Politics – Page 9 – Stilgherrian

20 October 2014

Corrupted Nerds on metadata, surveillance and privacy

Last Wednesday I had the very great pleasure to moderate an event titled “Data Retention: the European Experience”, a public conversation with Privacy International’s legal director Carly Nyst. The audio from the event forms the latest Corrupted Nerds: Conversations podcast.

This is a live issue in Australia right now. Australia’s favourite Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis QC, has said, “This is very much the way in which western nations are going, it’s been the case in Europe under the European Data Retention directive for some little while now.” Except that’s not true.

What Brandis didn’t say was that the European Court of Justice has declared the blanket recording of telecommunications data to be a breach of human rights. It isn’t a proportionate response to the claimed threat, and there’s no evidence that it’ll actually even help.

Europe is now winding back data retention. Well, except for the UK.

In this hour-long conversation, Nyst and I discuss the legal and historical background to data retention; the risks of the blurring law enforcement and foreign signals intelligence-gathering for national security; the revelations of Edward Sowden; and whether Australia really does have robust democratic institutions which can protect us from the risks of surveillance over-reach.

The event was organised by Electronic Frontiers Australia and the Australian Privacy Foundation.

Please, listen to the entire podcast. Or, if you prefer a quick read, try my op-ed at ZDNet Australia today, Will metadata musings ever mature beyond paranoid fears?

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18 October 2014

Talking voiceprint biometrics on 1395 FIVEaa

“Two of America’s biggest retail banks — JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Wells Fargo & Co — are quietly recording the biometric details of some callers’ voices to weed out fraud,” reported Associated Press this week. The news caught the eye of Will Goodings at 1395 FIVEaa in Adelaide. I told him that the Americans are way behind Australia on this one.

All of the Big Four banks here are already using voiceprints. In the case of NAB and Westpac, since about 2009.

In fact, Australia is a world leader in voiceprint technology. In a Patch Monday podcast from March 2012, I spoke with Dr Clive Summerfield, chief executive of Auraya, who told me that Australia’s social services agency Centrelink has been using voiceprints to identify callers since 2005, and more than 95% of callers are identified this way. Voiceprints are also used by the Australian Taxation Office.

Here’s a recording of the conversation we had on air on Friday afternoon, complete with a talkback caller who followed me.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.5MB)

06 October 201406 October 2014

“Politics of Social” panel at Social Media Week Sydney

Last month I took part in the discussion panel Politics of Social at Social Media Week Sydney — and here’s a video, finally.

Yes, I’m dealing with my backlog of posts.

What was this discussion all about?

Trust, authority and credibility are arguably more crucial in politics than anywhere else. Social media is now an essential part of the political process for MPs, citizens, and lobbyists, but how does that change public perception, the end results, and their impact on society? Our political experts will dissect past and present political activity to determine what the evolution of social media has achieved in political realm, and how political communications is likely to continue evolving.

Joining moderator Kate Carruthers, co-founder of Social Innovation Sydney, on 24 September 2014 were (left to right): Alex Greenwich, independent Member for Sydney in the Parliament of NSW; political sociologist Ariadne Vromen, associate professor at the University of Sydney; myself; and Steph Harmon, managing editor of Junkee at The Sound Alliance.

It was a lively discussion, and the video is over the fold, immediately below. Enjoy.

Continue reading ““Politics of Social” panel at Social Media Week Sydney”

05 October 2014

Talking Ello on ABC Gold Coast

This new social network Ello has been getting so much attention it’s… annoying. I was originally going to ignore it, but I got roped into this spot for ABC Gold Coast, and then Download This Show, so I decided to write about it for ZDNet Australia — that piece will appear on Tuesday.

But… This recording is the ABC radio spot, which aired on Tuesday morning with presenter Rebecca McLaren. I think I was in a bit of a cynical mood.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (8.1MB)

05 October 2014

Talking Ello and ASIO on ABC Download This Show

On this week’s Download This Show on ABC Radio National, CNet news editor Claire Reilly and I joined Marc Fennell to discuss the new social network Ello and Australia’s latest national security laws.

The rise and rise of Call of Duty: It’s bigger than Harry Potter, bigger than James Bond: It’s the warfare video game Call of Duty. We step inside one of the studios responsible for building the biggest game on the planet to take the temperature of where blockbuster gaming is headed. And could the rising social network Ello be a viable alternative for the Facebook-weary? The four-thousand people signing up every hour apparently believe so. But are they being swindled? Plus #HeyASIO is perhaps the most popular Twitter hashtag in Australia. So just what do our new counter-terrorism laws really mean? We separate hyperbole from fact.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:30 — 12.6MB)

As usual, one of the segments was also made into a video, and that’s over the fold, immediately below.

Continue reading “Talking Ello and ASIO on ABC Download This Show”

04 September 201419 September 2014

Talking geoblocking and copyright on ABC Gold Coast

ABC logo The government’s discussion paper on online copyright infringement came out just over a month ago, the submissions period closed on Monday, and now the debate is really kicking off — including on the complicated legal issue of geoblocking.

Now I’ve already given my opinion on the political spin in the discussion paper itself. But the specific issue of geoblocking came up on ABC Gold Coast, and this morning I spoke with breakfast presenter Bern Young.

Legally it’s a grey area. By signing up for a Netflix account from Australia, for example, you may be breaking the terms and conditions of their service. But you’re still paying for the content, and money is passed on the the actual producers.

The only people missing out are the local Australian distributors who’ve inserted themselves between the content producers and the audience. What value are they adding, exactly? The whole point of the internet is to enable people to connect globally.

CHOICE sees it as a consumer issue. Doesn’t geoblocking, the restriction of content availability by location, restrict competition? They’ve just launched a TV campaign making that point. Even the government’s own inquiry into IT pricing recommended that geoblocking be outlawed.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.6MB)