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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! It’s 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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Plan for rapid test results as Sutton’s Omicron health advice is revealed
By Paul Sakkal, Aisha Dow and Mary Ward
January 1, 2022 — 5.00am
Victorians who test positive to COVID-19 on a rapid test will be able to share their result with the government and be included in official figures, as people forgo PCR testing due to unpalatable waiting times and site closures.
The Age has confirmed existing government IT infrastructure that allows people to create unique codes to store their PCR test results online is likely to be used to allow people to upload their rapid test results, as use of at-home tests overtakes the PCR system.
Detail of the testing overhaul was confirmed following the release of a report under the state’s new pandemic laws showing that Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton urged the Andrews government to close dance floors, implement density caps in hospitality, require people attending major events to have a negative rapid tested before entry and restrict access to hospitals and aged care homes.
Professor Sutton also requested that his public health team gain control over the public health management of events with more than 5000 people, rather than the current threshold of 30,000.
He said his advice, dated December 23, was designed to avoid a worst-case scenario of more than 25,000 cases per day in Victoria, as modelled by the Burnet Institute.
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Drone delivery, DAOs, digital docs: The tech trends to watch out for in 2022
By Matthew Field and James Titcomb
January 1, 2022 — 5.27am
As the pandemic continued to turn the norm upside down in 2021, the world became even more dependent on technology.
Consumers now don’t think twice about relying on apps to deliver groceries, invest chunks of money or prove their COVID status for travel and even work. The year spawned previously unthinkable ideas.
Non-fungible tokens, “memecoins” and virtual real estate became phenomenons while Bitcoin had an even wilder ride, culminating in El Salvador becoming the first country to adopt it as legal tender.
As technology advances, it is anyone’s guess what craze 2022 might hold. Here are our predictions what to watch out for next year:
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What is spyware and how governments can use it for intimidation
William Turton
Dec 31, 2021 – 1.51pm
In the hands of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, spyware can track criminals and terrorists. In the hands of repressive governments, it can be a tool of intimidation and retribution against activists, journalists and business executives.
A particularly sophisticated version produced by Israeli software maker NSO Group, which can surreptitiously bug a target phone without any misstep by its owner, has sharpened concerns over who’s spying on whom, and for what purpose.
It’s one front in a broader debate about the use of new technologies - facial recognition and predictive policing analytics being two other examples - by those entrusted with the power of the state.
NSO insists it licences Pegasus to law enforcement and intelligence agencies for the purpose of collecting data “from the mobile devices of specific suspected major criminals”. AP
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Tech giants race to set the metaverse rules
By The Economist
2:27PM December 30, 2021
You have to hand it to Mark Zuckerberg. When the founder of Facebook announced in October that he was changing the name of the social-media network’s parent company to Meta Platforms in order to help create an alternative digital reality known as the metaverse, he was mercilessly mocked. To some, he was generating a smokescreen to distract attention from a political furore. To others, he was merely the latest middle-aged tech billionaire to chase a childhood fantasy, much as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Tesla’s Elon Musk were doing with space rockets.
And yet his timing was impeccable. Since October searches on Google for “metaverse” have soared. Wall Street is fanning the hype. According to Bernstein, a broker, the term cropped up 449 times in third-quarter earnings calls, up from 100 in the second quarter. It says markets with potential annual revenue of at least $US2 trillion ($2.75 trillion) could be disrupted by the metaverse. Jefferies, a bank, says that though the phenomenon may be more than a decade away, it has the potential to disrupt “almost everything in human life”. Other tech giants like Microsoft have set out plans to head for the metaverse. But it is big firms still under the control of their founders that may become the most ardent evangelists. Mr Zuckerberg, with a net worth close to $US125bn and almost total control of a company valued at $US908bn, is the most prominent. Others include Jensen Huang of Nvidia, a maker of graphics processors worth $US722bn, and Pony Ma of Tencent, the Chinese tech giant worth $US550bn, whose gaming investment portfolio includes a 40 per cent stake in Epic Games, owner of “Fortnite”, one of the world’s most popular games. Epic’s founder, Tim Sweeney, is himself a force to be reckoned with. He recently told Bloomberg that the metaverse was a multitrillion-dollar opportunity, and that companies like his were in a race to get to a billion users in order to set the metaverse’s standards.
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Security agencies stop reporting security breaches amid spike in leaks
December 30, 2021 — 5.00am
Data breaches at Australia’s premier criminal intelligence agency have risen by more than 50 per cent in a year, with employees sending documents to the wrong email addresses, sharing passwords and accidentally mishandling classified information.
The increase in breaches has prompted the federal Opposition to call on security agencies to be more transparent in reporting security incidents after many reduced their reporting of breaches in recent years.
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission recorded 87 breaches in 2021-21, compared to 53 in 2019-20, but they were not disclosed in the agency’s annual reports.
Over a third of the incidents at the commission were considered “medium” or “high” security risk.
ACIC stopped reporting data on the number of security breaches it faced in 2018-19, and was only made to reveal its list of incidents over the past three financial years when Labor submitted questions on notice via the Senate estimates process.
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The next big things in technology set to transform our lives
· AFP
After a year that made the terms WFH (work from home) and metaverse instantly recognisable for many people, there are a new set of technological trends headed this way in 2022. Here’s a selection that may change lives in the coming year:
Meatless meat
Meat alternatives have become common in an increasing number of households, due in part to Beyond Meat and Impossible Food plant-based products that come far closer to the texture and flavour of beef or pork.
As the products have improved and the prices edged downward, demand has been boosted by concern about the environment: raising animals for food is responsible for 14.5 per cent of human-linked greenhouse gas emissions, according to UN data.
The global market for plant-based meats is expected to be worth $US35bn ($48bn) in 2027 – up from $US13.5bn in 2020, due in part to expansion beyond the US, according to a report from Research and Markets.
David Bchiri, president of US consulting firm Fabernovel, said 2022 would be “the crowning year of food made from plant-based proteins. The products are mature and good. They’re going to become mainstream.”
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The ‘next big thing’ in computing: Why you should care about ‘Web 3.0’
By John Henderson
December 15, 2021 — 5.00am
What is the ‘next big thing’ in computing? For more than a decade, mobile and cloud have been the two dominant drivers underpinning the rise of today’s technology giants from Shopify to Snapchat.
With 13 generations of iPhones behind us and Moore’s Law starting to break down, venture capitalists have spent recent years scratching their heads about what comes next. They have placed bets on technologies from quantum computing to synthetic biology to virtual reality to generative AI. All feel promising; none seem to have the tsunami-like quality of their predecessors.
But what if the next big wave was actually still ... the internet? Just a new and better version of it.
The early internet (1980s-2000s) was built on top of a series of open protocols like HTTP (websites) and SMTP (email). It was largely decentralised: users could trust that these protocols wouldn’t change and could build sites and services on top of them with no intermediation by a third party. However, building required technical skills, and it was hard to attract an audience. Web1.0 was niche.
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Smarter crims drive rise in dreaded phone scams
Lucas Baird Reporter
Dec 28, 2021 – 11.47am
You answer the phone and a strangely robotic voice replies. They claim to be an investigator from the Tax Office, threatening to freeze your assets unless you pay an overdue bill, or maybe it’s a Border Force officer warning that you are on a no-fly list until thousands of supposedly stolen funds are given back.
Whichever it is, you likely hung up within seconds.
This isn’t your first rodeo – hundreds of scam calls, what feels like far more than usual, weaved their way to you in 2021, and you are not alone.
More than 270,000 scams have been reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission this year, enough to con more than $306 million from the public. It’s a depressing statistic for deputy chairman Delia Rickard, who says this is only the tip of the iceberg as under a fifth of scams are reported.
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Pregnancy apps become a battleground of vaccine misinformation
By Ashley Fetters Maloy and Will Oremus
December 26, 2021 — 7.53pm
For generations of parents, Heidi Murkoff’s 1984 pregnancy guide What to Expect When You’re Expecting has been a trusty companion, offering calm, scientifically informed advice for a nerve-wracking nine months.
These days, of course, there’s an app for that: What to Expect’s “Pregnancy & Baby Tracker,” which offers personalised articles, videos, graphics of your baby’s development, and other features based on your due date.
But parents who’ve used What To Expect’s app say they also offered something they weren’t expecting: a “community” section rife with scare stories, conspiracy theories, and outright falsehoods about the safety of vaccines, posted by other users and surfaced by the app’s search functions and email notifications.
Mashaya Engel, 26, who gave birth to a daughter in August, said she encountered multiple posts expressing scepticism about the safety of getting vaccinated against the coronavirus during pregnancy. “I searched in the group discussions for vaccines, and it popped up – some moms having discussions about not vaccinating your children, or getting delayed vaccines,” Engel said. Other users noted a similar phenomenon: “Most antivax and microchip conspiracy comments I’ve ever seen,” one tweeted in May.
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Electronic prescribing
Education and training support
If you would like further assistance, complete the education and training request form
Online Training
Electronic prescribing: For prescribers
training.digitalhealth.gov.au
https://training.digitalhealth.gov.au/course/view.php?id=12
Electronic prescribing: For dispensers
training.digitalhealth.gov.au
https://training.digitalhealth.gov.au/course/view.php?id=15
Download the Electronic Prescriptions Toolkit
This toolkit relates to the introduction of electronic prescriptions. The assets are designed for:
- Dispensers to share with consumers,
- Prescribers to share with patients
- Peaks and partners to share with their audiences.
Fact sheets
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David.
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