Talking Facebook audio snooping on The Project

Screenshot of Stilgherrian on The ProjectGiven that Facebook is the biggest social network on the planet, and therefore the biggest data miner of them all, there was naturally plenty of media interest in the privacy implications of their latest feature: audio matching.

As explained in these stories at ZDNet and The Independent, and in Facebook’s own blog post, the new Facebook app can use your smart device’s microphone to identify the music you’re listening to or the TV program you’re watching.

On Thursday I spoke about this on Channel TEN’s The Project. “Look I wouldn’t trust Facebook, personally, as far as I could spit a cow,” I said.

Over the fold you’ll find the video of the entire four-minute segment — starting off with a “package”, as they’re called, featuring Angus Kidman, editor of Lifehacker.com.au, followed by the panel interviewing me. The presenters are Carrie Bickmore, Ray Martin (yes, that Ray Martin), Jo Stanley and Lemo.

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Talking Apple vs Android on ABC Download This Show

Marc Fennell, Claire Reilly and Stilgherrian on Download This Show

ABC logoJust like last time, one segment of this week’s Download This Show was also turned into a video segment, the one where Claire Reilly and I were talking about what we’d like to see Apple’s iOS adopt from Google’s Android, and vice versa.

Yes we spoke about Windows Phone too.

In the great battle between Apple and Android phones — what if they stopped making war and started reproducing? We’re asking what iPhone features you would like in an Android, and what Android features you would like in an iPhone.

The video is over the fold, immediately below.

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Talking Facebook and more on ABC Download This Show

ABC logoI made another appearance on ABC Radio National’s Download This Show this week, with CNet Australia news editor Claire Reilly joining presenter Marc Fennell.

“What should Apple and Android steal? Hao Li and more” is the headline for this episode.

Why just watch movies… when you can be the star? This week on Download This Show meet Hao Li. He’s a man who believes the future of 3D animation and character building is you. Also: are Facebook about to start listening in on your phone conversations?

And in the great battle between Apple & Android phones — what if they stopped making war and started reproducing? We’re asking what iPhone features would you like in an Android, and what Android features would you like in an iPhone.

Here’s the full program.

The audio is ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and it’s served here directly from the ABC website.

Prime Minister Edna, while it lasted

Screenshot of Google Search resultsIf you’d done a Google Search for “abbott government” last night Australian time, or any time up until lunchtime today, this is what you’d have seen. Dame Edna Everage as prime minister.

According to Crikey [paywall. free trial]:

It’s likely that a News.com.au article titled “Seven ways the Abbott Government may change your life” is responsible — the Google search algorithm has “crawled” all pages with the words “Abbott government” and chosen the best “hero image” to appear in the search summary box in the top right-hand corner. The PM does love a good Dame, though — perhaps Dame Edna should run for a seat in 2016?

A shame it didn’t last, in my opinion.

Talking Wikipedia self-diagnosis on 1395 FIVEaa Adelaide

FIVEaa logo“Do NOT try to diagnose yourself on Wikipedia! 90% of its medical entries are inaccurate, say experts,” begins a report at the Daily Mail. So just how risky is using Wikipedia and “Doctor Google” in general?

That was the question taken up by Will Goodings on 1295 FIVEaa Adelaide this afternoon.

He spoke first with the state president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Dr Patricia Montanaro, and then me.

And here’s the full recording.

The audio is ©2014 dmgRadio Australia.

“Corrupted Nerds” on privacy engineering

Cover image for Corrupted Nerds: Conversations episode 10: click for podcast pageAfter a gap of some six months, I’ve finally produced another episode of the Corrupted Nerds podcast.

Earlier this month, during Australia’s Privacy Awareness Week, I had the very great pleasure of meeting McAfee’s chief privacy officer, Michelle Dennedy.

Not only did I end up writing a ZDNet Australia column a few days ago, Developers, ask your users about data privacy, I so thoroughly enjoyed the conversation that it inspired me to bring Corrupted Nerds back from recess.

In brief, privacy engineering is the process of turning various policies, from privacy laws to the needs of the business’ plan for data, into something that programmers can work with — indeed, something they’ll want to work with because it’s now an engineering problem.

I think you’ll agree that this conversation with Michelle Dennedy is rather fun.

Corrupted Nerds is available via iTunes and SoundCloud.