Netflix to face local content quota under proposed Australian TV reforms

• Netflix and other global streaming services could be forced to spend millions of dollars on Australian programs and films under major changes to media laws proposed by the federal government 
• Federal Communications and Arts Minister Paul Fletcher will launch a green paper with the proposed reforms today
• Fletcher said the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had reinforced the need for regulatory action to help the TV industry.
• A 2017 inquiry recommended subscription streaming services invest 10 per cent of the revenues they earn in Australia in new local content
• Free to Air Networks currently have to screen 55% locally made content

Coronavirus Victoria: State government-backed universal contact-tracing app that centralises QR code data collection set to be rolled out next week

• The Victorian state government is expected to launch a QR Code app next week, to help people check in at businesses and venues around the state
• The app is being launched by Service Victoria and was custom built by Melbourne startup Two Bulls.
• An anonymous source said “There's a huge advantage for the government because it means that the data is fed directly to the Department of Health and Human Services"
• This also means the data will not be available to the venues themselves, to use for marketing
• The Victorian government's app has been trialled successfully by 100 venues, including Officeworks, which has been using the app to check in customers at five of its stores.

Exclusive: Foxconn to shift some Apple production to Vietnam to minimise China risk

• Foxconn is moving some iPad and MacBook assembly to Vietnam from China at the request of Apple Inc
• Apple is moving production to minimise the impact of a Sino-U.S. trade war.
• This move has been expected for a while now, not just from Apple but from many large US based tech companies, that have the majority of production coming from China
• Taiwanese manufacturers, wary of being caught up in the tit-for-tat trade war, have moved or are considering moving some production from China to countries such as Vietnam, Mexico and India.
• The Vietnamese Foxconn plant currently manufactures Sony TVs
• Foxconn is spending $1b to upgrade its plants in India, to produce more iPhones there  

Microsoft productivity score feature criticised as workplace surveillance

• Microsoft has been criticised for rolling out a new feature to track users productivity in its Office 365 products
• The reports show how often employees are using Office Products like Outlook, Word and Excel, and how often they’re in meetings, based on their calendar
• I saw a glimpse of this at my old workplace, and really found it quite disgusting, and I’m glad to see this being reported. 
• “The word dystopian is not nearly strong enough to describe the fresh hellhole Microsoft just opened up,” tweeted David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of the office productivity suite Basecamp. 

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