Canadian politician, poet, an India MP and journalists are among 120 accounts that have been withheld
Twitter has been accused of bowing to government pressure in India by blocking scores of prominent journalists, politicians and activists from its platform in recent weeks.
The Indian government issued notices to Twitter to remove people in the aftermath of an internet shutdown in Punjab during the search for a fugitive Sikh separatist leader.
Continue reading...Ban only applies to non-corporate government entities but may have flow-on effects to other agencies and businesses
The ABC is reviewing its use of TikTok following the federal government’s ban of the Chinese-owned social media app on government-issued devices.
The ban announced by the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, on Tuesday only applies to non-corporate government entities, meaning a range of government-owned businesses and agencies are not subject to the ban, including the ABC, SBS, Australia Post and NBN Co.
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Continue reading...Prohibition of Chinese social media app follows similar bans in other western countries
The Australian government has banned the use of Chinese social media app TikTok on government devices, following similar bans in other western countries.
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said he had authorised the secretary of his department to issue a mandatory direction to prohibit the TikTok app on devices issued by commonwealth departments and agencies.
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Continue reading...The statement has been revealed to have false signatures and researchers have condemned its use of their work
A letter co-signed by Elon Musk and thousands of others demanding a pause in artificial intelligence research has created a firestorm, after the researchers cited in the letter condemned its use of their work, some signatories were revealed to be fake, and others backed out on their support.
On 22 March more than 1,800 signatories – including Musk, the cognitive scientist Gary Marcus, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak – called for a six-month pause on the development of systems “more powerful” than that of GPT-4. Engineers from Amazon, DeepMind, Google, Meta and Microsoft also lent their support.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Continue reading...Appeal judges uphold previous ruling, citing ‘implied threat’ in CEO’s tweet directed at Fremont employees who wanted to join union
A US appeals court has ruled that Elon Musk violated federal labour law by tweeting that employees of Tesla would lose stock options if they joined a union.
The New Orleans-based 5th US circuit court of appeals upheld a decision by the US National Labor Relations Board that said the 2018 tweet amounted to an unlawful threat that could discourage unionising and ordered Musk to delete it.
Continue reading...Measure is in place ‘until ChatGPT respects privacy’, says Italian Data Protection Authority
Italy’s privacy watchdog has banned ChatGPT, after raising concerns about a recent data breach and the legal basis for using personal data to train the popular chatbot.
The Italian Data Protection Authority described the move as atemporary measure “until ChatGPT respects privacy”. The watchdog said it was imposing an “immediate temporary limitation on the processing of Italian users’ data” by ChatGPT’s owner, the San Francisco-based OpenAI.
Continue reading...Bankman-Fried, 31, has already pleaded not guilty to eight counts over collapse of cryptocurrency exchange last year
The FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty on Thursday to new US criminal charges, which include conspiring to violate campaign finance laws and bribe Chinese authorities.
Bankman-Fried, 31, had earlier pleaded not guilty to eight counts of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly stealing billions in FTX customer funds to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Continue reading...Bakery is first restaurant chain to use Amazon One biometric technology, which faces scrutiny from lawmakers and activists
The US bakery and cafe chain Panera will soon allow customers to pay with the swipe of a palm, marking the first restaurant chain to implement the new technology and raising alarm among privacy advocates.
The company announced last week it would roll out biometric readers in coming months that will allow customers to access credit card and loyalty account information by scanning their palms. Called Amazon One, the system was developed by Amazon and is in use at some airports, stadiums and Whole Foods grocery stores.
Continue reading...Poor spelling and grammar that can help identify fraudulent attacks being rectified by artificial intelligence
Chatbots are taking away a key line of defence against fraudulent phishing emails by removing glaring grammatical and spelling errors, according to experts.
Phishing emails are a well-known weapon of cybercriminals and fool recipients into clicking on a link that downloads malicious software or tricks them into handing over personal details such as passwords or pin numbers.
Continue reading...Labour criticises Rishi Sunak ‘vanity project’ announced weeks before collapse in value of cryptocurrencies
The UK government has dropped its plans to produce a non-fungible token for sale through the Royal Mint, just under a year after it first announced the project.
In response to a question from the Conservative MP Harriett Baldwin, the Treasury’s economic secretary, Andrew Griffith, confirmed the abandonment, saying: “In consultation with HM Treasury, the Royal Mint is not proceeding with the launch of a non-fungible token at this time but will keep this proposal under review.”
Continue reading...Cyber-attack in which information of 14 million customers has been exposed dubbed Australia’s largest to date
Latitude Financial Services could face a class action lawsuit from some of the 14 million customers who have had their personal information exposed in what has been dubbed Australia’s largest data breach.
Law firms Gordon Legal and Hayden Stephens and Associates announced on Tuesday they would investigate a potential legal action against Latitude over the breach.
Continue reading...Seven, Nine and Ten tell Senate inquiry that scam ads on Facebook featuring their stars or fake news stories are causing harm to consumers
Australia’s broadcast industry group has condemned Facebook’s parent company Meta over its handling of scam ads featuring TV stars including David Koch and Karl Stefanovic, saying the company’s response time is inadequate and damages broadcaster reputations.
Free TV Australia – which represents broadcasters including Seven, Nine and Ten – said in a submission published this month to a Senate inquiry into digital platforms that scam ads featuring their networks’ stars without the network or star’s knowledge or authorisation, and fake news stories had been causing harm to consumers over the past few years.
Continue reading...Platform has drawn close congressional scrutiny because the data of users could be available to the government of China
One of the authors of a Senate bill that would enable the federal commerce department to ban technologies with links to foreign governments has said that the Joe Biden White House is “very in favor” of the measure, but he stopped short of saying whether the president’s administration has discussed possibly prohibiting the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok in particular.
Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday morning, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said that the proposed legislation has also picked up support in his congressional chamber from 11 Democrats – of which he is one – as well as 11 Republicans.
Continue reading...Calculation based on leaked offer to staff that implies firm valued at $20bn compared with $44bn he bought it for
Twitter is worth less than half of what Elon Musk paid for it six months ago having lost more than $20bn (£16.4bn) in value, according to calculations based on a leaked memo from the billionaire.
Musk suggested in memo to the social media company’s staff that it is now valued at less than $20bn. This compares with the $44bn he paid for it in October 2022.
Continue reading...Queensland Human Rights Commission disagrees with assertion complaint is ‘lacking in substance’ and refers matter to tribunal over jurisdiction
Twitter has lost a bid to have a complaint by an advocacy group for Australian Muslims thrown out after they accused the platform of failing to take action against accounts that incite hatred.
The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (Aman) lodged a complaint to the Queensland Human Rights Commission (QHRC) last June. They argued that, as a publisher, Twitter Australia and Twitter Inc are responsible for content posted by a far-right account that has been referred to in the manifesto of a white supremacist and mass murderer.
Continue reading...Engineer, whose microchip forecast became known as ‘Moore’s Law’, foresaw mobile phones and home computers decades before they existed
Intel Corp co-founder Gordon Moore, a pioneer in the semiconductor industry whose “Moore’s Law” predicted a steady rise in computing power for decades, has died at the age of 94, the company announced.
Intel and Moore’s family philanthropic foundation said he died on Friday surrounded by family at his home in Hawaii.
Continue reading...App’s future in doubt as Biden administration threatens to ban it entirely in the country
Representative Diana DeGette is bringing up the WSJ report again and asking Chew for comment. He said that he’d have to get back to them because whether ByteDance would be forced to sell TikTok is still developing so he doesn’t have specifics but that Project Texas would protect US users no matter what.
“Does TikTok share user information … overseas?” Degette asked. Chew said in the past, yes but with Project Texas that would no longer be the case. He reiterated that the efforts to protect user data through Project Texas is more than any other company has done.
Representative Richard Hudson asked Chew about the reports that ByteDance employees have accessed user data of US journalists in order to investigate an internal leak of information. Chew says TikTok condemns this behavior.
Continue reading...Shou Zi Chew attempts to play down concerns over data and privacy as lawmakers call for ban on Chinese-owned app
The chief executive of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was forced to defend his company’s relationship with China, as well as the protections for its youngest users, at a testy congressional hearing on Thursday that came amid a bipartisan push to ban the app entirely in the US over national security concerns.
The hearing marked the first ever appearance before US lawmakers by a TikTok chief executive, and a rare public outing for the 4o-year-old Chew, who has remained largely out of the limelight as the social network’s popularity soars. TikTok now boasts tens of millions of US users, but lawmakers have long held concerns over China’s control over the app, which Chew repeatedly tried to assuage throughout the hearing. “Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said in Thursday’s testimony.
Continue reading...Online retailer has increased minimum hourly pay for warehouse workers by 50p an hour to £11
Amazon workers in the UK are planning further strike action as they dismissed as “an insult” a 50p an hour increase to its minimum hourly pay for warehouse workers to £11.
The company said the pay rise announced on Wednesday, which will be implemented this weekend, meant minimum pay had risen by 10% in the past seven months, putting it ahead of the legal minimum wage for those aged 23 or over, which will be £10.42 an hour from April.
Continue reading...Apps in Australia gathered information about finances and housing which could be sold to advertisers, research by UNSW and Choice found
Four of Australia’s top 12 fertility apps are unnecessarily collecting highly sensitive information and have left the door open to selling the data to other companies, a study has found.
The study, conducted jointly by University of New South Wales law researcher Dr Katharine Kemp and consumer group Choice assessed the privacy policies of the 12 most popular fertility apps in Australia, which help people track menstrual cycles, ovulation, potential fertile windows, and stages of pregnancy.
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