does my pocket calculator have a reason to tell me that 1 plus 1 equals 3?
Does my ceramic plate have a reason to stay intact when I drop it ten meters?

I’m not sure.

By Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-13018 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5480820.

Bredemarket Under the Scope

You can plan all you want, but doing matters.

This week I originally planned to work on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and spend Wednesday at the B2B Marketing Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I had figured out my Metrolink and Metro connections, signed up for a “speed networking” event, and even tied a planned blog post and LinkedIn post into my “CPA” marketing campaign.

‘Til Tuesday.

Now I worked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and am taking most of Friday off.

Things move forward.

(Tunnel image CC BY-SA 3.0. I’m sorry.)

Offboarding: What Happens When You Stop Doing Business with Bredemarket?

Consulting firms (and other firms) make a big deal about the amazing processes we use when we onboard clients. (In Bredemarket’s case, I ask questions.)

But often we don’t talk about what we do when we OFFBOARD clients. And that’s equally important.

So let’s go inside the wildebeest habitat and see how Bredemarket handles client offboarding.

“Hey guys, a client jumped ship.” By Danijel Mihajlovic – https://thenextcrossing.com/wildebeest-migration-kenya, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96024366.

This is the end, beautiful friend

Yes, offboarding happens.

In 2023 I signed a contract with a client in which I would bill them at an hourly rate. This was a short-term contract, but it was subsequently renewed.

Recently the client chose not to renew the contract for another extended period.

woodleywonderworks, CC BY 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2248069430.

On the surface, that would appear to be the end of it. I had completed all projects assigned to me, and I had been paid for all projects assigned to me.

So what could go wrong?

(Don’t) Tell all the people

Plenty could go wrong.

During the course of my engagement with the client, I had enjoyed access to:

Confidential information FROM the client.
Confidential information that I sent TO the client, as part of the work for hire arrangement.
Access to client systems. (In this particular instance I only had access to a single system with non-confidential information, but other clients have granted me access to storage systems and even software.)

And all of this data was sitting in MY systems, including three storage systems, one CRM system, and one email system.

By Unnamed photographer for Office of War Information. – U.S. Office of War Information photo, via Library of Congress website [1], converted from TIFF to .jpg and border cropped before upload to Wikimedia Commons., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8989847.

Now of course I had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the client, so I legally could not use any of that data even if I wanted to do so.

But the data was still sitting there, and I had to do something about it.

Take It As It Comes

But I already knew what I had to do, because I had done this before.

Long-time readers of the Bredemarket blog will recall an announcement that I made on April 22, 2022, in which I stated that I would no longer “accept client work for solutions that identify individuals using (a) friction ridges (including fingerprints and palm prints) and/or (b) faces.” (I also stopped accepting work for solutions involving driver’s licenses and passports.)

I didn’t say WHY I was refusing this work; I saved that tidbit for a mailing to my mailing list.

So, why I am making these changes at Bredemarket?

I have accepted a full-time position as a Senior Product Marketing Manager with an identity company. (I’ll post the details later on my personal LinkedIn account…)…

If you are a current Bredemarket customer with a friction ridge/face identification solution, then I already sent a communication to you with details on wrapping up our business. Thank you for your support over the last 21 months. I’ll probably see you at the conferences that my employer-to-be attends.

That communication to then-current Bredemarket customers detailed, among other things, how I was going to deal with the confidential information I held from them.

So I dusted off the pertinent parts of that communication and repurposed it to send to my 2023-2024 client. I’ve reproduced non-redacted portions of that communication below. Although I don’t explicitly name my information storage systems in this public post, as I noted above these include three storage systems, one CRM system, and one email system.

Bredemarket will follow the following procedures to protect your confidential information.

Bredemarket will delete confidential information provided to Bredemarket by your company by (REDACTED). This includes information presently stored on (REDACTED).

Bredemarket will delete draft and final documents created by Bredemarket that include company confidential information by (REDACTED). This includes information presently stored on (REDACTED).

If your company has provided Bredemarket with access to your company OneDrive, Outlook, or Sites, Bredemarket will delete the ability to access these company properties by (REDACTED). This includes deletion from my laptop computer, my mobile phone, and my web browser. Bredemarket further recommends that you revoke Bredemarket’s access to these systems.

If your company has provided Bredemarket with access to all or part of your company Google Drive, Bredemarket recommends that you revoke Bredemarket’s access to this system.

I will inform you when this process is complete.

So I executed the offboarding process for my former client, ensuring that the client’s confidential information remains protected.

Love Me Two Times

Of course, I hope the client comes back to Bredemarket someday, in some capacity.

But perhaps you can take advantage of the opportunity. Since your competitor no longer contracts with Bredemarket, perhaps YOU can.

To learn WHY you should work with Bredemarket, click the image below and read about my CPA (Content-Proposal-Analysis) expertise.

Postscript

No, I’m not going to post videos of the relevant Doors songs on here. Jim’s Oedpidal complex isn’t business-friendly.

Important and not urgent, but how important?

Whether and how you delegate something depends upon its importance, especially if you recognize three levels of importance. Sometimes the very important and critically important items require a CPA, or Content-Proposal-Analysis marketing professional. (I know one.)

When importance is simple

Last October I spent some time talking about the Eisenhower Matrix and its critical flaw, focusing upon the “important but not urgent” quadrant:

Adapted from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/developing-leadership-skills.

When you have a single level of importance, then decisions are pretty simple. For urgent things, do it yourself if it’s important, delegate it if it’s not.

When “importance” is more granular

But what if, instead of “Not Important” and “Important,” we had three levels of importance instead of just one? In other words, “Not Important,” “Important,” “Very Important,” and “Critically Important”?

A U.S. Navy plane flying over a Soviet ship in October 1962 is, um, classified as “Critically Important.” Oh, and it’s urgent. By USN – Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons Volume 2: The History of VP, VPB, VP(H) and VP(AM) Squadrons [4], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7328539.

In that case, you not only consider whether to delegate something, but who should be delegated that thing. (Or, as you’ll see, WHAT should be delegated that thing.)

If the need is not important, delegate it, but it doesn’t really matter to whom or what you delegate it. ChatGPT or Bard is “good enough,” even if the result is awful.
If the need is important, delegate it to someone you trust to create very good content. Let them create the content, you approve it, and you’re done.
If the need is very important, then you may delegate some of the work, but you don’t want to delegate all of it. You need to be involved in the content creation process from the initial meeting, through the review of every draft, and of course for the final approval. The goal is stellar content.
If the need is critically important, then you probably don’t want to delegate the work and will want to do it yourself—unless you can find someone who is better than you in creating content.

As I noted in October, a more granular approach to importance increases the, um, importance of Bredemarket’s services.

In the simple Eisenhower Matrix model, Bredemarket handles the Not Important stuff while you handle the Important stuff.
In the “three levels of importance” model, Bredemarket handles the Very Important and Critically Important stuff. Because the merely Important stuff and the Not Important stuff doesn’t require my 30 years of technology, identity, and biometrics expertise.

Sometimes you need a CPA (but NOT a Certified Public Accountant)

But if your needs are critical, and you require the services of a CPA (Content-Proposal-Analysis marketing professional), then you need to learn what Bredemarket can do for you. Click on the image to learn more.

I’m Shaky

Ever since I started working from home in March 2020 (while I was still at IDEMIA), I’ve gotten used to having work-related brainstorms at 3:30 am.

So it’s Sunday at 3:30 am and I had a brilliant idea for a Wednesday Bredemarket post.

While drafting that post on my phone, I discovered an UTM-related issue in Friday’s Bredemarket post.

I couldn’t fix it on my phone, so I got up to go to the computer.

Then the house shook and a nearby car alarm went off.

Earthquake preliminary reading, Ontario, California, Sunday, October 6, 2024, 3:51 am PDT.

We’ve had a lot of earthquakes in the 3-4 range lately.

As long as they stay small, I’m fine.

Now back to my brilliant idea…

Educating the Fake Abbott Salesperson

A salesperson from Abbott just contacted me via LinkedIn InMail.

Well, she CLAIMED to be from Abbott. I’m not sure.

Anyway, she said she wanted to “get to know each other” because we are “in the same industry.”

Rather than dismissing the InMail out of hand as a #fraud #scam attempt with a #fakefakefake identity, I embraced the opportunity of a teachable moment and shared Bredemarket’s 2021 post on the difference between biometrics and biometrics. Excerpt:

In my circles, people generally understand ‘biometrics’ to refer to one of several ways to identify an individual.

But for the folks at Merriam-Webster, this is only a secondary definition of the word “biometrics.” From their perspective, biometrics is primarily biometry, which can refer to “the statistical analysis of biological observations and phenomena” or to “measurement (as by ultrasound or MRI) of living tissue or bodily structures.” In other words, someone’s health, not someone’s identity.

Fun fact: if you go to the International Biometric Society and ask it for its opinion on the most recent FRVT 1:N tests, it won’t have an answer for you.

Yeah, “FRVT.” Told you I wrote it in 2021, before the great renaming.

So Abbott salespeople, real or imagined, won’t be interested in what I’ve been doing for the last 30 years. ‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.

But those of you who use biometrics (and other factors) for individualization WILL be interested. Click on the image to find out more.

Drive content results with Bredemarket Identity Firm Services.

Bredemarket’s “CPA”

Is your firm losing business and leaving important items unfinished?

I, John E. Bredehoft of Bredemarket, am a “CPA.” Not a Certified Public Accountant; a Content-Proposal-Analysis marketing professional:

Content such as blog posts, case studies, data sheets, white papers, and more.
Proposal submissions from identity/biometric and technology firms to governments and enterprises.
Analysis of markets, companies and competitors, products, and websites and social media.

I offer over 30 years of technology experience—30 in identity/biometrics, where I am the biometric product marketing expert.

I ask questions first (why, how, what, and more) and collaborate later to ensure I deliver the right content to you.

I provide pre-packaged services or bill you at an hourly rate.

Click here to find out more about Bredemarket’s “CPA” services, and schedule a free 30 minute content needs assessment with me.

Bredemarket’s “CPA” (October 7, 2024)Download

Always Trust Anyone Over 30

I shouldn’t be telling you this, but…

…well, you’ll have to watch the video for my deep dark secret.

Thirty.

Contact me if I can help with the product marketing for your identity/biometric company.

#biometricproductmarketingexpert

#id30and9

My LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbredehoft