Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Tuesday, February 09, 2021

Commentators and Journalists Weigh In On Digital Health And Related Privacy, Safety, Social Media And Security Matters. Lots Of Interesting Perspectives - February 09, 2021.

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This weekly blog is to explore the news around the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology, social media and related matters.

I will also try to highlight ADHA Propaganda when I come upon it.

Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board were dated 6 December, 2018 and we have seen none since! Its pretty sad!

Note: Appearance here is not to suggest I see any credibility or value in what follows. I will leave it to the reader to decide what is worthwhile and what is not! The point is to let people know what is being said / published that I have come upon.

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https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/spare-us-the-google-eyed-crackpots-the-case-for-a-viable-news-business-20210205-p57026.html

Spare us the Google-eyed crackpots: the case for a viable news business

Peter Hartcher

Political and international editor

February 5, 2021 — 7.28pm

The Jewish bankers control the secret space lasers, don’t you know? That’s how they started the bushfires in California. The fires were lit from space to clear the route for a proposed high-speed rail line.

The US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene spelt it out on Facebook, so it’s not a secret any longer. She’s clever to figure it out, no doubt about it: “Too many coincidences to ignore,” as she said, putting the former Governor of California, Jerry Brown, at the centre of the conspiracy. Greene is a Republican, Brown a Democrat, naturally.

And, at the end, Congresswoman Greene adds the standard disclaimer: “But what do I know? I just like to read a lot.” As Donald Trump said when caught peddling blatant lies years ago: “Hey, I only know what’s on the internet.”

The healthy response to such silliness is laughter. As filmmaker Avishai Weinberger said: “Mom says it’s my turn on the Jewish Space Laser.” Or The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus: “This Jewish space laser thing makes no sense to me. Because, as every Jewish mother knows, you could put an eye out with that.” A third commenter says he would have been more inclined to go to Hebrew school if only he’d known they had space lasers.

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https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/cracks-in-media-code-opposition-as-microsoft-outflanks-google-and-facebook-20210205-p56zzy.html

Cracks in media code opposition as Microsoft outflanks Google and Facebook

By Lisa Visentin

February 5, 2021 — 7.30pm

On a visit to Silicon Valley four years ago, Scott Morrison stopped by Google’s global headquarters and offered the trillion-dollar company’s executives some unsolicited advice.

Federal treasurer at the time, Morrison suggested the search giant should be proactive in addressing growing calls for regulation of its operations.

“You created this world and we would prefer you to fix the issues, otherwise government will be forced to step in and you won’t like it,” he said, according to those with knowledge of the conversation. The Prime Minister has regularly recounted this experience to colleagues and associates in the years since, but these days he includes a kicker: “They didn’t listen.”

The Morrison government is on the cusp of legislating its news media bargaining code - world-first laws that will force Google and Facebook to pay for news content, with the option for other tech titans to be similarly compelled in the future.

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https://www.afr.com/technology/google-won-t-quit-australia-frydenberg-20210205-p56zxy

Google won’t quit Australia: Frydenberg

Miranda Ward and John Kehoe

Feb 5, 2021 – 4.59pm

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has signalled that Google has backed away from its threat to quit Australia if the government forces the online search giant to pay media publishers for displaying news.

Google launched its News Showcase product on Friday following conversations between Google and the government in which it is understood the Treasurer urged the search giant to launch the product and get deals with publishers done.

There was an understanding that the government may then consider amendments to the proposed mandatory bargaining code which the the Silicon Valley-based company has requested, industry sources said.

Following a video meeting with Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, Mr Frydenberg said on Friday talks between the parties had been constructive.

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https://www.innovationaus.com/its-not-about-the-news-its-techno-politics/

It’s not about the news: It’s techno politics


Marie Johnson
Contributor

5 February 2021

I am forced to live in two parallel worlds. One world is served by an expensive and unreliable NBN where on the weekend in Canberra the speed was 18Mbps down / 23Mbps up. The other world is AI, where for free, I have access to Google’s AI services and compete globally and largely unhindered during the pandemic.

So I don’t believe that the ACCC digital platforms inquiry and the Senate Committee hearings into the proposed News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code is actually about the news.

The debacle unfolding is in reality a dangerous episode of a government and bureaucracy blind-sided by legacy industries and unprepared for the digital era that is upon us.

In years to come, students of history will discover the treasure trove of submissions to the Senate Committee and wonder who actually read them. They will wonder why the submissions of Sir Tim Berners-Lee (“in my capacity as the inventor of the World Wide Web”) and Vint Cerf (“I am one of the original co-designers of the Internet”) appear to have been ignored.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/google-to-pay-publishers-with-showcase/news-story/7629c63acbad8b89965e91e944fa2eb2

Google Showcase beside the point, says ACCC chief Rod Sims

David Swan

The competition watchdog says Google’s newly-launched News Showcase ignores the biggest problem in its relationship with Australia’s publishers.

Google launched its News Showcase product in Australia on Friday, announcing partnerships with independent publications including The Canberra Times, Crikey and The New Daily as the tech giant looks to sign deals outside of the looming mandatory media bargaining code.

In a blog post Google said that News Showcase would be available to Australian users from Friday, and would initially appear across its Google News product, with plans to sign deals with more publishers and to eventually bring the product to Search.

The launch marks the first time the tech giant will pay publishers for their news content in Australia, and comes just a day after Scott Morrison met Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai. Google appears to be backing down from its threats to leave the country if it has to pay for news content, with Mr Morrison declaring after the meeting the tech giant is in a “more positive space” about its Australian future.

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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/senate-committee-red-flags-govt-data-sharing-bill-560668

Senate committee red-flags govt data sharing bill

By Justin Hendry on Feb 5, 2021 6:55AM

Over privacy concerns.

The federal government’s proposed data sharing laws have stumbled at the first hurdle despite two years of development, with a senate committee raising a series of privacy concerns with the Data Availability and Transparency Bill.

The bill, which was introduced to parliament in December, aims to make it easier for the public sector to share data within government and across the private sector for the purposes of delivering government services and support research and development.

It intends to unlock data with a scheme that gives agencies an optional pathway to share data with accredited entities, overriding some 500 data secrecy and confidentiality provisions in 175 pieces of existing legislation.

Personal information and sensitive data collected by agencies, except sensitive data handled under other legislation (think My Health Record, COVIDSafe app, national security), is potentially sharable under the scheme.

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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=5117ea11-15f0-4f34-bfb5-a341247bb829

Upcoming changes to the regulation of software-based medical devices in Australia

DLA Piper

There was an unprecedented uptake of digital technology in 2020 in the healthcare sector, and 2021 is expected to be no different. In creating these technologies for the healthcare sector, developers should ensure that all applicable regulatory requirements are complied with.

In Australia, software may be regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) as a medical device if it falls within the definition of “medical device” as set out in section 41BD of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 (Cth). Further, from 25 February 2021, changes to the Therapeutic Goods (Medical Devices) Regulations 2002 (Cth) will come into effect which seek to clarify some existing requirements around the regulation of software-based medical devices, and introduce new requirements. We provide an update about these changes below.

Software-Based Medical Devices

The definition of “medical device” includes software that is intended to be supplied to be used by a person for one or more of the following purposes:

  • the diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, prediction, prognosis, treatment or alleviation of disease;
  • the diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, alleviation of or compensation for an injury or disability;
  • the investigation, replacement or modification of the anatomy or of a physiological or pathological process or state;
  • the control or support of conception.

Based on a strict reading of this definition, a large number of software-based products may be captured and regulated as medical devices.

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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=4e60f71d-cd99-47ce-8099-3b9c0cc370aa

TGA announces major changes to regulation of software-based medical devices

Corrs Chambers Westgarth

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has announced major changes to how software-based medical devices will be regulated under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 (Cth) (Therapeutic Goods Act).

There are three types of software-based medical devices affected by the changes:

  1. Devices referred to as ‘programmed or programmable medical devices’.
  2. Software that is a medical device.
  3. Clinical decision support software (CDSS).

The changes will commence on 25 February 2021 and include:

  • the exclusion and exemption of certain software-based medical devices from regulation under the medical device regime under the Therapeutic Goods Act;
  • the introduction of new classification rules for software-based medical devices (these will impact both existing entries on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) and new entries for software-based medical devices); and
  • the amendment of existing essential principles, and the introduction of new essential principles, for software-based medical devices.

In addition to changing how software-based medical devices will be regulated going forward, the changes will have an immediate impact on software-based medical devices already entered on the ARTG and may require sponsors and manufacturers to take immediate steps. The TGA has also issued guidance about the impending changes.

In this article, we provide a brief overview of how software-based medical devices are regulated in Australia, a summary of the key changes, and the suggested next steps for sponsors and manufacturers.

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https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/is-the-web-s-a-weapon-of-democracy-s-destruction-20210204-p56zi2

Is the web a weapon of democracy’s destruction?

Regulating the internet sounds like China-style censorship. But the Capitol riots showed how rules-free connectivity can be anathema to a free society.

Stephen Roach Contributor

Feb 4, 2021 – 12.54pm

Plenty has been said, and rightfully so, about the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6. Politicians are grappling with issues of legal and moral accountability. But the horrific events also touch on a critical contradiction of modern societies: the internet’s role as an instrument of democracy’s destruction.

It was not supposed to be this way. The internet’s open architecture has long been extolled by cyber-libertarian futurists as a powerful new democratising force. Information is free and available instantaneously – and anyone can now vote with a mere click.

Donald Trump’s permanently suspended Twitter account: there are great misgivings about entrusting corporate leaders with the fundamental task of protecting democracy. 

The rapid expansion of the public square is offered as exhibit A. Internet penetration went from 1 per cent to 87 per cent of the US population between 1990 and 2018, far outstripping the surge in the world as a whole from zero to 51 per cent over the same period. The United States, the world’s oldest democracy, led the charge in embracing new technologies of empowerment.

The problem, of course, lies in internet governance – namely, the absence of rules. Even as we extol the virtues of the digital world, to say nothing of the acceleration of digitisation during the COVID-19 pandemic, the dark side has become impossible to ignore.

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https://www.smh.com.au/technology/breaking-up-with-google-is-hard-to-do-20210203-p56z1h.html

Breaking up with Google is hard to do

By Tim Biggs

February 4, 2021 — 11.45am

Just how tied to Google and its services are we? How big an impact would there be on our everyday life if it disappeared? Australians may soon have to find out.

The web giant has threatened to pull its flagship product — Google Search — from Australia as a last resort if a decision on the proposed News Media Bargaining Code doesn’t go its way.

From phones and PCs to speakers and bedside alarm clocks, Google’s smarts and services are embedded in a huge range of products, not to mention digital wares like email clients and browsers.

To get a sense for what it might be like in a hypothetical worst-case scenario of Google withdrawing everything, I spent a few days on total Google detox trying out alternative services and solutions.

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https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/prime-minister-scott-morrison-in-talks-with-google-boss-sundar-pichai-20210204-p56zfw.html

Prime Minister Scott Morrison in talks with Google boss Sundar Pichai

By Lisa Visentin

February 4, 2021 — 11.31am

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has held a meeting with global Google chief Sundar Pichai following the tech giant’s threat to shut down search in Australia if proposed media compensation laws come into effect.

Mr Morrison was joined in the online meeting on Thursday morning by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is leading the government’s push to force Google and Facebook to pay news publishers for using their content on their platforms.

The meeting comes after rival Microsoft declared its support for the proposed laws on Wednesday and pledged to invest in its search engine Bing to fill the void in the event Google exited the market.

Microsoft president Brad Smith said he and global chief executive, Satya Nadella, had met with Mr Morrison last week to inform him the company “fully supported” the news media bargaining code.

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https://www.afr.com/technology/how-i-dumped-google-before-it-dumped-me-20210203-p56z19

How I dumped Google before it dumped me

It turns out that moving on from Google is much, much easier than you might expect.

John Davidson Columnist

Feb 3, 2021 – 3.17pm

The thing I’ll miss about Google is the font set.

My Google search results page used Arial fonts, and the DuckDuckGo search engine I’ve been using in place of Google these past 12 days – ever since Google said it would shut down its Australian search engine if it didn’t get to dictate the terms of Australia’s proposed news media bargaining code – uses a font set called Proxima Nova.

I definitely prefer Arial. Proxima Nova, delightful as it may be, just looks wrong on a search page.

DuckDuckGo, a privacy-oriented search engine, promises to never track its users’ online activity. 

But here’s what has surprised me about dumping Google before it dumped me: other than the font – the most trivial of details in the scheme of things – I’ve not missed Google search one bit.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/microsoft-says-its-willing-to-accept-new-media-bargaining-code-unlike-google/news-story/49780457d874aeb157d6e3ff94ca63fd

Microsoft willing to accept new media bargaining code, unlike Google, Facebook

Ticky Fullerton

Microsoft says it would sign up to the federal government’s proposed news media bargaining code, in the clearest break from its rivals Google and Facebook to date.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella spoke to Scott Morrison and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher last week and said he “fully supports” the proposed code, the company said.

“The code reasonably attempts to address the bargaining power imbalance between digital platforms and Australian news businesses,” Microsoft president Brad Smith said.

“While Microsoft is not subject to the legislation currently pending, we’d be willing to live by these rules if the government designates us.”

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https://www.smh.com.au/technology/microsoft-pledges-to-fill-hole-if-google-follows-through-with-threats-to-exit-australia-20210203-p56z3n.html

Microsoft ‘fully supports’ government’s digital media code

By Zoe Samios and John McDuling

February 3, 2021 — 12.30pm

US software giant Microsoft has publicly pledged to fill the void created by Google if it leaves the Australian market in a major boost for the Morrison government’s plans to introduce sweeping new rules to force tech giants to pay media companies.

Microsoft’s president Brad Smith said in a statement the company “fully supports” the government’s News Media Bargaining Code and will invest in its Bing search engine to allow small businesses wanting to transfer their advertising to the platform to do so simply and with no transfer costs.

“The code reasonably attempts to address the bargaining power imbalance between digital platforms and Australian news businesses.,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said.

“It also recognises the important role search plays, not only to consumers but to the thousands of Australian small businesses that rely on search and advertising technology to fund and support their organisations. While Microsoft is not subject to the legislation currently pending, we’d be willing to live by these rules if the government designates us.”

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https://www.afr.com/technology/at-best-australians-are-lukewarm-on-bing-20210201-p56yge

At best, Australians are lukewarm on Bing

Natasha Gillezeau Reporter

Feb 1, 2021 – 6.08pm

Australian users are tepid on using Bing for search but say they can adjust, while advertisers would want substantial improvements to the search engine’s back end before considering it a solid alternative to Google.

The Microsoft-owned search engine’s relevance renaissance follows Google’s announcement that it would pull its search engine from Australia rather than accept the news media bargaining code in its current form.

Google has 94 per cent of Australia’s search engine market. But should it withdraw, Bing’s paltry 4 per cent could start climbing.  

A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the tech company believed the scenario was too hypothetical to give details on how it would seek to capitalise on it.

“We recognise the importance of a vibrant media sector and public interest journalism in a democracy and we recognise the challenges the media sector has faced over many years through changing business models and consumer preferences,” the spokeswoman said.

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https://www.afr.com/technology/businesses-plan-for-life-after-google-20210125-p56wmc

Businesses plan for life after Google

Natasha Gillezeau Reporter

Feb 2, 2021 – 12.00am

Australian small businesses are scrambling to work out how to reshape their online strategies if Google follows through on its threat to close down its search engine locally, saying they will call on the spirit of 2020 and find a way to carry on in the face of big changes.

Small businesses that rely heavily on Google search and advertising to target customers online have been held up as a group that will suffer most if the tech and media giant chooses to close down search locally, rather than sign up to the proposed news media bargaining code, which it argues is “unworkable”.

This move is aimed at reducing Google’s future liability for payments under a legally enforceable revenue-sharing agreement with Australian media companies. However, it has raised concerns that small and medium business owners will struggle to reach Australians online, without Google’s targeted search advertising.

Iman Davamoni, the founder of Purely Polished, an online platform that connects people with make-up and hair services (“like Uber for beauty”,) said initially news of Google search’s possible withdrawal gave her serious pause.

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https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/newsroom/events-and-webinars/using-electronic-prescriptions-for-prescribers-dispensers-and-their-staff-in-qld

Using electronic prescriptions: for prescribers, dispensers and their staff in QLD

Event details

When Wednesday, 17 February 2021 6:30pm - 7:30pm (AEDT)

Where Online

Hosted by Australian Digital Health Agency

Register here

Contact us

General enquiries

Phone: 1300 901 001
8am - 5pm (AEST/AEDT) Monday - Friday
Email: help@digitalhealth.gov.au

More information

COVID-19 has accelerated the use of digital health, including electronic prescriptions, which offers patients convenient access to their medicines. Electronic prescriptions are an option for many types of medicines, including schedule 8 medicines (e.g. drugs of addiction). The Australian Digital Health Agency would like to take this opportunity to discuss key features of electronic prescribing, its uptake across the country and address some frequently asked questions, specifically relating to generating and dispensing electronic prescriptions for schedule 8 medicines.

We will have an expert panel to address your questions, and please submit any queries when registering for this session.

This webinar is open to all healthcare providers and their staff (e.g. practice managers, nurses, pharmacy staff etc.)

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https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/shrill-threats-google-risks-losing-media-fight-20210131-p56y6e.html

Shrill threats: Google risks losing media fight

By Greg Hywood

February 1, 2021 — 12.00am

Back in the late 1990s as the editor of The Australian Financial Review I took a trip to Silicon Valley to see what the fuss was all about.

My first visit was to three Indian guys in a small shopfront who showed how the internet could be used to search classified ads. It was starkly apparent the ‘rivers of gold’ – the monopoly stream of jobs, homes and car ads that made my sister publications The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age so profitable – were going to one day dry up.

Later I visited a fledgling Google, then housed in a nondescript glass building in Palo Alto.

At the time there were plenty of search engines all competing with intent. Yahoo was the best known but also Lycos, Excite, Looksmart, Alta Vista. Google’s claim to superiority was an algorithm that could cross reference relevance between sites.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/apple-ceo-tim-cooks-privacy-speech-is-cold-comfort-for-facebook/news-story/81451c562b252e6a1a8c54d961f77000

Apple CEO Tim Cook’s privacy speech is cold comfort for Facebook

Chris Griffith

CEO Tim Cook has locked-in Apple’s determination to take on Facebook’s ad tracking in a passionate speech that warns we risk losing the freedom to be human.

From around the Australian autumn, Apple iPhone users will have to explicitly give developers permission to track their activities on mobile devices and garner information about them for advertisers.

Tracking users has been the lifeline for Facebook whose entire business model depends on the current opt-out model, where the world’s phone users are automatically tracked unless they bother to opt out of being tracked, and relatively few do.

It’s little wonder that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reeling at the prospect of Facebook missing out knowing a lot about Apple users’ activities. With the change, Facebook’s business model is thrown into jeopardy if it cannot track users with the accuracy it needs for targeted advertising.

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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-wall-street-journal/apple-to-roll-out-privacy-measures-despite-facebook-objections/news-story/f3c882fd00fe722917348f47f4affb09

Apple to roll out privacy measures despite Facebook objections

Apple Inc. plans to roll out its extensive new privacy-protection options for users over the next several months, moving ahead with plans that have ratcheted up tensions between the company and social-media giant Facebook Inc.

On the same day Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told investors Apple poses a growing threat to its business, the iPhone maker reiterated its intent to give users the option to limit how apps track their digital footprints.

Apple users early this spring will see the new feature, which will allow ad tracking only if consumers opt in once they receive a prompt on an iPhone or iPad. (A beta version will be coming sooner for test users.) The software update to its mobile operating system would make it so that Facebook or other companies would no longer be able to collect a person’s advertising identifier without permission.

Chief Executive Tim Cook is slated to speak Thursday on the topic of data privacy at the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference.

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https://www.hospitalhealth.com.au/content/facility-admin/news/unchecked-misinformation-risks-vaccine-efforts-918357877

Unchecked misinformation risks vaccine efforts

Tuesday, 26 January, 2021

A newly formed coalition of health and technology experts is calling on the Australian Parliament to force Big Tech companies to reveal the true extent of COVID-19 misinformation, warning that unchecked misinformation risks Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination response.

Led by Reset Australia — a local affiliate of the global initiative working to counter digital threats to democracy and society — the coalition includes the Immunisation Coalition, the Immunisation Foundation of Australia, Coronavax and the Doherty Institute. The group calls on politicians to introduce a Big Tech ‘Live List’ that details the most popular COVID-related material being shared online.

“Rampant misinformation on social media is hampering Australia’s COVID-19 efforts and may deter widespread take up of the future vaccine,” Reset Australia Executive Director Chris Cooper said.

“Social media has supercharged conspiracy theories and misinformation, pushing some people into echo chambers where false information is all they see.”

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https://www.smh.com.au/technology/taking-on-the-rising-cyber-threat-20210128-p56xlr.html

Taking on the rising cyber threat

This is sponsored content for FM Global

By Christopher Niesche

February 1, 2021 — 12.00am

Australian businesses better understand the risk of cyber than they did a few years ago and place a higher priority on a cyber security program, but they still need to have a detailed crisis management plan in place because attacks are inevitable, says Pankaj Thareja, a cyber consultant at insurer FM Global.

“Two or three years ago, a lot of businesses were complacent,” Thareja says. “Now, most businesses we speak with are aware it’s a real risk. They understand that the risk of cyber is real and dependency on technology can’t be avoided, and hence everybody is under the cyber threat.“

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the cyber risk faced by many businesses, with more staff working remotely from home, having less standardised devices, systems and Wi-Fi networks to accomplish daily business activities, creating cyber resilience challenges.

The drive by businesses to increase efficiency by digitising more of their operations and increasing their use of technology has also increased cyber risk, by increasing what cyber security experts call the attack surfaces.

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https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/facebook-and-apple-s-war-of-words-nears-boiling-point-20210201-p56ycz.html

Facebook and Apple’s war of words nears boiling point

By James Titcomb

February 1, 2021 — 11.32am

What would happen if, tomorrow, Facebook decided to remove its apps from Apple’s download store?

Overnight, iPhones would become much less useful, deprived of Instagram and WhatsApp as well as the big blue social network itself. A substantial (albeit minority) proportion of iPhone users might switch to Samsung phones, since they would still have the apps.

A host of other popular iPhone apps that use Facebook’s login or advertising systems would also be left scrambling.

The above scenario is unlikely, and would almost certainly cause much more damage to Facebook than Apple. But it is not hard to think that the idea has probably flashed across Mark Zuckerberg’s mind, if just for a second.

Apple and Facebook are not traditional rivals. One makes electronics, which it sells at a premium to those who can afford it. The other runs a global social network, which is free at the point of use and funded by advertising. For the last decade and more, their successes have in fact been intertwined. Facebook pre-dates the smartphone era, but now makes over 90 per cent of its advertising revenue from smartphones. Instagram and WhatsApp, which it acquired and turned into giants, were born on the iPhone.

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https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2021/2/can-video-gp-consultations-become-the-norm/

Can video GP consultations become the norm?

Authored by Andrew Baird

Issue 2 / 1 February 2021

IS it possible that the video consultation may replace the in-person consultation as the default consultation in Australian general practice?

There are no data on the proportion of GP consultations in Australia that are appropriate for video. The final Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) data (2015–2016) are consistent with video being appropriate for more than 50% of GP consultations. The Registrars’ Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) project does not capture appropriateness for video consultation or requirement for in-person consultation.

Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, has stated that “around half of GP consultations are likely to be delivered remotely on a permanent basis following the pandemic”. In the United Kingdom in July 2020, 77% of GP consultations were done by phone; 4% were done by video; 11% were in-person, 6% were done by SMS or email, and 3% were home visits and care home visits.

Video consultations potentially provide benefits for patients, GPs, general practice, population health, and communities, although the evidence is yet to accumulate.

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https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/microsoft-tells-pm-it-could-fill-google-void-20210131-p56y5y

Microsoft tells PM it could fill Google void

Phillip Coorey Political editor

Jan 31, 2021 – 1.22pm

Microsoft has discussed with Scott Morrison expanding its Bing search engine into the Australian market should Google withdraw in protest over plans to force tech giants to share revenue with media outlets for republishing their content.

The Prime Minister held talks last week with Microsoft chief executive and president Satya Nadella, as well as the company’s Australian hierarchy, following threats by Google to withdraw its search engine from Australia if the laws pass Parliament.

At the same time, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg held an online meeting with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, but Mr Frydenberg said the government was not for turning.

“Mark Zuckerberg didn’t convince me to back down if that’s what you’re asking,” Mr Frydenberg told the ABC’s Insiders program.

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https://www.afr.com/companies/healthcare-and-fitness/psychiatrists-learn-how-to-empathise-virtually-20210125-p56wm6

Psychiatrists learn how to empathise, virtually

From mastering multiple technologies to reading body language via video, the pandemic has forced doctors to change how they help their patients.

Tanveer Ahmed Contributor

Jan 27, 2021 – 12.00am

For many of us, the coronavirus pandemic drove parts of our lives into the digital realm: from streaming entertainment, to buying groceries to Zoom meetings.

As a psychiatrist, my work also changed. Almost a quarter of my consultations are now conducted digitally, three times higher than before the pandemic.

Using a laptop or a smartphone, I have become familiar with Facetime, Skype, Zoom and the bespoke applications linked to some organisations I work for. I assess my clients in jail using Web Ex teams and they tell me about their crimes while sitting in cramped rooms staring at webcams in their green prison uniforms.

The statistics suggest that both doctors and patients are happy with the new options, with a 20 per cent increase in uptake on average across all Australian states. Unsurprisingly, Victoria had higher rates in the middle of 2020 during the state’s strict lockdown.

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Comments more than welcome!

David.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's a little reminder that Australia is not alone in its miserable failure of a national health record system. The article is from 2019 but it is just as relevant today. Not even Jared Kushner could fix things.

At least we have only thrown away AU$2billion

Death By 1,000 Clicks: Where Electronic Health Records Went Wrong
https://khn.org/news/death-by-a-thousand-clicks/

... 10 years after President Barack Obama signed a law to accelerate the digitization of medical records — with the federal government, so far, sinking $36 billion into the effort — America has little to show for its investment.

Anonymous said...

@6:06 PM Apples are not oranges. With respect these are two completely different scenarios.

Anonymous said...

"Apples are not oranges" but they are both fruit. Yes "different scenarios" but the same problem.

Anonymous said...

11:49 AM I would suggest they were tackling quite different problems. The common threads were too much money, too much hype, too little understanding and definition of 'their' respective problems, too much urgency, too many problems to be solved all rolled up into 'one' big problem.

Anonymous said...

The single most fundamental error of the last three decades has been the folly in attempting to design an idealised future state rather than working the evolutionary potential of the here and now, the adjacent possibles - it is impossible to gain consensus in the former, easier in the latter. EHealth is a generational transformation temporarily hijacked by opportunists who have pushed many a talent and wise person from the nest.