Plus: There’s an AI-equivalent of pre-nuclear fallout metal ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

August 01, 2025 | Read online
# Google court loss, scan data giveaway cleared and public AI chats Plus: There’s an AI-equivalent of pre-nuclear fallout metal
Edition 2387
"Meme on computer" (Flickr:knittinjen)
# The News
### Rival app stores allowed in Google Play Store after another court loss
Google will be forced to allow rival app stores in its Google Play Store, after the tech giant failed to get an early court decision overturned (Reuters). Epic Games, which has been a thorn in the side of both major phone OS makers, had successfully convinced a judge that Google’s exclusion of the Epic Games Store was an illegal monopoly that was stifling competition. This decision means that the 2023 court order forcing Google to open up to other app stores kicks in immediately and it won’t be overturned even if Google files a further appeal.
The Sizzle: Between this and Apple’s fights with Epic, we’re seeing some pretty significant rollbacks of restrictions that major platforms were able to enforce. Realistically, I don’t think 95% of people will install another app store — that is, and I mean this endearingly, nerd shit — but the possibility will force Apple and Google to have to compete on function and cost. That’s a good thing.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### It’s totally fine to give away millions of people’s medical scans as long as you make it hard to tell who they belong to
Australia’s privacy commissioner has cleared Australia’s largest radiology provider I-MED for giving over 30 million + medical scans from patients without their consent or knowledge to another company to train AI (Crikey, $). Commissioner Carly Kind took the unusual step of publishing the full preliminary inquiries (OAIC) which were kicked off when yours truly revealed this was happening last year (Crikey). The report found that I-MED adequately de-identified the scans so that they couldn’t be considered sensitive health data anymore, so, therefore, the scans weren’t protected under privacy law.
The Sizzle: I accept that I-MED didn’t break the law when handing over data in this specific way, but it beggars belief that a company should be able to take sensitive medical data without permission or knowledge and make truckloads of cash from it just because they scrub the name. I expect to have more on this in the future.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### It’s pretty easy to find public ChatGPT conversations that people probably should’ve kept private
Digital investigator Henk Van Ess published an investigation showing that hundreds of sensitive ChatGPT transcripts were publicly searchable thanks to search engine indexing (Digital Digging). Like my Meta AI story earlier this year (Crikey, $) users had to choose to share it, but, whether by accident or because of poor judgement, many had decided to make conversations with AI featuring trade secrets, illegal behaviour and personal confessions public. OpenAI has now disabled the feature (Search Engine Journal).
look at my lawyer dawg I’m going to jail (reference for those not familiar)
The Sizzle: On a meta level, it’s revealing to see what AI companies will decide is OK or not from their users. Letting its products pretend not to be a robot when navigating the web (Futurism), ok! Publicly embarrassing the company by revealing how people are seemingly choosing to show how they’re really using these products? Well, we better turn that off.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
ASIO boss says agency to ban staff from advertising security clearances online (ABC News) How will Australia’s under-16s social media ban be enforced, and which platforms will be exempt? (Guardian Australia) NTC says “Autonomous Vehicles are coming to Australia, soon (TechAU) Australian court rejects X Corp.'s appeal in child safety case, orders legal costs (AP) Hybrids are using up to 33 pct more fuel than advertised, Australian study finds (The Driven) Australia’s phony war on AI just ended. This could get messy, fast (AFR, $) Mark Zuckerberg says anyone not wearing AI glasses in the future will be at a disadvantage (Fortune) Personal Superintelligence (Mark Zuckerberg) Trump administration is launching a new private health tracking system with Big Tech’s help (AP) Microsoft catches Russian hackers targeting foreign embassies (Ars Technica) Internet exchange points are ignored, vulnerable, and absent from infrastructure protection plans (The Register) Apple shipped its 3 billionth iPhone (The Verge) Reddit should be a 'go-to search engine,' Steve Huffman says (Engadget) Linus Torvalds Continues Using A Radeon RX 580 Graphics Card, Back On An Intel Laptop (Phoronix) Cops Apologize After Altering Drug Bust Photo With AI (Vice) Reddit can ID my IRL location despite using a VPN, am I missing something? (Reddit) Macbook Pro Insomnia (Manuel Bernhardt) Defeating the fanboys of the Torment Nexus (John Birmingham) AI is a Floor Raiser, not a Ceiling Raiser (Elroy)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### There’s an AI-equivalent of pre-nuclear fallout metal
I keep coming across examples how AI slop is actually polluting web results with bullshit (Reddit), which, presumably will then be ingested and reinforced in the models so that they will become even more wrong. But as it turns out, there’s a resource for that: lowbackgroundsteel.ai is a trove of “uncontaminated content” created prior to the release of ChatGPT in 2022.
Looks like a horror movie but apparently this is an old school set up for radiation scanning
But what’s most interesting about it to me is the name: it’s a reference to steel produced before the first nuclear bombs were detonated in 1945. Wikipedia tells me that there are specific demands for steel that hasn’t been contaminated by nuclear fallout for things like Geiger counters, and that one of the common places to get that is shipwrecks. Cool!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical and electronics
UGREEN 130W Nexode Power Bank 20000mAh 72Wh 3-Port with Smart Display - $88.31 at UGREEN AU via Amazon Soundcore Space One Headphones - $127 at Kiwi Teck eBay Concord 100m 4K HDMI Fibre Optic Cable - $129 at Jaycar Insta360 X5 8K 360 Action Camera - $771 at Camera House eBay Bambu Labs X1-Carbon - $1499 at Bambu Labs Nikon Z5ii Body - $2159 at digiDirect eBay Sony 85 Inch BRAVIA 3 4K HDR Google TV K85S30 - $2499 at Costco
Computing
Dell UltraSharp U3415W 34" 3440x1440p, IPS 60Hz Curved Monitor & Monitor Arm (Refurbished) - $199 at BPC Tech AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Desktop Processor - $251 at Amazon UK via Amazon AU Sapphire NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC 16GB Graphics Card - $1345 at UMKLOGIX Gaming PCs at TechFast R7 7700, RTX 5070, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe for $1588 R7 7800X3D, RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB RAM, 2TB NVMe for $2388 Gaming PC: 5070 Ti OC, 750W Gold, 32GB 6400/C32, 2TB 7400MBs 9600X for $2288 7800X3D for $2499
Mobile
Galaxy Z Flip7 256GB + Galaxy Watch 8 40mm - $0 on $69/M on a 24month plan at Harvey Norman Moto G75 5G 256GB with Moto Buds - $279 at BIG W Google Pixel 9 Pro at JB Hi-Fi 128GB for $1247 256GB for $1397 512GB for $1597 Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 5G 256GB (Titanium Black) - $1499 at JB Hi-Fi Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold at JB Hi-Fi 256GB for $2097 512GB for $2297
# The End
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