It’s that time of year where these kinds of thoughts and insight come out. As far as my blog and thoughts go, I try to keep this tech-centric for both the lay-person and try to keep it interesting for the tech enthusiast. I’ll be honest I don’t fully know everything about what I write but I find enough sources to back up what I’m saying as I keep a close ear on technology.

4. There will be an alternative to passwords to all

As you can read in this article, password use isn’t secure. I am surprised by this because every service is very strict on password requirements; special character, number, capital letter etc. A security expert will say that you shouldn’t use Gmail or any other mainstream email service, that you should have your own private email server and that’s true protection. Or use PGP which is not something that the average person is going to jump hoops through because convenience triumphs security and right now there is no crossover between the two that makes it both. Public key encryptions are an alternative to passwords but people aren’t going to spend money on something like that until they are affected by an attack. I think in 2019 a company, rather it be an established one or startup, will come up with a viable alternative to make passwords a thing of the past.

3. 5G won’t take off

With reports that smartphones will cost extra for 5G support, I don’t see 5G phones becoming thing nor should they be. 4G LTE is already fast enough for people that in most cases, it is more reliable than their home WiFi. You have to consider that it costs a lot to roll out 5G, so companies will have to charge its customers. Not to mention there are health concerns about it as well.

2. Snapchat Will Go Under

Snapchat’s ad business isn’t sustainable. People skip over ads, companies have to pay to show their content on the platform. The UI for Snap has always been unique, the younger crowd knows how to use it and the older demographic is hesitant to use it because of not so clean cut UI. This is what keeps it relevant compared to Facebook. Companies pay to have their stories put on the platform with little to no ROI.  So I predict it will be bought and absorbed by an old media company that has enough money buy it to stay relevant.

1. Something like GDPR will come to USA

Here’s an explanation for GDPR. So far there are very little laws coming into place for the future of “data as a currency”. While a right to privacy is not explicitly included within the US Constitution, in 1965 the US Supreme Court recognized an implied constitutional right in Griswold v. Connecticut. Congress further developed the right to privacy in 1974 when it passed the Privacy Act, restricting federal agencies in their collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. With this act, the US became one of the first countries in the world to adopt a major privacy law. Today, the US has an array of privacy and data protection laws at the state and federal level. Depending on an organization’s industry, the type of information it collects, and its use of that information, a company may be subject to one or more of these laws. Naturally, that may affect the organization’s practices and policies. The decisions on this kind thing are slow to pass in the US, but I think we’ll see a headline of something will be passed and put into place in the future. With so many data breaches, its important something like that is put into place.

Bonus: A cloud version of Adobe Photoshop

I’ve heard about this a couple years ago and never heard from again. I didn’t put it on my list because it’s something that’s being developed.