Practically every single Optus customer, past and present, has had their personal information "stolen" in what I think is Australia's biggest ever data breach. I use the word stolen loosely here as the method this data was obtained seems to be 100% due to the vast incompetence of Optus, who had an API open to the internet, no authentication or access controls, where anyone could ask it for customer records. Someone literally hit up api.optus.com.au with a script and started downloading everyone's data - what the fuck?! There are now millions of Australians who have their passport/Medicare/drivers licence number, along with their name, DOB, email addresses and phone numbers floating on the dark web, ripe for identity theft. Toby Murray has a nice blog post explaining how to protect yourself against that happening.
Getty Images has joined other art related websites and banned AI generated images. Their CEO told The Verge that "there are real concerns with respect to the copyright of outputs from these models and unaddressed rights issues with respect to the imagery, the image metadata and those individuals contained within the imagery", placing Getty at legal risk. Considering the AI image generators are trained on (mostly) copyrighted material indiscriminately scraped from the internet, it's only a matter of time until someone sues someone over a piece of AI generated art used commercially. Getty's main competitor, Shutterstock, hasn't banned AI images outright.
Ariel Bogle has a great article outlining the wide ranging power of the eSafety Commissioner and the Online Safety Act's recently released draft industry codes. These codes were developed by "eight industry sections" (at gunpoint by the eSafety Commissioner) aim to censor what you can and can't see on the internet by trying to classify every single piece of content on the internet into various "classes" and ban specific types of content. I cannot understate how deep this censorship will go. Email providers, search engines, app distribution services, ISPs, manufacturers of equipment and an ominous "all websites that can be accessed by Australian end-users, including end-user online storage" are in this code's remit. Put aside the moral arguments for this nanny state bullshit and put on your nerd hat - how the hell do you practically do this sort of thing, or even do it so it actually works and doesn't have a shitload of collateral damage?
📻 Where Do We Go? - Daniel Johns
😎 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 or change email address? Visit the customer portal.
📚 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!
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.