Fast Company Summer 2019

business’s avant-garde

When Fast Company introduced the 100 Most Creative People in Business 10 years ago, it was a watershed. Other business publications ranked individuals by wealth or power, but this publication sought to take stock of something intangible and, as then editor Bob Safian explained, offer a “snapshot of the range and depth of creativity across our business landscape.” That first list was prescient. It featured several leaders and executives who have only grown in stature since 2009 (Melinda Gates at No. 2, Reed Hastings at No. 4, J.J. Abrams at No. 14), and relatively undiscovered entrepreneurs and academics who have since become cultural phenomena. Inventor Joy Mangano made the list (No. 77), six years before Jennifer Lawrence portrayed her in the biopic Joy, and cover subject Neri Oxman, an associate professor…

the senses of intelligence

With their tenacious and prescient coverage of the beat of innovation, our Fast Company editorial colleagues uncover trends, opportunities, and insights well before they come into focus for so many others. Many of our marketing partners do the same with their strategic product and brand development efforts. Often, marketers stand at the leading edge of change. And during the past year or so, the human agenda—the personalization and customization of products and services through data, artificial and human intelligence, behavioral insights into customers’ actions and habits—has become a through line of our storytelling and our partners’ consumer engagement. We heard this in our programming at the Fast Company Grill in Austin, during South by Southwest, and we’ll see it come to life on July 9 and 10 in Milan, at the first-ever…

apple’s original sin

“What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone.” The message was printed 14 stories high, in simple black and white, on the side of a building at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The proclamation was quintessential Apple: a bold spectacle, a welltimed verbal play, and a calculated jab at Google, Amazon, and every other competitor about to show off its latest products on the world’s biggest stage. It was also misleading. Apple, after all, practically laid the groundwork for the surveillance economy with its powerful App Store. Through a certain lens, the iPhone is one of the most secure devices in the world. Its contents are encrypted by default. Any data that Apple collects through services such as Maps is assigned to random identifiers (rather than being…

breaches of trust

Local News Apps run by Sinclair, Tribune Media, and other media companies use the promise of localized news to get users to share their data—which is then sold, according to Will Strafach, of Guardian. Local sports apps can be equally porous. “It’s a big problem,” he says. “Tens of millions of people are affected.” Health Many health apps record extremely intimate data about you that, when you study the app’s privacy policy, isn’t well protected, according to Robert Furberg, a health-data researcher at RTI International. It’s not just no-name apps you need to worry about. Even Fitbit sells anonymized data. “Health apps collect data about you,” he says. “And you [ought] to assume that it’s being sold.” Weather Weatherbug, Weather Channel, and other forecasting apps should be used with the awareness that they’re probably tracking…

locked up

1 Use Apple’s Own Apps Google’s services, like Google Maps and Chrome, are tempting for their functionality. But Apple Maps and Safari are both far better bets. Apple collects a bare minimum of user data across these services. 2 Change Your Settings All iOS apps offer users the option of having their location tracked all the time, while the app is in use, or never—but you need to go into system settings to make your selections. You can also turn on the Limit Ad Tracking feature, which makes it harder for advertisers to profile you. 3 Put Up a Firewall At $10 a month or $100 a year, the Guardian Firewall app isn’t cheap. But it’s the first iOS service to put a protective server between you and your phone’s other apps. Guardian analyzes data…

summer haze

Since LVMH acquired a majority stake in the 120-year-old luggage brand in 2017, Rimowa has been collaborating with the likes of Fendi, Supreme, and Off-White to produce limited-edition luxury suitcases. For its latest collaboration, the brand worked with L.A.-based artist Alex Israel, who put the colors of his city’s sunset on two models of its aluminum cases. (From $2,800) Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream (FROM $9.99 A PINT, HUMPHRYSLOCOMBE.COM) “Getting delivery of San Francisco–based Humphry Slocombe ice cream will be the death of me. I’m addicted to their unusual flavors, like ‘Secret Breakfast’ (cornflakes and bourbon).” —Chris Milk, cofounder and CEO, Within NECESSARY VICE Hire Learning The kind of corporate culture U.S. workers want vs. what they have It Never Gets Old “I have a Rawlings outdoor basketball that I bought when I was in college. I haven’t found…