The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has officially opened an investigation into "the personal information handling practices of Bunnings Group Limited and Kmart Australia Limited, focusing on the companies' use of facial recognition technology" and "commenced preliminary inquiries with Good Guys Discount Warehouses (Australia) Pty Ltd following public reports that the company has paused its use of facial recognition technology". Big props to Choice for revealing this practice and EFA/DRW for chasing it up. Without this work the OAIC wouldn't have bothered to investigate anything. Fingers crossed this leads to some regulation around facial recognition use in Australia.
Twitter's lawsuit against Elon Musk has emerged. It basically says Elon made an unsolicited bid to buy Twitter, Twitter agreed to the offer, nothing on Twitter's end has changed since Elon agreed to buy it, so there's no reason the agreement to purchase Twitter should be cancelled. Musk responded to this news by tweeting a shitty meme, as is usual for this gormless fuckwit. Also in Elon news, he said Donald Trump is too old to be president again. Trump responded at a rally by calling Musk a bullshit artist (most true thing Trump has ever said). Elon then tweeted that "it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset", to which Trump let loose with a hilarious rant on Truth Social that without government grants adn subsidies his businesses would be worthless. Trump 2 - Musk 0.
Did you know I have a blog? I don't post to it very often, but it exists and is mostly articles I wrote hoping to flog off for cash to other publishers, but nobody wanted to pay for (fools, utter idiots!). The latest one is a short piece about two apps I use regularly as an EV driver - A Better Route Planner and PlugShare. ABRP is indispensable for anyone wanting to plan a road trip as it formulates routes based on your vehicle's range, the road terrain and charger locations. PlugShare is a map of charger locations, of which there are many, but PlugShare is the most comprehensive and the user reviews of chargers are invaluable for avoiding duds.
📻 Biblical Violence - Hella
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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.