Reopened borders, open banking, and ‘need my privacy’

The ‘is it too late to say Happy New Year?’ week is over- that of course won't stop me from using it moving forward. Get ready for a new start with a roundup of the news and views that made LinkedIn members talk last week.

In the news- Saudi said it will reopen its air, land and sea borders on March 31. The kingdom also launched a new zero-emission city in Neom, and direct flights between Saudi and Qatar resumed after a halt that lasted more than three years. Bitcoin continued its wild rides, and WhatsApp's users 'didn't come to terms' with the app's new privacy conditions. Here's more:

Car-less, road-less, and carbon-free

That's The Line, a newly-announced city in Saudi's $500 billion Neom. The project aims to create 380,000 jobs and is expected to add 180 billion riyals to the kingdom's GDP by 2030. Here's what you need to know about The Line.

Commenting on the project on LinkedIn, Ahmed Al Khateeb, Saudi's Minister of Tourism said: “Despite all the challenges of 2020, today’s exciting announcement from NEOM shows our focus on delivering transformation and ensuring prosperity for the Saudi people.” More here.

Would you consider moving to a car-free city? We asked our LinkedIn News Gulf followers, here's what they said.

WhatsApp left on read?

A wave of discontent faced WhatsApp after the Facebook-owned messaging app asked its users to accept changes to the terms of service by February 8. This pushed some to express their intent to stop using the service all together. After the backlash, WhatsApp said it's postponing the deadline for accepting the new terms to May 15.

Are you considering switching from WhatsApp to another messaging service? More than 70% of members taking part of a LinkedIn News Gulf poll said they are. Check out the poll and comments here.

"Big Tech slept thru Econ-101 chapter on substitution effect. Tech had a great run," said Christian Shomber, who specializes in financial technology and digital innovation. Here's what other members said.

Signal Advance benefits from the wrong signals

Mahyar Yahfoufi, CEO at MindField Digital, tells the story:

"Yesterday #elonmusk posted a tweet asking people to use Signal, the messaging app. This caused a frenzy of people going to Google Signal to buy its stocks.

Consequence: People went to Google Search Or Finance Stock sites, looked up Signal stock, clicked and bought. No one bothered to check if this was the right stock. Advance #Signal, a different company had its stocks increase by 1100 percent due to mass buying."

"Yes we talk a lot about customer intent, but apps and websites do not still understand our intent. The proof was today," Mahyar adds. Here's the full conversation.

How 'open' will banks be for Open Banking?

Saudi's central bank SAMA announced a new policy for Open Banking in the kingdom. Also known as 'open data', Open Banking is a practice that allows third parties access financial information of customers from banks or other financial institutions.

But how will Saudi banks adapt to this policy? We asked fintech and banking experts for their two cents, here's what they said.

"The normal reaction of majority banks is resisting this change and opening their doors to what have been perceived as a competitor, I would expect mature and well established banks to adopt this collaboration model and find ways for a win-win scenarios then other banks will follow," said digital transformation advisor Mohamed Roushdy.

"[...] at this stage, it is more a statement of intent than a clear policy, which, when eventually rolled out, will give a clearer idea about the extent to which banking is actually 'opening'," said Vineet Madan, a fintech professional.

Too late to buy Bitcoin?

While this week's massive sell-off is once again highlighting the dangerous volatility that surrounds Bitcoin, some are arguing that the recent plunge is a good chance to invest. I asked investment experts what they think of the most-popular cryptocurrency, here's what they said.

? Are you concerned about your online privacy, be it through open banking or messaging apps? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

For more news and conversations, follow LinkedIn News Gulf . Have a beautiful week!