Elf Year in Review 2018

It’s been a quiet, productive year at Elf with a lot of work behind the scenes. We’ve continued to work with existing clients, completing several two and three year-long projects in 2018.

Elf is now listed in the S&P global market for American companies. We have updated our primary url to www.elf.agency to better reflect our company - an agency providing services to industry-leading businesses worldwide.

Elf Channel on Apple News, Stardust Podcast and Interactive Hayden’s Exhibit

We are happy to launch our new Elf channel on Apple News that we have been working on for a while, our Hayden’s podcast Stardust featuring interviews with musicians, cinematographers and directors on iTunes; and our interactive exhibit for Hayden’s in Europe, US, UK and Canada by the fall. This will be a live exhibit with the option to listen in our podcast as well.

We have also started work on our own line of apps internally at Elf. We’re very happy to be working on these projects. The first Elf app is slated to launch in 2022.

Our blogs have been featured a lot in the last year by software technology companies such as Atlassian and Invision; startup communities such as Medium and Hacker News on Y Combinator; professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and Career Foundry; and industry-leading advertising platforms such as Ad Age. Some articles, like this one on Design, have been reposted over 3,000 times.

We’re excited for 2019 and all that we can create and do! Happy New Year! Thanks for reading.

Tim Cook Addresses Data Collection 'Surveillance' and the Need for GDPR in the US

Tim Cook calls data collection 'surveillance' in blunt, forceful speech on 'data-industrial complex'

At the 40th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners in Brussels, Belgium back in October, Apple CEO Tim Cook did not shy away from using strong language to warn of the dangers of data collection and loss of citizen privacy. Cook praised the European Union for taking the initiative in protecting the personal data of its citizens with the passage of General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR. He urged the United States to follow suit with a federal law that would protect citizen’s rights against what he described as an emerging, ‘data-industrial complex.’

“Our own information is being weaponized against us with military efficiency...We shouldn’t sugar-coat the consequences. This is surveillance. And these stockpiles of personal data only serve to enrich the companies that collect them.”

— Tim Cook, Apple CEO

He explained how data-gathering algorithms affect individual privacy and how these tools can be abused through rogue agents, organizations and governments to undermine society.

“Now more than ever, as leaders of governments, as decision makers in business and as citizens, we must ask ourselves a fundamental question. What kind of world do we want to live in?”

— Tim Cook, Apple CEO

He also shared how Apple questioned the power of a totalitarian state and conformity in the 1984 Macintosh ad "Why 1984 Won't Be Like 1984.” The powerful ad played on the themes of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, ending with the powerful message that technology can be used to empower, rather than enslave.

After the event, Cook also shared his thoughts on Twitter.

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Four Elements of Privacy

Cook outlined four key rights that he thinks should be essential to a new US federal privacy law. 

1. Right to have private data minimized.

2. Right to know what data is being collected and why.

3. Right for any individual to get access to his or her own data, correct it and delete it, if desired.

4. Right to security, which he described as “foundation to trust and all other privacy rights.”

Cook also admitted that there were plenty of people who would prefer that he had not said that and that many people will also publicly endorse privacy reform, but ‘undermine it behind closed doors.’ He also pointed out that any technology that would supposedly be hampered by privacy laws was false and such a claim was destructive. Tim Cook is the first CEO of a large American corporation to take such a pro-privacy stance on individual consumer rights.

At Elf, we believe that privacy is a fundamental human right, as essential as freedom. 

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

At Elf, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy, relaxing holiday! 🎄🎅 Let’s start the New Year invigorated and renewed!

Here’s a song by the Bottle Boys for some holiday cheer. :)

Our offices are closed Christmas Eve Monday Dec 24 and Christmas Day Tuesday Dec 25.