### Issue 2219 - Tuesday 19th November, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- OAIC gives Bunnings a stern talking to about facial recognition in stores
- USA's DoJ asking court to force Google to divest itself of Chrome
- Govt commitee exploring social media doesn't recommend banning kids from it
- Apple Intelligence is not a good thing and should not be celebrated
- Black Friday sales are ramping up, too many bargains to put in a headline

## The News

### OAIC gives Bunnings a stern talking to about facial recognition in stores

Remember when Choice busted Bunnings (and others) using facial recognition tech in stores to check if anyone entering the store is a "risk"? Two and a half years later, the Privacy Commissioner agrees, finding that Bunnings failed to meet multiple Australian Privacy Principles as outlined in this PDF. Bunnings got off pretty easy IMHO, just has to stop using this system, make a statement about its conduct and "destroy all personal information and sensitive information collected via the facial recognition technology system that it still holds (after one year)". Bunnings loves this tech so much and wants to keep using it so badly, that they've asked for a review of the commissioner's decision.

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### USA's DoJ asking court to force Google to divest itself of Chrome

The USA's DoJ sued Google a while ago alleging they're a monopoly and ended up winning that fight. Now the court is deciding what should be done to break up Google's monopoly and one of the things the DoJ is putting up as something they'd be happy with is Google selling Chrome to someone else. According to Bloomberg and "people familiar with the plans", want the judge to "order Google to sell off Chrome — the most widely used browser worldwide — because it represents a key access point through which many people use its search engine". I love it and hope it's true, but we won't find out until April to hear what the judge and DoJ end up forcing upon Google.

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### Govt commitee exploring social media doesn't recommend banning kids from it

A parliamentary committee examining the impact of social media on Australian society has dropped its final report (titled Social media: the good, the bad, and the ugly, lol) and in it are a list of things it wants to the government to do regarding regulation of social media. They're all quite common sense stuff that I think nobody would disagree with - what's missing however is a recommendation to ban kids from social media entirely and actually mentions that "any regulatory framework affecting young people be co-designed with young people". Even the government's own committee doesn't think banning kids from social media is a good idea!

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Apple Intelligence is not a good thing and should not be celebrated

CNET's Bridget Carey made a video absolutely shitting on Apple Intelligence and the new batch of really bad ads Apple put out there to promote it. The ads are genuinely the worst bit of marketing Apple has ever spewed out into the world. Bridget's video however, is excellent and worth watching if like me, you also get a very uncomfortable feeling whenever you see marketing for not just Apple's AI stuff, but other generative AI products. Also, Andrew Cunningham over at Arstechnica is using Apple Intelligence in the iOS 18.2 beta and reckons it's pretty bad. He only leaves it enabled because the summaries it makes of emails and messages are "usually inadvertently hilarious" - pretty sure comedy is not Apple's aim with AI.

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## Bargains

- Google TV Streamer 4K - $127 at Officeworks
- Yamaha RXV6A receiver - $888 from RIO Sound and Vision
- Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) with Magsafe Case - $319 from Amazon
- Logitech Pebble Keys 2 K380s keyboard - $48 from Amazon
- Edifier WH700NB wireless noise cancelling headphones - $50.98 from Amazon
- VIOFO A119 V3 2K dashcam - $122.39 from Amazon
- Crucial T705 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD with heatsink - $223.17 from Amazon USA
- Telstra 365-day pre-paid SIM with 165GB data, unlimited called & SMS - $265 from Auditech's eBay store
- Apple Airtag 4-Pack - $120 from Techciti's eBay store
- Bose QuietComfort SC headphones - $339 from Amazon
- Logitech MX Brio Ultra HD 4K webcam - $198 from Amazon
- WD Elements portable 5TB HDD - $145.06 from Amazon UK
- Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 - $294 from Telstra
- 12% cashback at The Good Guys via Cashrewards
- Samsung 1TB microSD card - $119 from The Good Guys
- TCL 75" C855 4K QD-Mini-LED TV - $2187 from The Good Guys
- TP-Link LiteWave 5-port & 8-port gigabit switches with or without PoE at an all time low on Amazon
- Logitech MX Master 3 for Business - $96 from Amazon
- PlayStation 5 Pro Console - $1099.95 from EB Games eBay store
- A variety of Bambu Labs 3D printers are on sale via Amazon
- 10% off Meta Quest gift cards on Amazon
- 5% off Xbox gift cards on Amazon
- Dell U2724D 27" 120Hz IPS Black USB-C 2560x1440 monitor - $319 from Mobileciti
- Apple Watch SE 40mm - $297 from Officeworks
- Kindle Scribe 16GB with basic pen - $347 from Officeworks
- Lenovo Legion Go - $999 from Lenovo, eligible for 16% cashback via TopCashback AU
- LG 27UP600-W 27" 4K IPS monitor - $234 from Amazon

## Image Of The Day

DigitalVision: Business Connections (Internet Archive / ShivaShaw)

## The End

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