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The AI-Based Startup That Knows Your Skin Better Than You Do

**This is part of our series highlighting startups who share our mission of trying to make people’s lives just a little easier**

Anti-aging. Miracle-cure. Dermatologically tested.

These are all buzzwords that regularly crop up in the beauty industry, driving women (and men) all around the world to spend thousands of dollars on skincare products that they may or may not need.

In fact, the global skincare industry is currently estimated to be worth around $130 billion by 2019 – that’s a lot of miracle cures. And we can only assume that the industry will snowball even further in this selfie-obsessed age.

People want to look good – fact. But with so many products to choose from, it can often be a quagmire of irrelevant creams and dissatisfying serums out there.

One new startup sees itself as the beauty industry’s knight in shining armor. Fed up with the BS spouted around skincare, Proven uses artificial intelligence to create individual skincare routines based on skin types and needs.

“The average person spends 45 minutes to 1.5 hours researching products before they buy any beauty products,” says Proven’s co-founder Ming Zhao. “And even after they buy based on the research that they’re able to do, 55% of people are still unsatisfied post-purchase.”

And, with all the lofty promises in ads and on billboards, is it any wonder that people are left disappointed when miracles don’t happen?

“No single person is capable of reading the amount of information there is in order to make a sound decision,” continues Zhao, going on to add that this was the reason behind building the largest database in the beauty industry. Using co-founder Amy Yuan’s computational physics background, the duo has put together an AI engine that sifts through reviews of skincare products.

How Proven Gets to Know Your Skin

To date, the engine has analyzed around eight million skincare product reviews, 20,000 ingredients, and 100,000 products using a sophisticated algorithm to eliminate any fake reviews.

When it sifts through this data, it can pick out general patterns and trends to determine what products are suitable for particular skin types.

“After trying numerous products and investing, nothing really worked for me,” admits Zhao. “Eventually what worked for me were customized products that were made for me by a few different facialists. So that’s how the optimize idea of tailoring products to exactly someone’s situation, someone’s skin, first came to my mind numerous years ago.”

And so Proven was born.

Now that the algorithm has large quantities of data in its clutches, the engine can be let loose on the public.

It works by encouraging people to take a skincare routine quiz that culminates in a categorization of what skin type you have before offering a selection of Proven’s custom skincare products (which are mixed on-site by a chemist).

Quiz-takers can then opt-in to Proven’s bundle of personalized goodies that costs $120 every two months.

Though the AI machine still needs input from each individual, like what products they can’t live without, whether they have an oily T-Zone, and skin allergies, it then uses the mammoth amounts of data is has sifted through to provide a customized solution.

Zhao and Yuan’s main idea was to tap into the power of deep learning algorithms to pick out useful, relevant information from millions of testimonials online and turn the overwhelming amounts of data into a formula to predict skincare routines that actually work – no miracles involved here, just cold, hard data and facts.

Why Use AI in Skincare?

“Why is the skincare industry not in great shape right now? Because everything is the same,” says Sue Y Nabi, founder of new skincare brand Orveda. “I’m fed up with ‘miracles’ and I don’t believe in focus groups – they’re good for telling you you’re not making mistakes, but they don’t give you the recipe for success.”

This is where AI swoops in and metaphorically saves the day (or saves the face of the whole industry – get it?).

While focus groups can’t provide a recipe or a formula for success, AI can. Or, at least, it has the capabilities to.

The traditional skincare model of business rests on focus groups, consumer research, and celebrity endorsements which, although are powerful in “speaking” to people who want to look good, don’t provide personalized information for each individual.

And, let’s face it, everyone is unique. No two people have the same skin, so it’s impossible to promote a product that is a one-size-fits-all. New startups like Proven are on a mission to disrupt these attitudes and outdated ways of researching and advertising in the skincare world.

What Proven Means for the Future of the Skincare Industry

Instead of helping women buy into the “dream” of miracle cures and skin that looks ten years younger, the co-founders of Proven are on a mission to bring a rational, logic-based approach to the skincare industry; an approach that systematically and sensibly figures out what ingredients are most appropriate for each individual.

But the main question that keeps cropping up around AI-generated beauty routines is whether the data scraped together can actually lead to useful machine-based decisions.

Again, the skincare industry is incredibly subjective and, while reviews might be a good way to determine if a product is for you on an individual level, large amounts of it might generate conflicting viewpoints.

So far, Proven has definitely had a good go at disrupting the current (and potentially archaic) narratives of the skincare world, where emphasis is placed on miracles and fancy buzzwords are used to exacerbate peoples’ need to look good.

Using the latest technology seems like a good way to bring those archaic notions into the present day, but is something like AI a useful tool for something as personal and as individual as skin?

As of yet, that remains unproven.

Looking Ahead: You Own Your Vehicle, But Who Owns Your Vehicle-Generated Data?

If we pause for a moment and think to the future of smart cars, half of us probably start daydreaming of zipping around in sleek flying machines while the other half starts eyeing their plastic model of the Batmobile hanging from the rearview mirror.

But have you ever stopped to think about what’s actually happening with the technological developments of cars? Already we have vehicles with cameras to help you back out of the driveway, touch screens installed into the dash, and the capability of calling your husband to start cooking that pizza before you get home.

We also have connected cars, which have embedded mobile broadband chips and the ability to communicate with other cars in a way that drastically reduces the number of roadside accidents.

And beyond that, we have cars that drive themselves.

As our vehicles are getting smarter, they’re also producing more data. This means your data privacy concerns are not only limited to your personal computer and the apps that your teenage daughter is using—your data privacy concerns now have to do with the car sitting in your driveway that has the capability of generating, recording, and sharing data.

It is projected that there will be over 380 million connected vehicles by 2021.

Your Valuable Data

Cars have evolved beyond basic machinery and are now becoming vehicles of data, capable of sharing where you’re going, how fast you got there, how many people went with you, and what kind of music you listened to.

With sensors and cameras being incorporated into the makeup of vehicles, they can now collect more data than ever before, and this data can be used and analyzed to make more money.

So your vehicle-generated data is the type of information that companies will want to know in order to learn how to better market their products to you, and it’s information that you want to be aware and in charge of.

As the number of data-gathering cars increases, consumers will want to become more aware of what kind of data their car is generating, as well as who keeps that type of private information.

Who Has That Information Now And Who Wants It?

Currently, data-generating vehicles are still in their early years, and it will be a number of years until most vehicles are as up-to-date, so the tug between data ownership is most heavily on the side of the car manufacturers.

But for how long? Who knows.

Without regulation, companies have access to everything within a very large sphere of people’s lives. Think of the amount of data!

And who might be eyeing your vehicle-generated data like a burger fresh off the grill?

Well, really any industry that would gain from learning about a consumer’s driving habits such as speed and regular routes, phone calls, radio or phone usage…even your personal conversations.

For example, this could include radio stations that want to better know what everyone’s listening to. It could include companies who develop car stereo systems and want to know how to cater to their technological-advancing drivers, or insurance companies tracking how many times you use your phone while driving so they can adjust your rates accordingly. It could even include car seat manufacturers who want to do a study on how fast or how carefully most parents drive, and then use that information to design their car seats and market them in a specific way.

Companies like these will want to know things like how you drive, your age, your income, what you buy, or if you have kids. This is the type of information that is pure gold for businesses because it enables them to “know” you and improve the way they market their products to you.

These days, private information is currency, and industries want it for their own gain.

Industries want to make money, and so they want your information.

Suddenly there is yet another massive data mine that consumers need to be aware of as they go about their lives. Just as you would protect your information as you use your phone or computer, now it’s incredibly important to begin thinking about where your vehicle-generated data is going and how you need to protect it.

Today, self-driving cars can generate one gigabyte of data per second, which means just five minutes of driving will produce more data than your iPhone could handle. With this amount of data being gathered, all kinds of business opportunities are arising, and before long the moneymaking data vultures will begin circling above your car.

So the next time you’re driving to work, think about the data that is being generated with every mile, every Bluetooth connection, and every radio station change—those little things we all do without thinking twice. The data your car is generating is valuable and coveted and needs to be secured and protected.

Hack Attack

Worried about your computer getting a virus? Well, what if your car was at risk too?

Yet another source of concern is the safety of your vehicle-generated data from attackers. As vehicle technology continues to evolve, the security of your car desperately needs to adapt with the times. Attackers will move on from mobile phones and laptops to the car sitting in your garage or parked on the street.

Vehicles have become gold mines, and this makes them valuable targets for hackers and malware.

No one with a smart phone or computer wants their device to be targeted for private information and details to be stolen. The same goes for today’s vehicles.

The Cost Of Convenience

Imagine this: your check engine light just turned on and you take it to a mechanic for repairs. Your repairman has access to the data stored on your car and it tells him exactly what’s wrong with it. This would revolutionize the auto-mechanic industry. It expedites the mechanic’s job and therefore saves the consumer money.

But at what cost?

We need to be aware of what we are giving away in the name of convenience.  Are the small perks worth the encroachment of privacy? Are they worth the monetization of your data?

Are they worth the very real possibility of someone analyzing every word of every personal conversation and phone call you’ve ever had in your vehicle, including that one with your spouse after celebrating your anniversary, or that one you had with your daughter after picking her up from school?

A Step In The Right Direction

In a recent proposal by a California senator, the contest between vehicle data ownership was confronted and a new bill was unveiled that would allow vehicle owners to see their car’s data and decide whether or not they wanted to share it.

This is an encouraging step in the right direction. But so much more is needed.

As consumers we need to be aware of what is happening in the ever-changing world around us. We need to be realistic in terms of how the marketplace views our data and us: money.

Protecting Your Data

It is our responsibility to hold both the automobile industry and lawmakers accountable for the protection of our rights. We need to mandate transparency from our automakers and require advancements in security and privacy. Additionally, we need to stay current with the knowledge of our rights and our legal protection as new bills are put into place.

The vehicle industry has previously had practically nothing to do with technology and little-to-no need for the security of such. Having no prior experience in this field, automakers need to begin bringing in software analysts, networking engineers, and data scientists to begin shaping the security and privacy we as consumers need.

But we also need consumers to be aware of what is going on.

We need to be aware that our vehicles are becoming data-generating machines on wheels, we need to be aware of what we are sacrificing in the name of comfortable convenience, and we need to be aware of the steps we need to take in order to protect ourselves.

A Team Communication App That’s the First of Its Kind

**This is part of our series highlighting startups who share our mission of trying to make people’s lives just a little easier**

Sometimes texting your boss is hard…but now, there’s an app for that.

In fact, now there’s an app that lets you access your schedule, switch shifts with your coworker, and stay updated at work so you always know what to say to your best customer.

Crew is a team communication app that enables companies to communicate freely and easily with employees. No longer do restaurant managers have to communicate separately with Front of House staff and line cooks, nor do retail employees have to text three different people about switching shifts. Now there is an easier way for all staff to see new schedules, switch shifts, communicate, and share important information.

This is an app that will transform the way your company functions on a daily level.

Forbes calls it an app that “helps to improve communications and saves time.”

Why does the world need an app for improving team communication?

Think about the number of people working at a local French restaurant: you’ve got the head chefs, the pastry chefs, the line cooks, the sous-chef, the servers, the hostesses, the bakers, and the dish crew.

That’s a lot of people in one restaurant whose knowledge of the ins and outs is what keeps the restaurant running daily.

And according to the National Restaurant Association there are over one million restaurants in the United States today.

So Here’s The Problem

There is a constant flow of information coming and going, widening the window for mistakes in communication and making it increasingly difficult for all staff to be up-to-date on the same level.

Schedules vary, which means shifts need to change; menus change seasonally and on some days, an ingredient might run out which means two of the signature dishes need to be altered and the head chef needs a few minutes to nurse his disappointment; someone might go home sick, or there might be an impromptu meeting because the truffle oil keeps being used by the pastry chef for his experimental croque-monsieurs.

The list could go on and on, and the potential for miscommunication increases. Plus, tempers start to rise when French cheese sandwiches are on the line.

There is an ever-widening window for mistakes in communication.

It’s not just a problem for busy restaurants—it’s a problem that arises for any company whose staff doesn’t have an employee email to easily connect with their team. This includes a wide range of industries, such as retail, healthcare, pharmacy, hospitality, travel, repair services, and construction.

The Crew app makes it possible for all employees on every level to receive updates, communicate with any team member, and share photos or documents.

Healthy and effective communication is vital to the success of any business. As industries change and consumer needs change, businesses have to maintain a level of agility that allows companies to adapt and change too.

And one of the most important and basic areas where success begins is with communication. Only when every employee is on the same page can the team function smoothly and achieve success.

With a team communication app like Crew, companies have an opportunity to improve their methods of informing, scheduling, updating, planning, and training. It’s a real game changer for millions of businesses.

About Crew

Founded in 2015 by Danny Leffel and Broc Miramontes, Crew is a communication app designed to enhance and simplify internal communication so that businesses can function smoothly every day.

It’s a free and easy-to-use app that creates one centralized location for all information and all team members, right on their device.

Crew is different from most collaboration software that caters only to the needs of office workers. It’s the first of its kind to solve the needs of millions of workers across many industries that don’t have access to an effective communication service.

Seven Ways Crew Can Help Your Team

There are many special features on the app that can keep your team running smoothly every day, no matter what.

1. Easy Messaging

Employees no longer have to dig around for the correct phone number to text—instead they can use the app to ask the head chef a question about the menu or find someone to cover a shift.

2. Customizable Schedules

Each new schedule can be updated or created within the app and shared with everyone. There’s no need to jump on a computer or wrestle with the printer that keeps running out of ink. Plus, there’s the added feature of pick-ups and approvals.

3. A Simple Way to Switch & Cover Shifts

Sometimes finding someone to cover a shift becomes a huge and stressful hassle. With the Crew app, messaging coworkers and updating the schedule is simple and easy to do.

4. Read Receipts

When workplaces are busy, it’s often easy to see a message but forget to reply or run out of time. Instead of getting stressed out wondering if your message was seen, users get a read receipt every time a message is opened.

5. Unlimited Photos and Videos

Whether it’s a photo of a new product or a short training video, it’s easy to send and receive files from the Crew app.

6. Works With Any Smartphone

Don’t worry; you don’t have to make every employee get the same phone. The Crew app is usable on all iOS and Android devices. You can even access it on the web if you don’t have your phone nearby!

7. Notifications To Stay Updated

Team leads can rely on Crew’s notifications to update the entire team on high-priority information.

“Thousands of teams across every industry are using Crew to help their businesses run more smoothly…”

Internal communication for any business within any industry is often a source of problems, and for businesses whose employees don’t have access to an on-the-job communication platform, it makes daily tasks much more complicated and stressful than they need to be.

With the Crew app, businesses have a free and easy platform for sharing important information that is vital to the health and success of both team and business.

This is an app that’s changing the way we do business while making lives simpler at the same time.

We’re Wearing Our Data – What Wearables and the Internet of Things Mean for Data Privacy

Dave is an average US worker.

His day starts when his smart watch buzzes gently on his wrist, and ends when it tells him he needs to get some shut eye to rack up the eight hours he needs.

Throughout the day, his smartwatch tracks his blood pressure, his heart rate, and how many steps he takes. Some days Dave doesn’t get enough sleep and he feels groggy, and other days he does more than his recommended daily amount of exercise and he feels great.

Dave likes knowing this information, just like millions of other consumers out there who have invested in wearable technology.

But while Dave and his fellow consumers might like knowing this information about themselves, they don’t want it to be captured and kept by large corporations.

Understandable, right?

However, that becomes particularly difficult when wearables rely on collecting user data in order to provide personalized programs and enhance user experience. Take Fitbit, for example, which collects data on health levels and uses that information to improve its algorithms and offer individual fitness programs.

Now, alongside the ever-increasing news about government-backed surveillance programs and data breaches, consumers are getting more and more paranoid about who has access to their data.

And, as we begin to dive into a world of wearable technology that’s with us all the time, the worry that has been simmering away is starting to bubble over.

So What Do Wearables Mean for Our Data Privacy?

Popular wearable products like the Apple Watch and the Fitbit have shifted the industry from heavily health-centered into the realms of popular culture. And, while this means that wearables can be used for a whole lot more than tracking our heart rate, it also means that the healthcare industry rules and regulations around data protection become hazy.

Sure, consumers all over the world are clamoring to get their hands on fitness trackers and smartwatches, but the vast majority of them don’t know what these devices mean for their data security.

In fact, a study released by the Center for Digital Democracy and the School of Communication at American University claimed that the health privacy regulatory system in the US doesn’t give consumers the protection they might expect when it comes to wearables.

As the wearable trend expands from people’s personal lives into their working lives and other verticals, users are becoming increasingly skeptical. Now, 82% of workers that use wearables as part of their job believe that it’s invading their privacy, while 86% think it makes them more susceptible to data breaches.

Why Wearables are Challenging Consumer Views on Data Privacy

In a report put together by the University of London and Rackspace, it was discovered that wearables boost user productivity rates by 8.5% – so yes, there are many positive points surrounding the industry.

But the increased usage of them has an impact on data privacy for two reasons.

Firstly, wearable devices increase the popularity of apps – because, well, the majority of them need an app to deliver the information from wrist (or clothing) to a screen. The problem with this is that apps are more susceptible to data breaches than general web browsing because they collect data and store it all in one place.

Secondly, wearable devices are used in real-time. They don’t need to be used in a certain place at a certain time; they can be used, wherever and whenever, which is one of their biggest draws.

This means that the devices are processing greater volumes of information at every moment the user is wearing it. This is great for the user, because they get loads more data on-the-go, and it’s also great for the wearable provider, because they’re also constantly getting their hands on data to improve and refine.

But where is the line? Where is the line between being beneficial to the user and the provider having too much information?

Let’s take a look at an example.

One of the biggest benefits of wearables is that they can be used discreetly – for the most part, they double up as fashion accessories and can blend in with any outfit.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Google_Glass_detail.jpg
Credit: Antonio Zugaldia (Wikimedia) Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

A number of casinos in Las Vegas are tapping into this benefit with a system that buzzes staff member’s wearables when a high roller walks past. When they check their smartwatch, the staff members can gather information about the high roller so they can then greet them by name.

While it can be argued that this improves the customer experience and it helps the casino get more money by targeting high rollers, who is the process more beneficial for?

And Then There Are Cyberattacks…

With any new technology the risk of cyberattacks increase. And, when wearables often connect to wireless networks, it can be a struggle to keep the system safe.

Let’s look at the numbers.

At the end of 2015, there were around 200 million wearable devices on the market. By the end of 2018, there is predicted to be around 780 million – a considerable increase in just a few years.

This shows the industry is continuing to blossom regardless of whether users are concerned about their data or not, but it also gives hackers more opportunity to steal sensitive data for their own gain.

Chief consumer security evangelist at Intel Security, Gary Davis, says that “the information that’s contained on your wearable that’s stored either on your smartphone or stored downstream on a cloud is worth ten times that of a credit card on a black market.”

This is because credit card companies are well-versed at detecting and dealing with fraud, and can make it go away pretty quickly. On the other hand, data stored on wearable devices is permanent – people can’t change their Social Security Number or their date of birth.

It’s Not All Doom and Gloom

But while there are undoubtedly increased data security risks from wearables (any kind of new technology is vulnerable to this), there are plenty of ways wearables are improving certain industries, whether it’s just enhancing customer experience in a shop or going all out and improving medical treatments for serious illnesses.

In the retail sector, store employees are increasingly tapping into the power of smartglasses to find key information about products on-the-spot. This improves the customer experience, but it also optimizes employees’ time. And, in the medical industry, smartwatches are able to monitor blood pressure and even examine a baby’s heart rate in the womb.

Which begs the question: do the benefits outweigh the data risks?

But perhaps the more pressing question is whether anything is being done to quash consumer paranoia?

In most industries there are a set of accountability laws and regulations. In the health industry, there’s the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which puts rules in place for what medical companies can and can’t do with data.

But the key problem is that this act, for example, only covers healthcare providers like doctors and hospitals, and doesn’t stretch as far as health-conscious wearables.

What’s the Future Like for Wearables and Data?

If predictions are right, the wearables market is only set to explode further in the next couple of years but, like with any fast-growing tech arena, it looks like there needs to be some serious thought put into how data is collected and used.

Like other industries, we might see a new rules and regulations act pop up that devotes itself to monitoring and laying down laws for the wearables industry, regardless of whether a smartwatch is being used for health reasons or to boost productivity in the workplace.

What we can be certain of is that consumer paranoia about wearables and data privacy is completely justified, but the next few years are vital for the industry to prove that it has its users at the front of the mind.

You’ll Never Want to Stop Traveling After Learning About This Startup

**This is part of our series highlighting startups who share our mission of trying to make people’s lives just a little easier**

It’s the post-holiday season and a lot of us are probably still slogging back to work and struggling to return to a regular day-to-day schedule.  Many of us have been traveling to see family, to escape the weather, or to take advantage of accrued holiday hours to spend a few days near the beach.

I bet some of you are wishing you could go BACK to that wonderful, far-away place, but I bet most of you are glad you don’t have to endure those long airport lines, gas station bathroom stops, or that awkward moment when security pulls you aside and has to check your socks (true story).

Because the truth of the matter is that within the travel industry, there is a lot of room for improvements. And even more specifically, there is a lot of room for enhanced customer experience within the hotel industry.

This is where Arrivedo comes in—a startup that is revolutionizing the way people travel and experience hotels. If you’ve ever had an unpleasant experience while traveling because of stress, boredom, or lack of information, then you’ll want to check this company out.

See it’s hard enough having to get up at 4 AM and drive all the way to your destination, so when you have to deal with strange beds, new faces, and that cracked wheel on your suitcase making a horrendous noise across the pavement….you end up wishing you had just stayed home in your PJ’s with your cat.

Why Arrivedo? Because a better hotel experience can transform the way you travel.

Approximately 35% of American families had plans to take a trip during 2017, with 30% of those families saying they planned on taking three or more trips. That’s a lot of people stopping in completely unfamiliar towns and sleeping in hotels with unfamiliar faces—which, in the end, makes for a lot of moments of travel discomfort.

Imagine the difference between staying at a hotel in a city where you’re pretty sure the only breakfast restaurant is McDonald’s, versus staying at your best friend’s house where she recommends her top five favorite coffee shops that you can visit for a fresh cinnamon roll and locally roasted coffee.

See the difference? One option involves frustrated Google searches on your phone while the other involves a moment of pure bliss as you take a bite of warm and cinnamon-y bread. It’s the difference between being a stranger and feeling like a “local” that really makes or breaks your travel experience.

This is the current problem for the hotel industry: making guests feel at home when, in reality, they’re far away from home.

It’s a problem that hotels are forever trying to remedy, and a competition that hotels have recently been losing with the rise of popularity in the Airbnb business.

Airbnb boasts a “local experience” because instead of a corporate building with busy employees, you’re staying in the home of a city local who can give you a personal tour of the area.

Hotels have been taking a big hit as more and more travelers are opting for an Airbnb instead in order to get that personalized, “at home” experience. A study conducted in 2015 showed that the lodging industry of New York had a negative impact of $2.1 billion because of the impact of Airbnb, and further showed $450 million of loss in direct revenues for hotels due to Airbnb annually.

But since the rise of Airbnb, Arrivedo has been launching an attack to better the name of the hotel industry and improve the way that travelers search, book, and enjoy their stay.

Get to Know Arrivedo

Arrivedo is a technological startup company with the goal of producing one “Neighborhood Guide” per hotel in the world. It was dreamed up by one of its co-founders, Alonso Franco, who wanted to create a way for hotels to connect with travelers in a way that focused on the communication and hospitality of a local. The company is composed of a dozen entrepreneurs who combine their strengths and skills to tackle the problems that are confronting the hotel industry. Their website serves as a platform to connect travelers to hotels—no matter where the traveler’s destination is.

Not only can you connect with hotels, but you can access a mine of information about the area you’re visiting. A hotel’s Neighborhood Guide can set you up for endless hours spent roaming the city or venturing into lesser-known spots. You get all the experiences of a local, all in one place.

The Neighborhood Guide

So what’s a Neighborhood Guide, and what role does it play in Arrivedo’s mission?

For every hotel in the world, Arrivedo plans on crafting a local guide that highlights restaurants, activities, maps, helpful tips, and city events within the hotel’s area—a “neighborhood” guide, because it enables travelers to get to know the neighborhood where they are staying. It gives visitors vital information that they would normally get if they were, say, staying at their grandma’s.

Where does this local knowledge come from?

Arrivedo’s team of writers collaborates with each hotel to include the best local events and information for a Neighborhood Guide.

In essence, travelers get to experience local cultures and have that “at home” vibe even when they are away. No longer do they have to feel like strangers at a hotel surrounded by unknown people and places, but instead, they can form meaningful connections as they travel.

Travel Like a Local

So maybe you’re taking a trip to Los Angeles, California and you don’t have any friends or family staying there but still want to get that “local” experience. Sometimes it’s hard to walk into establishments and get that information because it’s not always easy to immediately connect with strangers and, even then, sometimes you get the wrong directions or important details are miscommunicated.

Arrivedo presents a solution to that problem in the way that their Neighborhood Guides are made available so that travelers can be connected to their hotels and set up from the start for successfully living like a local. You can access clearly-written maps, extensive lists of the top places to grab coffee or a slice of pizza, find recommendations for the best night-life spots, and be in-the-know for important local celebrations or events.

How it Works

1. If you know your destination, go to Arrivedo’s website and type the name of the city into the search bar. This will pull up results for different hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and hostels in the area.

2. Click on a hotel and check out its Neighborhood Guide. It will list places to visit and things to do that are nearby, as well as offer helpful tips about traveling within the city.

3. If you’re ready to book a room, all you have to do is click on the hotel name! You’ll be taken to a different page specifically for booking.

Arrivedo is a platform for all the information you need to transform your travels.

The desire of Arrivedo’s creators is to bridge the gap between “traveler” and “local,” and provide a unique platform to revolutionize the way we travel.

This is a startup company that we’ll want to keep an eye on over the next few years. With their team of writers reaching out to hotels across the world, perhaps soon our unpleasant travel experiences will be nothing more than faded memories.

And I bet that even though the holidays just ended, some of you are already itching to plan a weekend getaway, leave your cat, and explore a new place with the help of a Neighborhood Guide.

How The Government Just Killed Your Online Privacy

You aren’t valuable. Not to online companies. From a financial point of view, you just don’t hold much value to them. The money they make from having you as a user is relatively inconsequential.

It’s shocking to hear this, but it’s a fact of how online businesses operate. And once you understand how they operate you understand your true value in this world.

You see, you as an individual are not valuable…but…the data about you is valuable.

That’s what online companies are after. Whether it’s Facebook, Google, Twitter, or the Internet Service Providers (ISP), they all want data about you.

The more data the better.

They don’t care if your name is Max Jones. They care about your hobbies and interests. They care if you have a wife and kids, and the age and gender of each kid. They care about your education, what you do for a living, and how much money you make. They care about your political beliefs. You get the idea.

Your value isn’t in you as a person but you as a compilation of data.

This is how online companies make money. They compile as much data as possible on all their users to sell to advertisers. When Nike wants to advertise online, Facebook can tell them exactly which of their users are active athletes.

If this economy were a prison then your data would be the carton of cigarettes.

Needless to say, this setup should worry you. Whether you guard your privacy like a hawk or you openly share every detail about your life, it’s disturbing that your value is based on what people know about you.

And it’s about to get worse.

ISP-y on you without your consent

ISPs are, to put it kindly, not well regarded in the consumer world. As a matter of fact, they’re the most hated companies in the country. When you overtake airlines on the hatred scale, you know you’re something special.

The FCC understood the nature of ISP’s so they previously put restrictions on them with regard to your data. The restrictions required ISP’s to explicitly get your consent before they sold your data.

It was a good idea to do this so, of course, it didn’t last long.

Now, thanks to legislation passed in Congress, ISP’s will have an easier time selling your data.  All the previous restrictions that were placed on them have now been lifted.

Yup, the most hated companies can now take your data without your consent and sell it to the highest bidder.

Who says democracy doesn’t work?

ISP’s were able to successfully argue that since Google and Facebook don’t have restrictions on selling data that neither should they. This logic doesn’t hold up well for many reasons.

For starters, Google and Facebook are free services, while ISP’s are already taking a good chunk of your money.

There’s also the slight detail that ISP’s are essentially monopolies.

If you use a website (such as Facebook) and disagree with their privacy rules then you can choose not to use them or to use another website. But that doesn’t work with ISP’s. So you’re stuck with what you’ve got.

They know you don’t have a choice and they’re taking advantage of their monopoly. No wonder they’re so hated.

Privacy advocates are understandably upset about this whole scenario. In addition to data about you personally, ISP’s are also able to sell your browsing history, app usage, and even location information.

Your options are limited.

The one time you want to reduce your value

How ISP’s make money is their concern. Protecting your data is your concern. As it stands now, the battle is between you and them. So what can you do to fight this battle?

Well, we know your value to ISP’s is based on the data you (unwillingly) provide to them. So you can look into ways to kill your value.

If they can’t get your data then they can’t sell your data.

One of the best tricks you can use is to create a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN essentially adds a layer between your computer and the internet, which hides your browsing from ISPs.

Related to VPN technology, you can also use a private browser such as TOR. TOR was created explicitly to prevent unwanted access to your browsing habits.

Search engines are another problem is this world. So many of them track your search history. If you want to use a search engine that doesn’t track you then you should try DuckDuckGo.

As you can see there are many tools available to help you protect your data.

Ultimately you can’t change how ISP’s operate, and you can’t change how your value to them is based on them violating your privacy, but you can change how much data they can access.

You can control your data.

It’s a shame that it we have to take these measures but the government is enabling this system so we need to protect ourselves. Hopefully, with enough outcry, the legislation will go back to putting the restrictions on ISP’s.

After all, why would anyone want the most hated companies in America to sell your data?