• An American who may have been exposed to Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of Congo has returned to the United States for monitoring.
• The person will be monitored for up to two weeks at the Nebraska Medical Center, which has handled Ebola patients before.
• An infectious diseases specialist at the medical center said the person is not currently ill and is not contagious.
• Congo has been battling an Ebola outbreak for months, with hundreds of deaths as of December.

An American medical worker who may have been exposed to Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of Congo was flown back to the United States on Saturday and brought immediately to the Nebraska Medical Center for monitoring.

The person, whose identity wasn't revealed because they requested privacy, will be monitored for up to two weeks in a "secure area" the public can't access, the Nebraska Medical Center said in a press release.

The person was privately transported to the medical center Saturday afternoon, Politico reported.

"This person may have been exposed to the virus but is not ill and is not contagious," Ted Cieslak, an infectious diseases specialist with Nebraska Medicine and an associate professor of epidemiology in the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health, said in a statement. "Should any symptoms develop, the Nebraska Medicine/UNMC team is among the most qualified in the world to deal with them."

Read more: The latest reports from Congo show patients not usually known to contract Ebola are infected: newborn babies

The medical center said it would provide updates on the person's condition only if it becomes necessary to transfer the person to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.

The medical center treated several Ebola patients in 2014, and monitored several other exposed people in 2015, though none contracted the disease.

Congo has been battling an Ebola outbreak since August, culminating in 543 cases confirmed and 357 deaths as of late December, according to the World Health Organization.

• Read more:
• Diseases like Ebola and avian flu are some of the biggest threats to global security — and lack of funding puts the US at risk
• Bill Gates says a pandemic flu could kill 30 million people — these are the deadly diseases that scare experts the most
• 9 dangerous diseases that could be prevented by vaccines within the next decade, from HIV to cancer
• Disease experts reveal their biggest worries about the next pandemic

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• Digital trust is the confidence people have in a platform to protect their information and provide a safe environment for them to create and engage with content.
• Business Insider Intelligence surveyed over 1,300 global consumers to evaluate their perception of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
• Consumers’ Digital Trust rankings differ across security, legitimacy, community, user experience, shareability, and relevance for the six major social networks.

If you feel like “fake news” and spammy social media feeds dominate your Internet experience, you’re not alone. Digital trust, the confidence people have in platforms to protect their information and provide a safe environment to create and engage with content, is in jeopardy.

In fact, in a new Business Insider Intelligence survey of more than 1,300 global consumers, over half (54%) said that fake news and scams were "extremely impactful” or “very impactful” on their decision to engage with ads and sponsored content.

For businesses, this distrust has financial ramifications. It’s no longer enough to craft a strong message; brands, marketers, and social platforms need to focus their energy on getting it to consumers in an environment where they are most receptive. When brands reach consumers on platforms that they trust, they enhance their credibility and increase the likelihood of receiving positive audience engagement.

The Digital Trust Report 2018, the latest Enterprise Edge Report from Business Insider Intelligence, compiles this exclusive survey data to analyze consumer perceptions of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

The survey breaks down consumers’ perceptions of social media across six pillars of trust: security, legitimacy, community, user experience, shareability, and relevance. The results? LinkedIn ran away with it.

As the most trusted platform for the second year in a row – and an outlier in the overall survey results – LinkedIn took the top spot for nearly every pillar of trust — and there are a few reasons why:

• LinkedIn continues to benefit from the professional nature of its community — users on the platform tend to be well behaved and have less personal information at risk, which makes for a more trusting environment.
• LinkedIn users are likely more selective and mindful about engagement when interacting within their professional network, which may increase trust in its content.
• Content on LinkedIn is typically published by career-minded individuals and organizations seeking to promote professional interests, and is therefore seen as higher quality than other platforms’. This bodes well for advertisers and publishers to be viewed as forthright, honest, persuasive, and trustworthy.

Want to Learn More?

Enterprise Edge Reports are the very best research Business Insider Intelligence has to offer in terms of actionable recommendations and proprietary data, and they are only available to Enterprise clients.

The Digital Trust Report 2018 illustrates how social platforms have been on a roller coaster ride of data, user privacy, and brand safety scandals since our first installment of the report in 2017.

In full, the report analyzes key changes in rankings from 2017, identifies trends in millennials' behavior on social media, and highlights where these platforms (as well as advertisers) have opportunities to capture their attention.

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The smartphone is an essential part of our everyday lives.

But as with all technology, things change. So the question becomes: What will be the next smartphone?

Will it be the connected car? Or the smart speaker? What about the smartwatch?

Find out which device, if any, will take over the smartphone's role with this brand new slide deck from Business Insider Intelligence called The Next Smartphone.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Smartphones are the fastest adopted tech in the U.S.
• Whichever device becomes the next smartphone needs to go everywhere
• Consumer expectations around the smartphone are changing
• And much more

To get your copy of this FREE slide deck, simply click here.

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• A computer virus hit a newspaper printing plant in Los Angeles, halting deliveries of the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and others.
• The Times reported that the virus was caused by a cyberattack from a "foreign entity."
• A Times spokeswoman said the paper has been working to fix the issues but added that Sunday deliveries may be affected as well.

A computer virus hit newspaper printing plant in Los Angeles, preventing it from printing and delivering Saturday editions of the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune and other papers to some subscribers.

The Los Angeles Times, which runs the facility, says the computer virus infected systems that are associated with the printing process.

The Times, citing one source with knowledge of the situation, reported that the issues stemmed from a cyberattack that apparently came from a "foreign entity."

"We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information," the source was quoted as saying.

Spokeswoman Hillary Manning says the paper has been working to fix the issues but added that Sunday deliveries may be affected as well.

A note posted to The Times' website apologized to its subscribers.

"We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we actively work to resolve these issues and restore timely service to our customers," it said.

Biotech billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong bought both the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune earlier this year for $500 million.

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NOW WATCH: Bernie Madoff was arrested 10 years ago today — here's what his life is like in prison

• The Alabama Crimson Tide are the best team in college football, thanks in no small part to head coach Nick Saban's attention to detail.
• In a recent SEC Network segment, Saban broke down an interception Alabama had against Ole Miss, still finding flaws in his defense's play despite the successful outcome.
• It's moments like this that make it obvious why Saban is one of the best coaches in football.

The Crimson Tide have won an astounding five national championships since 2009, and it's possible that the 2018 team is the best that the school has ever produced.

But even with their run of dominance, head coach Nick Saban can still find flaws in his team.

In a recent edition of the SEC Network's "Film Room," Saban sat down with David Greene to break down a few plays from Alabama's win over Ole Miss earlier in the year.

While talking about one play, Saban compliments his safeties on how they hid their coverage — a move that led to an interception and a huge return that set up an Alabama touchdown. But despite the takeaway, Saban still saw room for improvement.

Deionte Thompson, who picked off the pass, had taken the wrong route while returning the interception. While he managed to get the ball all the way to the Ole Miss 15-yard line, Saban suggested he could have scored if he had returned the ball the way they had practiced.

You can hear Saban's disappointment in the video below.

You might think that an interception would be enough for a defensive player — the goal of the defense is to stop opposing offenses from scoring — but for Saban, there's always room to be better.

Saban's attention to detail is one of the reasons he's considered the best coach in college football, and a big part of why the Crimson Tide is in the national title picture every year.

His keen eye for mistakes is famous even among his players — when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was told after a game that Saban had said he exceeded expectations, he responded with disbelief.

"He has to be joking with you guys because that's definitely not what Coach Saban tells us," Tagovailoa said. "There's always room for improvement. Not only with Coach Saban but within our whole coaching staff and within ourselves, too. There's always room for improvement.”

The Alabama Crimson Tide are currently 8-0, their closest game being a 45-23 victory over Texas A&M. They look well on their way to another national title but don't expect Saban to be taking it easy any time soon.

SEE ALSO: The first College Football Playoff ranking has winners, losers, question marks, and one clear path to chaos

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NOW WATCH: The legendary economist who predicted the housing crisis says the US will win the trade war

• Catarina Alonzo, the mother of 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo, said her son wasn't ill on his journey to the United States.
• Felipe is the second child to die this month in Border Patrol custody.
• His mother's comments contradicted President Donald Trump's tweets on Saturday, which said the two children were already sick by the time they entered Border Patrol custody.
• The New Mexico medical examiner's office, which conducted an autopsy, said that Felipe tested positive for the flu.

The mother of a boy who died while in US custody says her son was healthy when he left Guatemala with his father on their journey hoping to migrate to the United States.

The mother of 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo, Catarina Alonzo, spoke Saturday with Associated Press journalists at the family's home in a remote Guatemalan village some 250 miles west of Guatemala City.

She said her son reported he was doing well every time that he and his father called home during their trek. She said the last time she spoke with Felipe he was in Mexico at the US border and said he was eating chicken.

US authorities say the boy was suffering from the flu when he died last Monday in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

He was the second child this month to die in US custody after crossing the border. The first was a seven-year-old Guatemalan girl, Jakelin Caal Maquin, who died in hospital roughly 24 hours after being arrested with her father and a large group of migrants in a remote area of the New Mexico desert.

Catarina Alonzo's comments contradicted remarks made earlier Saturday by President Donald Trump, who said the children had been sick before they were arrested by Border Patrol.

Read more: 'We've seen this coming': Why migrant children are dying in Border Patrol custody

Trump addressed the children's deaths for the first time Saturday afternoon in a series of tweets blaming Democratic lawmakers for US immigration laws.

"Any deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally. They can't. If we had a Wall, they wouldn't even try!" he tweeted.

He continued: "The two … children in question were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol."

The Customs and Border Protection agency has responded to the deaths by conducting secondary medical screenings on all children currently detained, and commissioning other federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and the US Coast Guard to assist.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen traveled to the US-Mexico border on Friday and Saturday to meet with Border Patrol officials, and be briefed on new procedures to conduct in-depth initial health exams.

• Read more of Business Insider's immigration coverage:
• 'We've seen this coming': Why migrant children are dying in Border Patrol custody
• Trump threatens to close the border over a new caravan forming in Honduras that reportedly isn't even headed for the US
• As the government shutdown over Trump's border wall rages, a journey along the entire 1,933-mile US-Mexico border shows the monumental task of securing it
• The 8-year-old migrant boy who died on Christmas Eve was held in US custody for nearly a week — against Border Patrol's own rules

Join the conversation about this story »

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This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

The mobile augmented reality (AR) market is quickly becoming primed for the retail space. By blending the online and in-store shopping journeys, mobile AR promises to provide an immersive digital shopping experience unlike anything shoppers have seen before.

Mobile AR is one of the most coveted technologies for improving the digital shopping experience among consumers. That’s because mobile AR can be used to bring the in-store experience to consumers’ homes by recreating the try-on experience. It allows online shoppers to test out multiple sizes and variations of products, or just see what a product looks like overlaid into their home — without making a true commitment to the purchase or a trip to the store. It can also be used in-store to quickly provide product information or guide users to the right item using location-based services.

Retailers that meet this need for mobile AR stand to pull ahead of the competition. Mobile AR can help build brand loyalty, heighten engagement, increase geographical customer reach, shorten conversion times, boost purchases of larger items, and cut down on returns.

In a new report, Business Insider Intelligence examines the importance of mobile AR to businesses in the retail space, explores the various ways brands are utilizing mobile AR to enhance the customer experience as well as their own, and determines the factors retailers should consider when devising a mobile AR strategy.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Nearly 75% of consumers already expect retailers to offer an AR experience. Mobile AR retail experiences are more likely to come to fruition as Apple and Google continue to build out their AR developer platforms, ARKit and ARCore, respectively, which will expand the addressable market exponentially.
• Retailers in certain segments, including furniture and home improvement, as well as beauty and fashion, have been the first to jump on the mobile AR bandwagon through their own apps. These sectors appear to have the most immediate need for mobile AR strategies, as trying out furniture and clothes are two of the most coveted AR use cases by consumers.
• Social media is emerging as a prominent channel for retailers to reach consumers through mobile AR experiences. Platforms like Facebook and Snapchat continue to build out tools that businesses and developers can utilize to enhance their advertising strategies with immersive experiences.
• But retailers will have to consider several factors before implementing their mobile AR strategies. These include the cost of building AR experiences, the availability of AR-compatible smartphones, consumer awareness of mobile AR apps, and the quality of mobile AR content.

In full, the report:

• Explores the ways mobile AR brings value to the customer shopping experience. 
• Highlights how the consumer benefits of mobile AR can be transformed into valuable outcomes for retailers.
• Discusses how major retail brands are leveraging mobile AR to enhance the customer journey, and what goals they are striving to achieve.
• Outlines the several factors retailers and brands will have to consider before implementing their mobile AR strategies.

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• An Oregon hotel announced Saturday it fired two employees who called the police on a black guest, after spotting him in the lobby and demanding to know his room number.
• Jermaine Massey said that even though he showed the guard his hotel key, the guard told him to leave and a manager called the police and accused Massey of loitering.
• The DoubleTree by Hilton hotel tweeted on Saturday it had "zero tolerance for racism," and apologized to Massey.

A hotel in Portland, Oregon, announced Saturday it fired two employees over mistreating a black guest, whom they asked to leave last week before calling the police.

Jermaine Massey, 34, said he was talking to his mother on his phone in lobby of the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel last Saturday when a security guard approached him to ask if he was a guest, and what his room number was.

Massey said that even though he showed the guard his hotel key, the guard told him to leave and a manager called the police and accused Massey of loitering.

In an Instagram post, Massey said he believed he was targeted by the hotel staff due to his race.

"It is never ok to discriminate against guests for the color of their skin and to prejudge them based on your own bias against that race," Massey wrote.

Read more: A hotel in Portland called the police on a black guest who was taking a phone call in the lobby

The hotel included an apology to Massey in its tweet on Saturday.

"DoubleTree by Hilton has zero tolerance for racism," the hotel tweeted, adding that it had "terminated 2 employees involved in the mistreatment of Mr. Massey and is working with Diversity & Inclusion experts. Hilton deeply apologizes to Mr. Massey."

Massey spoke out about the incident on CNN on Friday, saying he felt hurt and humiliated by the situation.

"I'm a person, at the end of the day, just like everyone else. And I deserve respect and fair treatment, and I did not receive that on Saturday," Massey said. "I think that there's a lot of perceptions about black males, in particular. That we're threats, and we're harmful, and we're just fearful individuals. And that bias impacts these situations and it's harmful to us as a people."

The police call at the DoubleTree is just the latest in a series of instances where white people have called the police on black people for seemingly innocuous behavior, prompting viral outrage and raising concerns of racial bias.

In October, a white woman in Brooklyn called the police on a black child she wrongly accused of sexual assault, later admitting she had been mistaken. In April, two young black men were forcibly removed from a Starbucks in Philadelphia by police as they sat in the café waiting for a business meeting.

In May, a graduate student at Yale University was questioned by police after a fellow student reported her for sleeping in the common area of their dormitory. In June, one black firefighter in uniform was reported to police as he conducted a city-mandated inspection on homes in a neighborhood in Oakland, California.

SEE ALSO: 'We've seen this coming': Why migrant children are dying in Border Patrol custody

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This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

Over the past five years, the world has seen a seemingly unending series of high-profile data breaches, defined as incidents in which unauthorized parties access and retrieve sensitive, secure, or private data.

Major incidents, like the 2013 Yahoo breach, which impacted all 3 million of the tech giant’s customers, and the more recent Equifax breach, which exposed the information of at least 143 million US adults, has kept this risk, and these threats, at the forefront for both businesses and consumers. And businesses have good reason to be concerned — of organizations breached, 22% lost customers, 29% lost revenue, and 23% lost business opportunities.

This threat isn’t going anywhere. Each of the past five years has seen, on average, 1,704 security incidents, impacting nearly 2 billion records. And hackers could be getting more efficient, using new technological tools to extract more data in fewer breach attempts. That’s making the security threat an industry-agnostic for any business holding sensitive data — at this point, virtually all companies — and therefore a necessity for firms to address proactively and prepare to react to.

The majority of breaches come from the outside, when a malicious actor is usually seeking access to records for financial gain, and tend to leverage malware or other software and hardware-related tools to access records. But they can come internally, as well as from accidents perpetrated by employees, like lost or stolen records or devices.

That means that firms need to have a broad-ranging plan in place, focusing on preventing breaches, detecting them quickly, and resolving and responding to them in the best possible way. That involves understanding protectable assets, ensuring compliance, and training employees, but also protecting data, investing in software to understand what normal and abnormal performance looks like, training employees, and building a response plan to mitigate as much damage as possible when the inevitable does occur.

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has put together a detailed report on the data breach threat, who and what companies need to protect themselves from, and how they can most effectively do so from a technological and organizational perspective.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• The breach threat isn’t going anywhere. The number of overall breaches isn’t consistent — it soared from 2013 to 2016, but ticked down slightly last year — but hackers might be becoming better at obtaining more records with less work, which magnifies risk.
• The majority of breaches come from the outside, and leverage software and hardware attacks, like malware, web app attacks, point-of-service (POS) intrusion, and card skimmers.
• Firms need to build a strong front door to prevent as many breaches as possible, but they also need to develop institutional knowledge to detect a breach quickly, and plan for how to resolve and respond to it in order to limit damage — both financial and subjective — as effectively as possible.

In full, the report:

• Explains the scope of the breach threat, by industry and year, and identifies the top attacks.
• Identifies leading perpetrators and causes of breaches.
• Addresses strategies to cope with the threat in three key areas: prevention, detection, and resolution and response.
• Issues recommendations from both a technological and organizational perspective in each of these categories so that companies can avoid the fallout that a data breach can bring.

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• Bill Gates released his annual "What I learned at work this year" letter, which reflects on the issues of the past year and predicts what may happen in the upcoming 12 months. 
• In his 2018 edition, the Microsoft founder shared what he believes will be the next epidemic: the flu. 
• "If anything is going to kill tens of millions of people in a short time, it will probably be a global epidemic. And the disease would most likely be a form of the flu," Gates wrote. 
• Gates added that developing a universal flu vaccine is crucial for keeping a global outbreak from happening. 

As 2018 comes to a close, Microsoft founder Bill Gates is reflecting on the year and thinking about what lies ahead in his annual "What I learned at work this year" letter. In addition to addressing energy and gene editing, this year's musings focused on the potential of a global flu epidemic — one that Gates, also the cofounder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, does not think we are ready to handle.

As Gates wrote in his letter, 2018 marked the 100 year anniversary of the Spanish flu pandemic, a global outbreak that infected 500 million people worldwide and killed roughly 50 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

"I had hoped that hitting the 100th anniversary of this epidemic would spark a lot of discussion about whether we're ready for the next global epidemic," he wrote. "Unfortunately, it didn't, and we still are not ready."

A global flu epidemic could kill more people in the short-term than terrorism or climate change

In his letter, Gates acknowledged that dangers like terrorism and climate change cause great worry among the general public. But he also noted that the flu should be high on their list of concerns as well. 

Read more: 80,000 people died from the flu last winter — the highest number in over 40 years

"If anything is going to kill tens of millions of people in a short time, it will probably be a global epidemic," he wrote. "And the disease would most likely be a form of the flu, because the flu virus spreads easily through the air. Today a flu as contagious and lethal as the 1918 one would kill nearly 33 million people in just six months."

Gates's concerns are warranted. An estimated 80,000 Americans died from the flu last winter, and 180 of those deaths occurred in children, according to the CDC. 

In order to prevent a pandemic from spreading, Gates wrote that "we need a plan for national governments to work together."

"We need to think through how to handle quarantines, make sure supply chains will reach affected areas, decide how to involve the military, and so on. There was not much progress on these questions in 2018," he wrote.

A universal flu vaccine could help protect people from the epidemic, but only if they receive it

Despite the lack of progress in developing a preparedness plan, Gates noted that there have been major steps towards creating a vaccine that protects against every strain of flu. It would only work for people who have never been exposed to the flu in any form. 

"All strains of the virus have certain structures in common," Gates explained. "If you've never been exposed to the flu, it's possible to make a vaccine that teaches your immune system to look for those structures and attack them. But once you've had the flu, your body obsesses over the strain that got you sick. That makes it really hard to get your immune system to look for the common structures."

Even if we were to develop a super vaccine, which Gates writes is possible as "new research money is coming in and more scientists are working on it," there is still the issues of people getting it. While flu shots are readily available, they are not mandatory, giving people opposed to vaccines an easy out. 

Read more:A third of US parents say they'll skip the flu shots for their kids this year — here's why that's not a good idea 

When people avoid vaccination, they increase their risk of developing and spreading the disease. If a person with a weakened, changing, or underdeveloped immune system catches the flu, it could become deadly. According to Healthline, the groups that are more vulnerable to the flu include children, adults over the age of 65, people who are pregnant, people with serious medical conditions, and people undergoing chemotherapy. 

The Gates family isn't only concerned about the deadly potential of the flu

In February 2017, Gates warned about the dangers of weaponized diseases that could kill more than 30 million people in a year. 

"Whether it occurs by a quirk of nature or at the hand of a terrorist, epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year," Gates wrote in an op-ed for Business Insider at the time. "And they say there is a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next 10-15 years."

In March of this year, Gates and his wife Melinda brought up their concerns of a potential bioterrorism attack during a panel at South by Southwest. As with a future global flu epidemic, the two believe we are "unprepared" to handle an attack and need to create safety standards and protocols. 

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

• Read more:
• What Bill Gates thinks about the current state of global health
• Here's why you might get the flu, even if you got the flu shot
• This year's flu vaccine will probably provide more protection than last year's — here's why

Join the conversation about this story »

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• The college football national championship is officially set, with Alabama once again taking on the Clemson Tigers for the title.
• Alabama won their way into the game with a dominant win over Heisman winner Kyler Murray and the Oklahoma Sooners.
• Clemson also cruised to the title game, taking down Notre Dam 30-3.

For the third time in four years, Alabama and Clemson will play for the college football national championship.

Both teams punched their tickets to the title game on Saturday with decisive wins over their opening opponents in the College Football Playoff.

Clemson kicked off the action with a 30-3 win over Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl.

A slow start for both teams left the game tied 3-3 through the first quarter. But the Tigers offense came alive as the game went on, with freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence throwing for 327 yards and three touchdowns in an impressive showing. The Clemson defense never gave an inch, breaking through for six sacks and holding a Notre Dame team that averaged over 450 total yards through the regular season to just 248 yards of offense.

A few hours later, Alabama added yet another solid victory to their undefeated 2018 campaign, taking down Kyler Murray and the Oklahoma Sooners 45-34.

After receiving the opening kickoff, the Crimson Tide jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. The Sooners would eventually get on the board, but would never bring the game within a score.

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who had injury concerns coming into the game, looked every bit the reigning champion that he was, completing 24 of 27 passes for 318 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Tide to victory.

Saturday's games set up a familiar meeting between Alabama and Clemson for the national title at Levi's Stadium in San Francisco. It's the fourth consecutive year that the Tigers and Crimson Tide will meet in the College Football Playoff, and the third time they'll play for the championship.

SEE ALSO: Nick Saban's reaction to a great defensive play shows his never-ending attention to detail and how he is never satisfied

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NOW WATCH: The legendary economist who predicted the housing crisis says the US will win the trade war

Digital disruption is affecting every aspect of the fintech industry.

Over the past five years, fintech has established itself as a fundamental part of the global financial services ecosystem.

Fintech startups have raised, and continue to raise, billions of dollars annually, pushing incumbent financial institutions to get in on the action. Legacy players have begun using fintech to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving financial services landscape.

So what's next?

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, explores recent innovations in the fintech space as well as what might be coming in the future in our brand new exclusive slide deck, The Future of Fintech: How Fintech Is Taking Over The World and What Comes Next.

To get your copy of this free slide deck, click here.

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This is a preview of a research report from Business insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here. 

Telehealth — the use of mobile technology to deliver health-related services, such as remote doctor consultations and patient monitoring — is enabling healthcare providers and payers to address the US healthcare industry’s growing list of problems.

The proliferation and rapid advancement of mobile technology are spurring telehealth adoption, and many believe that 2018 could be the tipping point for the telehealth market.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence defines the opaque US telehealth market, forecasts the market growth potential and value, outlines the key drivers behind usage and adoption, and evaluates the opportunity telehealth solutions will afford all stakeholders. We also identify key barriers to continued telehealth adoption, and discuss how providers, payers, and telehealth companies are working to overcome these hurdles.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Telehealth is enabling healthcare providers and payers to address the US healthcare industry’s growing list of problems, including rising healthcare costs, an aging population, and the transformation of healthcare from service-centric to consumer-centric, which is straining healthcare system resources and threatening to drive up payer costs.
• Although telehealth solutions aren't suitable for all patients, right now, about 45% of the US population, or 147 million consumers, falls within the addressable market.
• Despite low usage rates, most consumers are open to using telehealth solutions, according to the 2018 Business Insider Intelligence Insurance Technology Study. 
• A range of companies are well-positioned to generate savings in terms of revenue and avoid potential pitfalls by deploying telehealth solutions.

 In full, the report:

• Offers an overview of different types of telehealth services and their applications in the US healthcare ecosystem. 
• Highlights the growth drivers and opportunities of these applications.
• Includes exclusive data and insights from the 2018 Business Insider Intelligence Insurance Technology Study. 
• Provides examples of key players in the telehealth market, including insurers, medical device makers, and health networks. 
• Gives recommendations on how health networks and payers should approach using and deploying telehealth solutions.

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• Golden Door is an exclusive spa retreat in California unlike any other — it focuses on inner reflection and self-discovery through activities like predawn hikes and fencing lessons.
• Celebrities, Hollywood elite, CEOs, and the rich flock to Golden Door to re-evaluate their life and de-stress.
• A seven-night stay at Golden Door costs nearly $10,000.

If you want to be pampered like the rich, look no further than Golden Door.

Tucked away in the hills of San Marcos, California, this luxury spa retreat is like no other of its kind: Not only did it help kick-start start the wellness industry, according to the Hollywood Reporter, it also offers much more than the momentary bliss guaranteed in most spa retreats.

Instead, it allows guests to indulge in their entire stay by helping them focus on inner reflection and self-discovery through mindfulness, healthy eating, spa treatments, fitness, and meditation. Attendees have gone to Golden Door to re-evaluate their life, de-stress, and expand their horizons.

Because of its exclusivity, Golden Door was named the number one destination spa in the world by Travel + Leisure in 2015 and has been listed as one of the top 1,000 places to see before you die by The New York Times, according to its website.

It's no wonder Golden Door, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2018, has been a favorite among celebrities and other Hollywood elite, as well as CEOs and real estate agents.

With such accolades and clientele, Golden Door's steep cost shouldn't be shocking, but it's still enough to make your eyes pop. A seven-day stay will run you up nearly $10,000, according to Condé Nast Traveler.

Here's what it's like to stay there, from its 1,200-calorie per day menus and Bollywood dancing classes to its predawn hikes and men's-only retreat.

SEE ALSO: What it's like to vacation in St. Moritz, the hidden gem in the Swiss Alps where celebrities, billionaires, and royalty go to ski

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Golden Door is located in San Marcos, California, between Los Angeles and San Diego. Travel + Leisure once named it the number one spa destination in the world.

Source: Golden Door

Situated on 600 acres, the spa has been around for 60 years and helped spur today's $4.2 trillion wellness industry.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Before it was the spa it is today, Golden Door began as a motel with themed suites and was later reopened as a Japanese Inn.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Just off the coast of Japan there is an island called Aoshima, which is also known as "Cat Island." The tiny fishing village is home to more than 140 cats, which roam around napping, playing, and snagging snacks from residents and tourists. They outnumber humans 8 to 1.

The cats were originally brought to the island to kill mice that hung around fishing boats. But as the human population dwindled from over 1,000 to 16, the cats stayed on and multiplied, as they continued to be fed by the remaining locals. 

The island has become a bit of a tourist destination, though the residents don't seem to mind, as long as it remains peaceful. And people donate cat food from all over Japan.

"If people coming to the island find the cats healing, then I think it's a good thing," 65-year-old fisherman Hidenori Kamimoto told Reuters in 2015. "I just hope that it's done in a way that doesn't become a burden on the people who live here."

This is what life on Cat Island is like: 

SEE ALSO: The 45 original shows and movies Netflix will release by the end of 2016

Aoshima is a 30-minute ferry ride from the coast, and only has a handful of residents now.

There are, however, over 140 cats, which outnumber humans by more than 8 to 1, according to AFP.

Tourists have also begun to come to the island to gawk at the cats.

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

The US prepaid card ecosystem is huge, with 10.7 billion prepaid card transactions made in 2016 reaching $290 billion. And it’s shifting focus from low-income, un- and underbanked consumers toward millennials and higher-income adults.

But as the market evolves, legacy prepaid issuers, like Green Dot, are under threat. The market is becoming more competitive as tech companies like Apple, Square, and Venmo develop their own prepaid offerings, likely as part of a push to drive customers to engage with their core peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer or digital wallet apps. These players’ robust digital offerings and ability to offer prepaid services for lower, or no fees are undercutting legacy businesses. And on top of crowding, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is implementing regulations next year that could impact some issuers’ monetization strategies.

As a result, the US prepaid card market is becoming an increasingly complicated space for issuers to navigate, so prepaid issuers need to rethink their strategies to best attract consumers. Companies can attract a bigger user base if they target younger users from both low-income and high-income segments. They should also provide convenient offerings, that integrate digital features to make account information accessible, to cater to young consumers’ preferences.

Business Insider Intelligence has put together a detailed report that explores the evolving prepaid card industry, identifies how issuers can maintain profitability in a market that’s being challenged by new players and impending government regulations, and evaluates various paths to success.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• There were 10.7 billion prepaid card transactions worth $290 billion in 2016, according to The Federal Reserve. Business Insider Intelligence expects that to grow to $396 billion by 2022. 
• The prepaid space has historically been filled with incumbents like Green Dot. But new players, like Apple, Amazon, and Venmo, are trying to gain share, which is pushing large prepaid firms to merge or acquire one another to grow.
• Issuers can adapt to the change in the space, and grow their share of the market, by providing convenient, multichannel access, and doing so in a way that facilitates profitability. Targeting younger consumers, both from the underbanked and high-income segments, as well as accessing users from physical as well as digital channels, can help facilitate this growth.

In full, the report:

• Sizes the US prepaid card market and estimates its future trajectory.
• Identifies industry leaders and the newcomers to prepaid that are threatening their market share.
• Evaluates growth factors and inhibitors that are increasing competition in the space.
• Issues recommendations and strategies that issuers can implement to stay ahead in such a rapidly shifting space.

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• Comparably, a website that rates companies across a number of different areas, released its 2018 Best Company Culture list.
• Of the 50 businesses on that list, 29 were tech companies.
• Below, we've compiled the list of 29 companies in tech with the best company culture below. 

Good company culture is one of the most important aspects of any job. 

Sure, beer in the fridge and holiday parties are nice. But having company culture runs deeper than the perks — no matter how over-the-top that holiday party may have been. 

On Monday, Comparably — a website that rates companies across a number of different areas — released its 2018 Best Company Culture list. Of the 50 businesses on that list, 29 were tech companies. 

Here are the 29 big companies in tech with the best company culture: 

SEE ALSO: The 18 biggest tech scandals of 2018

29. Akvelon

Headquarters: Bellevue, Washington

What it does: Business and technology consulting firm

What employees say:"Akvelon is one of the best companies that I have worked for. The overall approach and the focus on having a good work-life balance and proactive engagement with their employees make them an extremely good and efficient organization to work with." 

28. Indeed.com

Headquarters: Austin, Texas

What it does: Job search platform 

What employees say:"The office encourages collaboration and teamwork, to ensure everyone is sharing ideas and working together towards the same mission. I've always felt like I can speak up and my thoughts/ideas are heard and addressed."

27. Adobe

Headquarters: San Jose, California

What it does:Software development company best known for its design and photo-editing solutions

What employees say:"Everybody generally works together and is united." 

• Fifteen of the 20 most popular cities in the world for tourists are in Asia.
• That's according to Euromonitor International's annual list of the biggest cities for international tourism released last week.
• The cities were spread out over several countries, including China, India, Thailand, Japan, and Turkey.

Asian cities are dominating the global tourism scene.

Euromonitor International released its annual list of the most popular cities for international tourists last week, and Asian cities took an impressive 15 of the top 20 spots.

The market-research firm looked at 600 total cities and ranked them based on the number of foreign tourists they saw, using travel data from 2017 and partial-year data for 2018.

Topping the list for the eighth consecutive year was Hong Kong, which received nearly 30 million tourists this year. The top Asian cities were spread out over several countries, including China, India, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, and Turkey. 

Read more: The 31 most popular cities in the world for travelers

The only non-Asian cities to make the top 20 were London, Paris, New York City, Rome, and Prague.

Read on to see the Asian cities that proved to be the biggest tourism hotspots of the year. You can also check out the list of the 31 best cities for tourism worldwide and the top tourism draws in North America.

Here are the cities that made the cut:

SEE ALSO: The 31 most popular cities in the world for travelers

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15. Mumbai, India

Overall rank: 19

Projected arrivals in 2018: 10,670,100

14. Guangzhou, China

Overall rank: 18

Projected arrivals in 2018: 9,392,000

13. Taipei, Taiwan

Overall rank: 17

Projected arrivals in 2018: 9,783,300

• Data breaches in 2018 compromised the personal information of millions of people around the world.
• Some of the biggest victims in 2018 include T-Mobile, Quora, Google, and Orbitz. Facebook dealt with a slew of major breaches and incidents that affected more than 100 million users of the popular social network.
• Here are 21 of the biggest data breaches that companies faced this year.

It seems like every week, a new company has to notify its customers that their data may have been compromised, and personal information may have been affected.

Data breaches can happen for a variety of reasons. Some companies are hacked. Data can be mishandled or sold to third parties. Holes in a website's security system can leave information unprotected.

One of the latest victims was Marriott hotels, which recently revealed that hackers had accessed the information of an estimated 500 million customers.

Some of the biggest victims in 2018 include T-Mobile, Quora, Google, and Orbitz. Facebook dealt with a slew of major breaches and incidents that affected more than 100 million users of the popular social network.

Here are the biggest data breaches that were revealed this year, ranked by the number of users affected:

SEE ALSO: The 18 biggest tech scandals of 2018

21. British Airways — 380,000

What was affected: Card payments

When it happened: August 21, 2018 — September 5, 2018

How it happened: A "criminal" hack affecting bookings made on the airline's website and app.

Source: Business Insider

20. Orbitz — 880,000

What was affected: Payment card information and personal data such as billing addresses, phone numbers, and emails.

When it happened: January 1, 2016 — December 22, 2017

How it happened: Hackers accessed travel bookings in the website's system.

Source: Reuters

19. SingHealth — 1.5 million

What was affected: Names and addresses in the Singapore government's health database, and some patients' history of dispensed medicines. Information on the prime minister of Singapore was specifically targeted.

When it happened: May 1, 2015 — July 4, 2018

How it happened: Hackers orchestrated a "deliberate, targeted, and well-planned" attack, according to a statement.

Source: BBC

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here. Current subscribers can read the report here.

Smart speakers comprise one of the fastest-growing device segments in the consumer technology market today. Ownership levels have nearly doubled from early 2017 to summer 2018. 

With this rapid growth, there are a few pivotal questions that both companies looking to develop and sell smart speakers as well as those looking to sell products, deliver media, and offer access to services like banking over these devices need answers to in order to craft successful strategies. In particular, they need to know who is and isn’t buying smart speakers, and what consumers who own smart speakers are actually doing with them. 

To offer these stakeholders insight, Business Insider Intelligence asked more than 500 US consumers about their knowledge of smart speakers, the devices they do or don’t own and what led them to their purchase decisions, as well as the tasks they’re using their smart speakers for.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence will look at the state of the smart speaker market and outline how each of the major device providers approaches the space. We will then focus on the key factors that affect whether or not someone owns one of these devices. Next, we will use our survey data to outline the reasons why people don’t own devices in order to offer guidance for who to target and how. Finally, we will discuss what consumers are actually doing with their smart speakers — specifically looking at how the devices are used and perceived in e-commerce, digital media, and banking — which can help companies determine how well they’re publicizing their smart speaker services and capabilities.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Amazon, Google, Apple, Samsung, Facebook, Sonos, LG, Anker, Spotify, Pandora, Grubhub, Netflix, Hulu, Instagram, Snap.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Despite their growing popularity, nearly half of respondents still don't own a device — which presents a long runway for adoption. Our survey data reveals a number of key factors that impact whether or not someone owns one of these devices, including income, gender, and age.
• Smart speakers are establishing themselves as a key platform for e-commerce, media, and the smart home.
• The introduction of a screen to some smart speakers will expand the possibilities for companies developing for the device — but developers will need to resist the compulsion to use speakers to accomplish too much.

In full, the report:

• Provides an overview of the key players and products in the smart speaker market.
• Highlights critical adoption rates broken out by key factors that define the segment.
• Identifies how consumers are using devices in important areas where companies in various industries are trying foster greater use of the voice interface.

Join the conversation about this story »