# In This Issue

- Four “troublemakers” sacked by Google for breaking data security policies never enforced

- Inactive Twitter accounts, including those of dead people, will get purged soon

- ACMA wants to get telcos off their arses and do something about rampant scam calls

- Tesla Cybertruck dribbles

- Cheap Telstra 6 month pre-paid, 16" MacBook Pro, ProtonMail plan, Dell 27" monitor, Nintendo Switch & Mario Kart bundle, Logitech Z623 speakers, Sonos Beam, 25% off Crumpler bags

# News

#### Four “troublemakers” sacked by Google for breaking data security policies never enforced

Google sacked four employees for "clear and repeated violations" of data security policies, that also happened to be the main agitators for wider employee activism on touchy topics like forming a union, poor handling of sexual harassment complaints and contracts with ICE. Google reckons these four employees were "involved in systematic searches for other employees' materials and work", and "set up notifications so that they received emails detailing the work and whereabouts of those employees, including personal matters such as 1:1s, medical appointments and family activities - all without those employees’ knowledge or consent". Apparently this is a common thing for Google employees do, so it's a bit of a coincidence that the only people fired for doing it are the ones giving management a hard time.

#### Inactive Twitter accounts, including those of dead people, will get purged soon

Twitter is planning to purge the accounts of users that haven't logged in for over six months. Emails to accounts at risk of deletion were sent out recently saying that if you don't log in, your account will be trashed as of December 11. Twitter's doing it to make their account stats more believeable and to make abandoned usernames available again. It also means that the Twitter accounts of dead people will be deleted, as there's currently no way to "memorisalise" a Twitter account. Even though I personally delete all my tweets once a month so they can't be used against me by some vengeful wanker, but it's pretty rough to go around deleting dead people's tweets. Shouldn't Twitter have thought about this scenario before enforcing this idle account policy?

#### ACMA wants telcos to get off their arses and do something about rampant scam calls

ACMA are trying to do something about scam callers with the release of their new Combating Scams report. It proposes a "joint government-industry taskforce to be established to oversee strategies around how to minimise phone scams; for new enforceable obligations for the telco sector to be established; and for trials of new scam reduction initiatives to begin immediately". Key to the plan those enforceable obligations on telcos to share scam call data with each other and to block scam calls. I don't know what these enforceable obligations will look like, but it's about time the telcos took some responsibility for how their service is being abused. I get at least two or three calls a day from these fuckers and apps like Hiya are no longer effective. I hate them so much.

# Not News

#### Tesla Cybertruck dribbles

So how about that Cybertruck, hey? After four days since its reveal, Tesla hasn't said, "ha! you fell for our joke, here's the real Tesla ute". Nope, the Cybertruck is legit. 250,000 people plonked down US$100 for a reservation, which isn’t as impressive compared to the Model 3, which had about the same number of reservations in just 24 hours and people had to put down US$1000, not just $100. We also have an explantion as to why the now infamous metal ball window shattering demo failed - lead designer Franz von Holzhausen's earlier demo of a sledgehammer against the Cybertruck's steel body weakened the base of the glass. The other concern people had about the Cybertruck was how the weird angles would affect pedestrian safety. The boss of ANCAP reckons "it's got a fairly harsh front and not a whole lot of areas that would provide some give if there was a strike with a pedestrian" and that "the (frontal) rake would look like it’s not very forgiving in terms of legs".

# Bargains

- 25% off site wide at Crumpler, including clearance items

- Telstra 6m pre-paid SIM with 60GB data & unlimited calls/SMS - $100 from Woolworths

- Apple MacBook Pro 16", 512GB SSD - $3419 at The Good Guys

- ProtonMail 50% off - $106 for a 2 year Plus plan

- Dell U2719DC monitor (USB-C, 2560x1440, IPS) - $440 from Dell’s factory outlet

- Nintendo Switch Console (2019) with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - $399 from Kogan

- Logitech Z623 2.1 speakers - $119 at JB Hi-Fi

- Sonos Beam soundbar - $488 at Videopro

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😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.​