Budget ISP Tangerine told more than 200,000 customers that their "full names, dates of birth, email address and mobile phone numbers" are now floating on the dark web due to a "legacy customer database and has been traced back to the login credentials of a single user engaged by Tangerine on a contract basis". Four Sizzle subscribers emailed me about being caught up in this and each one was so tired that it keeps happening. Nobody gives a shit about our data and nobody treats it with respect. There's no fear in the managerial class for what happens should this information be exposed because as we've seen with much bigger leaks like Optus, Medibank and Latitude, there's virtually no consequences. Even the privacy commissioner has said that that education, not punishments is their strategy - despite it clearly not working. Where's that Privacy Act overhaul at??
In response to the eSafety Commissioner's new mandate that tech companies scan messages and cloud storage for known CSAM - unless it breaks end-to-end encryption - Apple has said "eSafety claims the same protections for end-to-end encryption in the codes apply to the standards but this is not supported by any language to that effect". In normal person speak, eSafety is saying one thing (don't break E2EE) but the actual law doesn't say that and leaves the door open to it later. Fastmail's CEO also has a beef with this new content scanning mandate, telling iTnews that "government bodies often mandate well-meaning things that are not technically good solutions", fearing that "dishonest actors can put fingerprints into the 'bad content' database to track content which is legal but government actors want to know who is transferring it".
ChatGPT has been more weird than usual the last 24 hours, with users on Reddit reporting the chatbot "having a stroke", "going insane", "rambling" and "losing it". One user described responses that "begin coherently, like normal, then devolve into nonsense, then sometimes Shakespearean nonsense" and another said it is "like watching someone slowly lose their mind either from psychosis or dementia". OpenAI posted to their status page "investigating reports of unexpected responses from ChatGPT" and are "continuing to monitor the situation". Arstechnica asked a few experts and their opinions on the weirdness range from the chatbot's "temperature" (how wildly the LLM deviates from the most probable output) set too high, OpenAI testing a new version of GPT-4 Turbo or a bug in a new "memory" feature that's supposed to remember what you tell it between chat sessions.
Apple released a new iPhone app called Apple Sports. It's a nice app with the latest scores and upcoming fixtures for a range of US sports and European soccer, but it pisses me off. First of all, the fact it took Apple to make this app instead of a 3rd party developer says a lot of about the state of app development in 2024. The cost to access these data feeds is insurmountable for an indie dev, but chump change for Apple, and now Apple stifles innovation because it's a huge hurdle to get users to care about your app when there's a 100% free app from Apple to compete with. Also the app has betting odds in it! Why would Apple give those oxygen thieves the legitimacy and attention? You can disable the odds, but it's not like Apple is getting a commission or money from betting sponsors, so why is Apple even promoting sports betting (which is illegal in many US states!).
1,000 Clipart Business CD-ROM (ShivaShaw / The Internet Archive)
📻 You Took Everything - Mrs. Piss
😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.
💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.
👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.
💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.
🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.
📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.
🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!
💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.
The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.