Weekend Thoughts - 2.3.18

Image by Momentmal, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Image by Momentmal, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Fitness tracking app Strava came under fire this weekend when location data it collected inadvertently revealed the locations of secret U.S. military bases. Strava has reminded its users that they can turn off location sharing, and that the map does not include areas that have been deemed private by its users. However, this is a solid reminder that data that users freely give to technology companies may end up being used for nefarious purposes.

2. The results are in: podcast advertising is well worth it for podcasters and advertisers alike. Apple's Podcast Analytics feature became available last month and the initial numbers have been encouraging, indicating that podcast listeners may be the engaged and supporting audience that podcasters and advertisers were hoping for. That's because apparently most podcast listeners stick around to the end of each show and don't skip ads. However, the results are only taking into account listeners that use Apple's Podcasts app that are also on iOS 11, which is only a slice of the total population. At any rate, it must be welcome news to those in the podcast business!

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.