The Helpdesk

And first up today we have the continuing story of Australian media vs Google and Facebook 

The Australian reports that “Google said it was burying links from traditional media outlets in some search ­results”

The company has described the ­actions as an “experiment”, and just one of tens of thousands it conducts every year.

But in the current cold war between big tech and big media, the experiment has raised eyebrows 

The Greens slammed Google’s hiding Australian news content in its search engine for some users as a “scaremongering tactic” while Opposition communications spokesman Tim Watts said his party would support a “workable code”.

The New York Times has an incredible story on Twitter’s ban on Trump 

According to reports, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was “working remotely from a private island in French Polynesia when the decision was made. 

The hands off CEO heard about Trump’s 12 hr ban after it had happened. Instead, the decision was made by twitter’s top lawyer Vijaya Gadde.

Once Trump’s 12hr ban was lifted, the company monitored Trump’s tweets, just two of them, before permanently banning the account. 

Twitter had long resisted silencing Trump, but during the 12hr ban, over 300 Twitter employees signed a company wide letter asking for the ban to become permanent. 

Last Wednesday, Dorsey tweeted that he did “not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump” because “a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation.”

Sticking with the US, and dating apps Bumble and Tinder are now on the front line of identifying rioters at the US Capitol. 

The Washington Post reports the apps are using images captured from inside the Capitol siege and to identify and ban rioters’ accounts. 

Alongside the ban, there appears to be a grassroots campaign of users identifying rioters, and then passing along their details to the FBI. 

According to the report, “Many women in Washington over the past two weeks had taken notice of a surge in conservative men on dating apps, many wearing Make America Great Again hats or other markers of support for President Trump rarely seen in an overwhelmingly Democratic city.”

One user said it was “her civic duty” to swipe on these accounts, get all the information available, and pass it along to the FBI. 

This idea has sparked a debate on “ethical doxxing” - when is it ethical to turn in an account online? 

And finally, Joanna Stern of The Wall Street Journal has a great article on the algorithms that rule our lives. 

It’s one of the simplest breakdowns I’ve ever read of the power of the algorithm, and it’s a shame it’s behind a paywall. 

Stern argues we lost control of social media back in 2016, when Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube replaced the standard chronological feed with one curated by artificial intelligence. 

“Bye-bye, feeds that showed everything and everyone we followed in an unending, chronologically ordered river. Hello, high-energy feeds that popped with must-clicks.”

“at the heart of it all, this is still a gigantic technology problem: Computers are in...

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The kids are finally in bed, so I could record a quick look at some of the announcements from Day One of CES.

I'll speak a little louder tomorrow. Please do not listen when driving, or while operating heavy machinery.

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The week that was. The perma ban of trump came early, or very late, depending on your perspective. 

In response to the insurrection at the US Capitol building on January 6th, Twitter first froze Trump’s account before permanently banning the president from the platform, citing the "risk of further incitement of violence". It’s a much bigger move than just labelling tweets as false or deleting them. 

Facebook has suspended Trump from its platform at least until Inauguration Day, January 20. He is also banned from Instagram for two weeks as well as a host of other online services. 

https://www.axios.com/platforms-social-media-ban-restrict-trump-d9e44f3c-8366-4ba9-a8a1-7f3114f920f1.html

It’s not just Trump’s account that tech companies are worried about. Parler which is popular among Trump supporters has been pulled from the Apple App store and Google Play store. Amazon Web Services is kicking Parler off its cloud hosting service, meaning the app will go offline unless it can find another hosting service.

Buzzfeed reports, The app has recently been overrun with death threats, celebrations of violence, and posts encouraging “Patriots” to march on Washington, DC with weapons on January 19, the day before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

Once again shows the massive weight of big tech. Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter all had to respond this week. 

Also worth noting these bans came the day that the democrats took control of the senate. The fact that Zuck moved first shows he’s the better businessman than Jack. 

But is this where we are? That meaningful change can only happen if Tim Cook is personally offended by something? 

https://mobile.twitter.com/killaudeepstate

Also gone

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/johnpaczkowski/amazon-parler-aws 

Listen to Kara Swisher interview Parler CEO John Matze 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/opinion/sway-kara-swisher-john-matze.html

CES PREDICTIONS

What is CES and why do we care? 

What should we expect this year? 

Slick as hell presentations. Without having to do something live, most of the big brands have probably spent the last 3 months editing the hell out of their launches - so it’ll be possibly the most watchable CES in years. 

Mini LED - which some brands call ULED - will be the manor push from all companies that aren’t LG

Focus on the home - I reckon we’ll see a heap of home office and home fitness products this year, or the same old products repackaged as home fitness/home office. 

Lots of PC announcements - will they be good or bad for Intel?

5G

Hall one has gone from a cheap accessories hall to a car hall in recent years - expect to see many EVs and more self driving cars

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Facebook runs full page ads against Apple’s privacy rules

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-16/facebook-attacks-apple-s-ios-changes-in-full-page-newspaper-ads?utm_source=url_link

'Don't make Tiktok a political football', begs app in full-page ads 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-looks-for-allies-in-privacy-battle-with-apple-11608138311?mod=djemalertNEWS

• Facebook is not concerned that privacy changes in iOS may threaten some of its revenue, rather, that it will mainly hurt small business. 
• Apple spokeswoman said in a statement:
• “Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not,” an “App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does not require Facebook to change its approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising, it simply requires they give users a choice.”
• Meanwhile, Facebook has said it will help fun Epic - the makers of Fortnite, an insanely popular video game which was recently blocked from the App store - in its legal fight with Apple 
• Epic has yet to publicly respond to the offer. 
• Whenever a company takes out a newspaper ad, they aren’t targeting you or me. For example, in Australia TikTok took out newspaper ads earlier this year saying “don’t make TikTok a political football” when there were concerns in Canberra over what the Chinese-owned app does with our data. 
• A newspaper ad has more cut through with media and lawmakers than publishing a blog post 

Twitter says it will start removing COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

• Twitter announced that it will remove tweets making false or misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccinations.
• Any tweets claiming that vaccines “intentionally cause harm to control populations” or invoke conspiracy theories will be subject to removal, according to Twitter’s blog post. 
• Tweets falsely suggesting that COVID-19 doesn’t exist or espouse “widely debunked” claims may also be removed. Enforcement of the new policy will begin next week.
• The new rules expand on coronavirus-related policies put in place by Twitter earlier this year. 
• In March, Twitter rolled out a COVID-19 tab in its Explore page and partnered with organizations like the World Health Organization to supply reputable coronavirus information on its platform.

Govt readies IT systems for Australia's Covid-19 vaccine rollout 

Govt pours millions into Covid vaccine tracking systems 

• So far this pandemic we’ve had the Covid Safe App and contacting tracing technology to talk about. The next tech story will be how the gov manages the large scale, high-demand vaccine roll-out 
• It's still early days...
  

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ACCC Sues Facebook 

alleges Facebook misled consumers when promoting app to 'protect' users' data | ACCC 

Facebook to face ACCC court action over private data 

• Australia’s consumer watchdog has launched Federal Court action against tech giant Facebook,
• The ACCC is alleging two of its subsidiaries secretly collected and aggregated users’ personal data for Facebook’s commercial benefit.
• The action relates to Facebook’s Onavo Protect mobile app, which provided a virtual private network (VPN) for users.
• For those that don’t remember, Onavo was ‘data saving’ VPN client for Android and iOS, that Facebook purchased and rebranded in 2013
• In 2019, Techcrunch revealed Facebook had been using the traffic of Onavo users to find what other apps were popular amongst young people - helping guide its purchases of competitors Instagram and Whatsapp 
• When Onavo was removed from the Apple App Store for this reason, Facebook relaunched the App under its developer program 
• It paid users $20 to install the app, in a move that violated Apple’s developer program 
•  Apple revoked Facebook's Enterprise Developer Program, and for a few days no Facebook employee could test any of the company’s apps. It’s probably the harshest penalty Apple has ever given one of the big tech companies 
• Facebook said “We will review the recent filing by the ACCC and will continue to defend our position in response to this recent filing.”

Sticking with Facebook and Apple.. 

Apple’s seismic change to the mobile ad industry is drawing near, and it's rocking the ecosystem

MacRumors.com on Twitter: "Got a finger cramp scrolling through Facebook's new privacy section on the App Store…… "

• iOS 14.3 is live and part of the update includes the new privacy policy 
• The new policy lists all the ways an app uses your data, including what it requests and uploads
• I’m disappointed to see the list is only on the App Store, and only then it is truncated at first view, so you just get a summary 
• But if you click through to the full list, even if you are a techy, you’ll be amazed at the amount of stuff facebook grabs from you, including all your contacts, cross referenced with all your contacts contacts, etc 
• We’ve included a tweet in the show notes from MacRumours, that scrolls through the facebook privacy notice. Grab a cup of tea before hitting play on it 
• I’d really love to see this list as a splash screen for all apps on launch! 

And topping off a very bad, inevitable week for big tech.. 

Europe triples down on tough rules for tech

• The European Union Tuesday unveiled sweeping new proposals to control tech industry giants as "gatekeepers" who could be fined up to 10% of their revenue for breaking EU rules on competition.
• The EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA)...
  

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FTC = One More Thing

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/14/ftc-orders-amazon-facebook-and-others-to-explain-how-they-use-personal-data.html

• Not content with its Christmas surprise of suing Facebook, the ftc has one more thing up its sleeve
• The Federal Trade Commission has told nine tech companies to share information about how they collect and use data from their users, the agency announced Monday.
• Amazon, TikTok-owner ByteDance, Discord, Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp, Reddit, Snap, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube were each sent orders to hand over information about their data practices. 
• The companies have 45 days to respond from the date they received the orders.
• The FTC is using its authority under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, which allows it to pursue broad studies separate from law enforcement.
• This means no fines or middling needs to be established to ask for these practices. 
• Expect all companies to argue sharing this information will reveal competitive secrets 
• The FTC is seeking a more detailed look at the companies data practices including 
• how they determine which ads to show their users, whether algorithms or data analytics are used on personal information, how they “measure promote, and research” engagement from users as well as how their data practices impact children and teens.

Pinterest Settlement 

https://twitter.com/FrancoiseBr/status/1338597706999029761

Pinterest settles gender discrimination lawsuit with former COO for $22.5 million 

• Pinterest has settled a gender discrimination case brought by its former chief operating officer for $22.5 million 
• Francoise Brougher sued and company in August, alleging gender discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination.
• Alongside her lawsuit, she published a blog post titled “The Pinterest Paradox: Cupcakes and Toxicity,” (fabulous title) which detailed how she had been left out of important meetings, was given gendered feedback and was paid less than her male peers. She said she was fired in April after she spoke up about the treatment.
• As part of the settlement Pinterest did not admit any liability, and Pinterest and Brougher will donate $2.5 million toward “Advancing women and underrepresented communities” in the tech industry.
• The settlement stands out because of its size, the charitable donation and that it was made public in the first place. 
• Prior to Brougher’s claims, two black women had accused Pinterest of racial discrimination

Apple Fitness Plus 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-fitness-review-great-affordable-workoutsfor-watch-owners-only-11607954400?mod=djemalertNEWS

• Reviews of the new Apple Fitness+ service have been published 
• Most say the service is excellent for beginners, with clear, easy to follow instructions - although those coming from les mills or Peleton my find the service lacking in challenges 
• Many praise the service for playing...
  

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FTC = One More Thing

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/14/ftc-orders-amazon-facebook-and-others-to-explain-how-they-use-personal-data.html

• Not content with its Christmas surprise of suing Facebook, the ftc has one more thing up its sleeve
• The Federal Trade Commission has told nine tech companies to share information about how they collect and use data from their users, the agency announced Monday.
• Amazon, TikTok-owner ByteDance, Discord, Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp, Reddit, Snap, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube were each sent orders to hand over information about their data practices. 
• The companies have 45 days to respond from the date they received the orders.
• The FTC is using its authority under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, which allows it to pursue broad studies separate from law enforcement.
• This means no fines or middling needs to be established to ask for these practices. 
• Expect all companies to argue sharing this information will reveal competitive secrets 
• The FTC is seeking a more detailed look at the companies data practices including 
• how they determine which ads to show their users, whether algorithms or data analytics are used on personal information, how they “measure promote, and research” engagement from users as well as how their data practices impact children and teens.

Pinterest Settlement 

https://twitter.com/FrancoiseBr/status/1338597706999029761

Pinterest settles gender discrimination lawsuit with former COO for $22.5 million 

• Pinterest has settled a gender discrimination case brought by its former chief operating officer for $22.5 million 
• Francoise Brougher sued and company in August, alleging gender discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination.
• Alongside her lawsuit, she published a blog post titled “The Pinterest Paradox: Cupcakes and Toxicity,” (fabulous title) which detailed how she had been left out of important meetings, was given gendered feedback and was paid less than her male peers. She said she was fired in April after she spoke up about the treatment.
• As part of the settlement Pinterest did not admit any liability, and Pinterest and Brougher will donate $2.5 million toward “Advancing women and underrepresented communities” in the tech industry.
• The settlement stands out because of its size, the charitable donation and that it was made public in the first place. 
• Prior to Brougher’s claims, two black women had accused Pinterest of racial discrimination

Apple Fitness Plus 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-fitness-review-great-affordable-workoutsfor-watch-owners-only-11607954400?mod=djemalertNEWS

• Reviews of the new Apple Fitness+ service have been published 
• Most say the service is excellent for beginners, with clear, easy to follow instructions - although those coming from les mills or Peleton my find the service lacking in challenges 
• Many praise the service for playing...
  

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Tim Biggs and Alice Clarke from SMH join me to discuss the best tech gift guides of 2020

Evergreen pick: 

Entry level iPad

Fitness

Withings Watch 

Withings Smart Scale 

Withings Sleep Analyser

Apple Watch

Apple Fitness plus 

Suunto Watch - fitness

Gaming: 

Spider-Man Miles Morales

Sackboy

Xbox Game Pass

2DS XL

Anything Zelda

Mario Kart Home Circuit

Headphones 

Sony WH-1000X M4

Bose Quiet Comfort 

AirPods Pro 

Beats Flex 

Beyer Dynamics 

Plantronics/Poly 

Smart oven - Electrolux

Viccountrymarket

Smart home: 

Google Nest Audio is our pick, but all sound really good this year. 

Echo 

HomePod Mini 

Google Tv 

Kids

Super Mario Lego

Leapfrog 

A Hundred Words

Stocking Stuffers: 

Tile 

TP Link Smart Plug

EBike! 

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Probably...

US Treasury Hacked

Russian government hackers are behind a broad espionage campaign that has compromised U.S. agencies, including Treasury and Commerce

• According to the Washington Post, 
• Russian government hackers breached the Treasury and Commerce departments, along with other U.S. government agencies, as part of a global espionage campaign that stretches back months
• The Russian hackers, known by the nickname Cozy Bear, are part of that nation’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR
• The treasury was hit via an update to a network management system made by the firm SolarWinds
• SolarWinds said the network system was surreptitiously weaponized in a “highly-sophisticated, targeted . . . attack by a nation state.”
• It’s not just the government agencies - SolarWinds has some of the biggest names in the world as clients, including government, consulting, technology, telecom, and oil and gas companies around the world. 
• The exploit was discovered by FireEye, a security firm which was also running SolarWind and also exploited Sunday. 

ATO reveals biggest tax dodgers in tech 

ATO reveals the IT giants that paid zero tax last year

• The Australian Taxation Office has published its sixth annual corporate tax transparency report, which discloses the 2018-19 tax bills of the largest companies operating in the country.
• It covers over two thousand public and foreign-owned companies with incomes of $100 million or more
• The report shows that 741 of these companies paid no tax in Australia in 2018, including four IT companies that generated a taxable income – and that is somehow an improvement of previous years.
• Tech companies avoiding tax include IBM, which had a taxable income of $60 million on revenue of $3.26 billion, as well as Netcom Wireless, Toshiba and Unisys.
• Vodafone and NBN Co made a loss last year, and paid no tax
• Atlassian, which – like IBM – paid no tax in the last three years, paid a tax bill of $11 million on a taxable income of $56.8 million in 2018-19 - an effective tax rate of 19 percent.
• iTnews has the whole list of who paid what if you want to go check 
• 
  

Apple killed gawker show

Apple TV Was Making a Show About Gawker. Then Tim Cook Found Out.

• According to the New York Times, Tim Cook specifically stepped in to nix a series on Gawker
• That’s just one of the juicy tidbits 
• Gawker was home to some of the most sensationalist blogs on the web, including Valleywag, which covered tech 
• Mr. Cook was surprised to learn that his company was making a show about Gawker, which had humiliated the company at various times and famously outed him, back in 2008, as gay.
• Some other fun details - a Dr Dre biopic was cancelled due to too much drugs and nudity
• Apple TV shows shouldnt show busted phones.. 
• And more seriously, Apple exec Eddy Cue has asked no series show China in a bad light 
• Gawker was eventually sue out of publication by Hulk Hogan, after the dite published a sex tape of his. 
• It was later revealed tech mogul and Facebook shareholder Peter Thiel had secretly financed the lawsuit, to get back at outing him. 

Here’s another...

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