The number of activities and organisations I am involved in means that I am often privy to confidential information and although I consider myself to be relatively tech savvy, in my role as a returning County Councillor, I have started to take notice of and explore the implications of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that comes into force next spring. Always keen on self-improvement, and believing that knowledge is power, I recently took a Data Protection course.
Clearly something needed to be done to upgrade my IT provision, which is how I came into contact with Cobweb Solutions, and began to question their choice of name as an IT provider.
I have always been interested in the ‘why’ of things. Until just a few weeks ago the word ‘Cobweb’ meant nothing more to me than a spider’s web. Time for a little research.
The spider is the only animal that can produce different types of silk for different purposes, weaving webs of different shapes and sizes. I liken this to companies that are adaptable enough to be able to provide different services or products to meet customer demand.
Spiders also use their silk to communicate with others, leaving silk trails. Ah, so this is why the internet is known as the worldwide ‘web’. Big brother is watching and can follow our online trail; they know where we have been and what we are interested in; just as a spider can track the movements and activities of its mate.
Spider silk is thin and frail in appearance yet is the strongest fibre on earth; just as the internet has an ‘ethereal’ presence but has now become the most powerful and durable communication tool on earth.
Spider silk also has many uses, just as the internet had developed to not just provide us with an information source but also a varied range of other tools and applications, enabling us to carry out tasks that were unimaginable just a few years ago.
Specifically, a cobweb, also known as a tangled web, is a mess of silk; a great analogy for the mess we all get ourselves into when trying to navigate our way around the web.
Spiders start with spinning a single thread of silk, gradually building up its web from the centre. I can see the analogy here in relation to companies that start off small with a single product and service, and then expand their offering.
For all businesses and organisations, constantly re-inventing themselves and upping their game is the only way to survive where technology is gaining pace at a rate none of us could ever have imagines just a few decades ago.
Thankfully companies like Cobweb have all the tools and expertise needed to make sure that in an increasingly litigious environment I can stay ahead of the game when protecting personal data. The implications of not doing so do not bear thinking about.
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