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This weekly blog is to explore the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy 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 are dated 6 December, 2018!
Secrecy unconstrained by any sense of public responsibility!
Secrecy unconstrained by any sense of public responsibility!
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Assessing the information quality and usability of My Health Record within a health literacy framework: What’s changed since 2016?
Louisa Walsh, BPhysio (Hons), MstratComm, Bronwyn Hemsley, BAppSc(Speech Path), PhD, Meredith Allan, BA, BEc,
July 1, 2019
Abstract
Background:
This study examined the health literacy demands of My Health Record (MyHR) in the context of preparing for a government-announced opt-out system by repeating two studies of health information and usability conducted in 2016.
Objective:
To examine whether Australia’s MyHR meets the information and usability needs of people at risk of low health literacy and changes since 2016.
Method:
Content analysis: Informed by the 2016 methods and findings, measures of information quality, themes and target audiences were recorded and reported for each online consumer-facing health information resource. Heuristic evaluation: An evaluation of the MyHR and supporting information website was conducted using a predetermined checklist of usability criteria. A list of usability violations for both websites was identified.
Results:
Total number of resources grew from 80 in 2016 to 233 in 2018. There was little change since 2016 to average readability levels, target audiences, presentation style, links between resources and usability of MyHR. Compared to 2016, this study demonstrated increases in resources from non-government organisations; video resources; translated resources; and resources with themes of privacy, security and post-registration use.
Conclusion:
This study identified some improvements in information quality since 2016, but gaps remain in information quality and usability which may negatively impact the ability for people with low health literacy to access and use MyHR.
Implications:
This study provides a framework for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the suitability of MyHR for people at risk of low health literacy.
Consumer Data Right: Government promises to legislate 'right to delete'
Amendments to CDR tabled in Senate but not yet voted on
The government has indicated that later this year it will seek to pass additional legislation to modify Australia’s new data-sharing regime and introduce a ‘right to delete’ for consumers.
Legislation laying the basis for the ‘Consumer Data Right’ was passed yesterday by the Senate. The legislation will allow consumers and small businesses to request that a business that holds data relating to their use of its services transfer that data to a third party.
The government says this will make it easier for people to shift between service providers, as well as use third party services that can help them make more informed decisions about their spending. The CDR will be rolled out on a sector-by-sector basis, beginning with the introduction of an open banking regime.
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Australian government, spooks, and industry all on different cyber pages
Views on civilian cybersecurity's future differ widely, but does the Morrison government, and Minister Dutton in particular, have the clarity and clue to sort out the 'train smash' of legislation?
Michael Pezzullo, the powerful and ambitious Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), wants vast new domestic powers for the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). But reportedly they're not powers the ASD has asked for.
The thought bubble of extending ASD operations to domestic targets has been kicking around for a while now, despite attempts by Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton to hose down concerns.
Last week, The Saturday Paper reported that DHA is now "pushing ahead" with the proposal, although it's "expected to be presented as a joint submission from several departments whose portfolios would be affected".
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OAIC still asking for information privacy amendments to data retention regime
It also wants to be consulted before additional authorities or bodies are declared as 'enforcement agencies' or when the categories of retained metadata are to be increased under the data retention regime.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) wants clarification on terminology used in Australia's data retention regime, saying that with a lack of definition, "content" and "substance" have the potential to see more personal information than is necessary be collected.
The OAIC made the request in its submission [PDF] to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security's (PJCIS) review of the mandatory data retention regime of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act) 1979 (TIA Act).
The OAIC said Section 187AA of the TIA Act sets out the kinds of information a service provider is required to keep under the regime. It notes that service providers are not required to keep "information that is the contents or substance of a communication".
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Big Four tech shops scramble as Consumer Data Right finally clears Senate unmolested
By Julian Bajkowski on Aug 2, 2019 12:38PM
We're from the government and we're here to help.
A degree of strategic investment certainty has returned to Australia’s multi-billion dollar banking and financial technology sector, after crucial Consumer Data Right (CDR) legislation finally cleared the Senate late Thursday, cementing in a February commencement date for the big shake up.
A personal crusade of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the clearance of API-powered competition reforms is certain to trigger a race between competing institutions to get their product and CRM systems rapidly up to scratch to comply with the laws.
The result of a concerted push by the Productivity Commission and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the new laws are intended to exert consumer pressure on Australia’s banking oligopoly and the telecommunications and utilities sectors by letting customers put their accounts up for transparent contestation.
“The laws give consumers more control over their data which will help with the development of better and more convenient products and services that are customised to individuals’ needs,” the Prime Minister said.
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Canberra to push banks on data sharing after Consumer Data Right laws pass parliament
- 12:00AM August 2, 2019
The Morrison government has ushered the Consumer Data Right legislation across the line, with the financial services sector the first to come under the purview of the data-sharing regime.
Under CDR, consumers will have more freedom to switch financial institutions, with the flexibility to be later extended to the energy and telecommunications sector as well.
However, the immediate focus will be on the banking sector, with the data-sharing regime paving the way for open banking.
Australian Banking Association chief Anna Bligh said the legislation created the legal foundation for open banking. which would bolster competition across the industry.
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Five Eyes want access to Facebook, WhatsApp via 'back door'
By Charles Hymas
July 31, 2019 — 2.34pm
London: Australia, the UK, US, New Zealand and Canada are pushing to force technology companies to co-operate with intelligence agencies by giving them "lawful access" to encrypted messages through a "back door" in exceptional cases so that they can catch serious criminals and terrorists.
The countries, which form a group known as Five Eyes, met for two days in London hosted by new British Home Secretary Priti Patel and Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox.
Patel says although encryption is important in protecting citizens' privacy, it has to be set against the rising online threat of terrorism and extremism and a tenfold increase in online child sexual exploitation and abuse since 2013.
The Five Eyes official communique at the end of the meeting agreed:
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The core information standard
31 Jul 2019
People want to see the benefits that digital information sharing can bring embraced by health and social care, just as they’ve seen them in other parts of their lives.
The NHS and social care are poised to transform care for each of us from birth to the end of life, and using information and technology better is central to these changes. Deciding what information should be shared between the NHS, social care and people who use services and how it can be shared safely is fundamental.
The PRSB was commissioned by NHS England to define the information that should be shared, called a ‘core information standard’, by consulting widely with people who use services, health and care professionals. As a UK-wide body, PRSB consulted on the standard across the four nations, because people’s health and care is provided across geographical boundaries and the information needed to provide safe, high quality care should follow the person.
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Using technology to deliver anytime, anywhere healthcare
Codesain CEO Rachel De Sain says Australia's My Health Record provides more than 90% of the country's citizens with a national eHealth record that can help them improve their digital health journey.
July 30, 2019 ADHA Propaganda
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Cyber security: Sorting through Australia’s ‘train smash of a legislative landscape’
AustCyber chief executive calls for holistic view of cyber security sector
Australia has created a complex, interlocking web of legislation and regulations that impacts directly on the competitiveness of the local cyber security sector, according to AustCyber CEO Michelle Price.
Price told a press event hosted earlier this week by Aura Information Security that she had “quite significant and deep concern” about the legislative landscape facing the industry both domestically and at an international level.
“Right now, what we are facing is a whole series of legislation, regulation standards and guidance that is causing extreme confusion across the economy,” Price said. That confusion is having a broad cross-industry impact because “cyber security, and therefore cyber resilience, is the true horizontal sector of the economy”.
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Australian business 'completely unprepared' for cyber hacks, up 700%
By Lucy Cormack
August 1, 2019 — 12.00am
Australian businesses are “completely unprepared” for cyber attacks or data breaches, with reported incidents increasing by more than 700 per cent since February last year, costing the nation $7.8 billion, a report has revealed.
Solitary hackers, organised crime groups and “bad actors” working on behalf of foreign governments, such as China, Russia or Iran, are targeting Australia, where health and finance organisations account for almost half of all reported data breaches, according to the research firm Security In Depth.
“Organisations across Australia don’t really understand the risks, or what is required and they are not implementing technology or procedures to reduce the risk,” said Security In Depth chief executive Michael Connory, who compiled the report.
“They are not taking the lessons learned and they are not hearing the message.”
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Wednesday, 31 July 2019 12:51
Massive savings, benefits for Australian businesses from digitisation: study
Digital transformation creates massive savings for businesses with a newly released study showing that digitisation of engineering processes can save businesses and organisations an average of 35% in capex costs and time optimisation – and commissioning costs of new systems and assets can be reduced by an average of 29%.
According to energy management company Schneider Electric its Digital Transformation Benefits Report is the first of its kind to offer up “concrete evidence of the power of digitisation across the spectrum of global commerce” – and demonstrates the power of digital transformation in energy management and automation.
Schneider Electric say the evidence takes the form of 330 data points developed from a sample repository of 230 customer projects it completed in the last five years across 41 countries.
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No, it’s not OK for the government to use your prescription details to recruit you for a study
July 31, 2019 5.26pm AEST
Authors
Assistant Professor, School of Law, University of Canberra
Associate Professor of Law, Bond University
The department of human services (DHS) is under scrutiny this week after the Nine papers revealed the department sent letters to 50,000 patients who were previously prescribed lithium. DHS was seeking to recruit the recipients into a non-government study on bipolar disorder.
Psychiatrists raised concerns after receiving complaints from patients who had received the letters and accused their psychiatrists of breaching patient confidentiality.
The doctors didn’t breach confidentiality. Instead, DHS, which delivers social and health payments and services, including via Medicare, used data held by Medicare to contact patients who had previously been prescribed lithium on behalf of researchers from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.
Patients were invited to complete an online survey, and potentially provide DNA samples, to identify genetic markers associated with bipolar disorder.
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The predictable failure of the loss of our internet privacy
- July 31, 2019
It was in 2015 on SkyNews where senator, now Defence Minister Linda Reynolds scoffed at my concerns about the government’s insistence on securing citizen metadata, the use and geo-location of our mobile phones and our footprints on the internet.
Senator Reynolds’ argument was all about national security and stopping the threat of terrorism. The bill created adequate privacy protections, she assured the audience. Australians need not be worried, she said.
A week later the Telecommunication Interception and Access Act became law after having gone through the Senate with only a few amendments, including the protection of journalist’s metadata on bipartisan numbers. Only the Greens voted against it.
Four years later and with almost half a million warrantless requests for the metadata of Australian citizens from a range of agencies, many a long way from the national security apparatus, it is apparent the Act was always going to be a dog’s breakfast and a dangerous one at that.
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Wednesday, 31 July 2019 11:39
Cybercriminals ‘abusing’ Twitter with tech support scams: report
Cybercriminals are abusing Twitter via tech support scams, command-and-control (C&C) operations and data exfiltration, with criminals found using fake Twitter accounts to spoof those of legitimate vendors for credible tech support scams.
According to a research report from cybersecurity solutions firm Trend Micro, Twitter users call the fake phone number provided, believing they are speaking with the intended company’s help desk, which results in the caller either sharing credit card information or installing malicious content on their computer.
Trend Micro says this is often part of a multi-platform strategy along with YouTube, Facebook, Telegram and other channels to improve SEO for fake tech support websites linked to the Twitter accounts, boosting their search rankings.
“Social media is an inescapable part of modern life, and our new research shines an important light on how it’s being used positively by the security community, and abused by criminals,” said Jon Oliver, Director and Data Scientist, Trend Micro.
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Data snooping free-for-all: loophole exploited
- 12:00AM July 31, 2019
Laws to protect the private metadata of millions of Australians are being subverted by a vast array of organisations, which are using a loophole in data-retention laws to access information only meant to be used by security agencies and police.
Australia's biggest telco, Telstra, has called for a crackdown to limit access to information being sought by councils, small government agencies and other bodies that investigate minor legal breaches.
A parliamentary inquiry has been told that at least 87 agencies — including veterinary bodies, councils and fisheries agencies — have sought warrantless access to metadata held by telcos under mandatory data-retention laws in place since 2015.
The Veterinary Surgeons Board of WA, Victorian Fisheries, Liverpool City Council and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority have been named among at least 27 bodies that have sought data from telecommunications companies since November.
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New resources for your My Health Record
The Australian Digital Health Agency have created a series of resources to help you control who can look at your My Health Record information.
You can view the resources here:
- Your health information securely in one place
- Control who can look at your health information
- How your health infomation is protected
You can find out more about your My Health Record at MyHealthRecord.gov.au or by phoning 1800 723 471.
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Digital pharmacy key to medicine safety and efficacy
Tuesday, 30 July, 2019 ADHA Propaganda
Electronic prescriptions and real-time prescription monitoring are among projects tipped to empower pharmacists to be more accountable and responsible for medicine safety and efficacy.
The findings are contained in the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) digital health report Connecting the dots: Digitally empowered pharmacists.
The report, funded by the Australian Digital Health Agency, said digital health initiatives and technological transformation would empower pharmacists to be more accountable and responsible for medicine safety and efficacy.
Australia’s health system was in the midst of a new wave of technological transformation, one that was connecting health information so that the information was accessible to patients, health professionals and carers at any time it was requested or needed for patient care.
“This transformation is long overdue,” the report said.
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Digital reform unfolds | ACCC releases final report on digital platforms inquiry
The Government has today released the ACCC’s Final Report following its inquiry into digital platforms. In releasing the Final Report, the Treasurer, the Hon. Josh Frydenberg MP has indicated the Government’s broad support for the ACCC’s recommendations stating that “these companies are among the most powerful and valuable in the world. They need to be held to account and their activities need to be more transparent”.
The Government has accepted: “the ACCC’s overriding conclusion that there is a need for reform - to better protect consumers, improve transparency, recognise power imbalances and ensure that substantial market power is not used to lessen competition in media and advertising services markets” as well as the need to develop a harmonised media regulatory framework.
The Government’s position is broadly aligned with the global trend towards interrogating the business of large digital platforms and their impact on society and industries. This trend has led to a dramatic increase in regulatory enforcement activity globally.
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Why GPs need a 'mind shift' to survive in a profession where AI threatens to take over
Neil is a regular feature writer and contributor for Medical Observer.
30th July 2019
Advances in the use of big health data, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, may have the potential to greatly improve patient outcomes and practice management.
But some see the revolution in health informatics as a ‘weapon of math destruction’ that increases inequality.1
Adjunct Associate Professor Chris Pearce, a health informatics expert at the University of Melbourne and research director at Outcome Health, formerly Melbourne East GP network, is firmly in the former camp.
“It’s coming now,” he says. “So we need to start getting our heads around how we are going to deal with it. In many ways, this is going to be as transformative as the scientific method was in how we do things.”
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After 23 years, a day of reckoning has arrived for Big Tech
Peter Hartcher
Political and international editor for The Sydney Morning Herald
July 30, 2019 — 12.00am
British web expert Jamie Bartlett was a tech optimist. About a decade ago, that is. The fellow of London think tank Demos grew increasingly worried about what was happening under Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and the rest.
Finally he confessed to a mild panic about the industry and opened his most recent book with these words: "In the coming few years either tech will destroy democracy and the social order as we know it, or politics will stamp its authority over the digital world."
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg singles out Google and Facebook needing to be more transparent and accountable at the release of the ACCC's report into digital platforms.
Big Tech has had 23 years to do exactly what Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg urged in his company's old motto: "Move fast and break things."
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Centrelink has human touch with Medicare data initiative, department says
Human Services data-matching informs manual investigations
The Department of Human Services has indicated that a program that involving Centrelink matching Medicare’s data holdings to its own records of welfare claimants to find evidence of fraud or identity theft will has a role for human analysts.
A previous data-matching initiative involving Centrelink accessing Australian Taxation Office (ATO) data to find evidence of possible welfare overpayment was dubbed ‘robodebt’ by its detractors. That program, named the Online Compliance Initiative (OCI) by Centrelink, has seen hundreds of thousands of letters automatically sent out to current and former welfare recipients demanding evidence that they had not been overpaid.
Although Centrelink had previously drawn on ATO data to find evidence of overpayment, in the past it was a task performed by the agency’s personnel. Robodebt critics argued that the automated nature of the OCI letters put the onus on individuals to prove they were not overpaid.
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Tuesday, 30 July 2019 07:44
New report calls for a national AI strategy
A report released today by a panel of prominent Australian academics has called for a national strategy on the future implementation of artificial intelligence for Australia.
According to the report, from the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) titled: The Effective and Ethical Development of Artificial Intelligence – An Opportunity to Improve our Wellbeing, AI can enhance Australia's wellbeing, lift the economy, improve environmental sustainability and create a more equitable, inclusive and fair society.
ACOLA’s expert working group includes Professor Toby Walsh FAA (co-chair), Professor Neil Levy FAHA (co-chair), Professor Genevieve Bell FTSE, Professor Anthony Elliot FASSA, Professor Fiona Wood AM FAHMS, Professor James Maclaurin, and Professor Iven Mareels FTSE.
The panel urges Australians to reflect on what AI-enabled future the nation wants, as the future impact of AI on our society will be ultimately determined by decisions taken today.
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Telstra worried about how data retention scope-creepers store what they extract
By Ry Crozier on Jul 29, 2019 3:17PM
Says they demand too much data, sometimes don’t pay.
Telstra says that non-law enforcement organisations accessing telecommunications metadata via a legislative loophole ask for too much data, sometimes don’t pay for it, and may be storing it in an unencrypted form.
Though warrantless access to telecommunications metadata was only ever intended for 22 law enforcement and security agencies defined in the Telecommunication Interception Act (TIA), many more organisations are using the separate Telecommunications Act to skirt that limitation.
The result is up to 100 - and potentially more - organisations demanding access to metadata for a range of different uses, leading to calls for the Section 280 loophole to be closed.
In a submission to a parliamentary review [pdf], Telstra accused some of the loophole users of issuing data demands that far exceed those of intended law enforcement users - and their actual needs.
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Practice staff networking event - Darwin
Northern Territory PHN invites all practice staff to attend a free networking event as an opportunity to engage with NT PHN’s Primary Care Support Team, including a My Health Record presentation from the Australian Digital Health Agency. ADHA Propaganda
Networking event topics
- Updates from NT PHN’s Primary Care Support Team
- My Health Record updates (presented by the Australian Digital Health Agency)
- Opportunity for networking and questions
All are welcome to attend:
- Receptionists
- Practice Managers
- Nurses
- Aboriginal Health Practitioners
- Allied Health Professionals
- GP’s or Specialists
For more informaiton please contact Primary Care Support
p 08 8982 1000
e primarycaresupport@ntphn.org.au
p 08 8982 1000
e primarycaresupport@ntphn.org.au
Please feel free to share this notice with your networks.
Wednesday, 21 August, 2019
NTPHN Office, 23 Albatross Street, Winnellie, Darwin
Primary Care Support
12:30 - 13:30
FREE
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Pauline Hanson demands photo ID on Medicare cards
The One Nation leader says the measure is needed to prevent Medicare fraud
29th July 2019
By AAP, Staff Writer
Pauline Hanson has demanded Medicare cards carry photographic identification to crack down on "doctor-shopping" foreign fraudsters.
The One Nation leader urged the Senate to support her private bill on Monday, warning Medicare fraud was costing taxpayers millions.
"It's about time we started to clean up our health act because the cost to the taxpayers is exorbitant, and we can't give the people in this country the decent healthcare that they need," she told Parliament.
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Centrelink to match Medicare data in 'identity fraud' crackdown
By Ry Crozier on Jul 29, 2019 10:07AM
Fresh data-matching project revealed.
Centrelink is preparing a fresh wave of data-matching activity using Medicare data to flag more instances of suspected welfare fraud.
The activity is detailed in a new data protocol published by Centrelink on Friday and first noticed by Darren O’Donovan, a senior lecturer in administrative law at La Trobe University.
The data-matching program is set to target identity, employment or income-based welfare fraud, the agency said, noting that combining multiple datasets could be more effective than current methods.
“The data-matching program is designed to detect false, manipulated and assumed identities used by customers in submitting multiple claims,” Centrelink said in the protocol [pdf].
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Monday, 29 July 2019 12:04
Fujitsu to deliver Australia’s ‘most powerful’ new supercomputer
Australia is to get a new supercomputer which will deliver a 10-fold increase in speed for researchers when it is installed at the Australian National University.
The new Fujitsu-provided supercomputer dubbed Gadi - which means ‘to search for’ in the language of the Ngunnawal, the traditional owners of the Canberra region – will replace the current supercomputer, Raijin, and is scheduled to go live in November this year.
Fujitsu, which supplied the National Computational Infrastructure’s (NCI) current supercomputer in 2012, has been awarded a contract to deliver the new supercomputer which it says will “help to keep Australia at the forefront of the world’s research community” – and provide Australian researchers with “world-class, high-end computing services”.
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You've got mail – but should you reply?
How to keep patients happy while navigating privacy laws
30th July 2018
By Georgie Haysom,
It may be easier to communicate with your patient by email, but is it appropriate and will you be breaching privacy laws?
‘Really doctor, can’t you just email it to me? I can’t take a day off work to come and pick it up.’
You check the patient’s file and the address looks to be a shared email address for ‘thesmiths’. You are not sure whether it’s still current. Can you email the report?
Your patients may be asking for email communication as it is often much easier and more convenient for them. But doctors worry about whether they can send information via email — particularly in light of the recent focus on data protection and privacy.
Some may believe they can’t reply to non-encrypted emails as this would put them in breach of privacy laws. In fact, the Privacy Act does not prescribe how a healthcare organisation should communicate health information to patients or third parties.
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Google and Facebook should be licensed
- 6:14AM July 29, 2019
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims says Google and Facebook are publishers and should be regulated “in a very similar way” to traditional media.
In that case make them check everything before it’s published, like publishers do, instead of letting them just respond – inadequately and late - to complaints about stuff that’s been published already.
But they’re not publishers, and they’re nothing like traditional media, and approaching them that way is leading regulators up a dead-end street. They are utilities, or platforms, as the title of the ACCC inquiry puts it.
And the way you regulate utilities is to license them.
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Watchdogs need to test the strength of their privacy powers
- July 29, 2019
What happens when you buy a new television or android phone and don’t agree to the terms of service (which could include waiving all you privacy rights)? — the device won’t work.
Faced with the prospect of a new television set or phone that doesn’t work, most people sign away their privacy rights because they mainly just want the TV to work.
Under the ACCC’s consumer protection powers, you only have to give up information which would reasonably be required to work the television.
That is not a case your average consumer wants to pursue and in any case somemight say they are happy to give up their privacy because they are happy with the services they receive.
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Better digital literacy needed: Labor
A landmark inquiry into digital platforms will shake up the way Google and Facebook operate in Australia and could improve the news media landscape.
Paul Osborne
Australian Associated Press July 27, 20193:30am
A federal Labor frontbencher is wary some of the competition watchdog's digital platform recommendations could be viewed as the government getting into the area of what can and can't be broadcast.
But the opposition's spokesman for defence industry and Western Australian resources Matt Keogh also recognises the need to understand how entities like Facebook and Google put their own manipulation on news.
The Australian Competition and Commission released a landmark report into the growing power of digital platforms on Friday.
The government is seeking feedback on the commission's 23 recommendations aimed at making tech giants more accountable and transparent.
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Costs and consequences of big tech
Jul 28, 2019 — 8.53pm
We all know that slightly creepy feeling of digital stalking by Google and Facebook. My recent purchase of a chair from an online website automatically led to a flood of ads for similar furniture on websites, including news websites, I have looked at since.
Even talking over dinner at home about a prospective holiday means algorithms pick up the topic and the names of potential countries. Ads mysteriously follow. And that’s without the disastrous impact of digital platforms on the advertising revenue that used to sustain the traditional business model of journalism, a rather personal as well as public interest issue for me.
But just how possible it is for any Australian regulator or government or consumer movement to curtail these global forces is much less clear. The admirable attempt by Rod Sims to get to grips with the impact of big tech and digital platforms is better at describing problems than at identifying reforms that do more than tinker at the edge of a technology deluge.
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Sunday, 28 July 2019 21:45
Email attacks having a major impact on businesses: study
Email attacks are having a major impact on businesses around the world and impacting the personal lives of IT security professionals, with a new study finding that phishing and ransomware attacks are the most significant concern for the IT professionals.
The survey commissioned by cloud security and data protection solutions vendor Barracuda Networks indicates that, overall, while most IT professionals (74%) are more confident about their email security systems than they were a year ago, email attacks continue to have a significant impact on businesses.
The survey includes responses from 660 executives, individual contributors and team managers serving in IT-security roles in the APAC, Americas and EMEA regions.
And the most common effects cited were loss of employee productivity, downtime and business disruption, and damage to the reputation of the IT team.
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
