### Issue 2173 - Thursday 12th September, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Updated Privacy Act legislation is very disappointing
- Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill hits Parliament
- Google makes sideloading apps harder
- I'm grateful that Directory Opus still exists
- Cheap CatchConnect SIM, Sonos Era 300, Ryzen 5700X3D CPU, SanDisk 128GB microSD, Untitled Goose Game, DJI Neo Fly More Combo, 10% off Ultimate gift cards

## The News

### Updated Privacy Act legislation is very disappointing

The Privacy Act update finally hit Parliament today. The Attorney-General's press release says the legislation brings "a new statutory tort to address serious invasions of privacy, development of a Children's Online Privacy Code, greater transparency for individuals regarding automated decisions, streamlined information sharing in the case of an emergency or eligible data breach and stronger enforcement powers for the Australian Information Commissioner", plus making doxxing a criminal offence - that's it. Stuff that would actually made a difference, like a right to be forgotten or the ability for individuals to take legal action when a data breach/misuse occurs just aren't in there. Digital Rights Watch is disappointed and so am I. Let's hope the Greens and other independents manage to kick up enough of a fuss to get some of the other recommendations included before it's passed.

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### Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill hits Parliament

The government also introduced the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill. This law will gives ACMA the ability to monitor "digital platforms with new information gathering, record keeping, code registration and standard making powers" and introduces "new obligations on digital platforms to increase their transparency with Australian users about how they handle misinformation and disinformation on their services". Right now ACMA has no power to demand content be taken down, but they're taking the same approach eSafety took with the Online Safety Act all those years ago, starting off with gutless voluntary industry codes that will inevitably turn into mandatory codes after a long series of consultation periods (that get ignored) when government cops heat for some social media viral bullshit that hits mainstream media and the people government listens to gets upset about it.

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### Google makes sideloading apps harder

Google's added a feature to its Play Integrity API that allows apps to block themselves from being sideloaded. Sideloading apps is awesome on a deGoogle'd smartphone as it allows you to get apps on your device without requiring a Google account - but with this change in policy from Google, if an app developer wants their app to only be available via the Play Store, they can now enforce that. Some apps are kinda useless without Google's APIs (mostly banking and streaming media apps from my experience), but many of the apps that are just web-wrappers and chucked on the store work fine on a phone running LineageOS or GrapheneOS. Sideloading is also really handy if the app you want isn't on Google Play in your country and this will make it more of a pain in the arse to get those apps if enabled.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### I'm grateful that Directory Opus still exists

I don't talk about Windows apps much here as I use a Mac most of the time and have done so for about 20 years, but I recently remembered Directory Opus from my Windows days and was delighted to learn it's still kicking on and it's made in Australia. Best way to describe it is like a replacement for Explorer, but on steroids. Insanely configurable, great image/file previews built-in, dual-pane file browsing, tabs, batch renaming and a shitload more. There's similar Mac apps too if you're into that kinda thing, like Forklift and Path Finder. I hope this genre of application never dies, even if Microsoft and Apple wish you'd forget that the filesystem exists and dump all your stuff on their cloud services.

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## Bargains

- Catch Connect 365-day SIM with 120GB data, unlimited calls & SMS - $109 from Catch
- Sonos Era 300 speaker - $535 from The Good Guys
- AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D CPU - $228 from Aliexpress
- SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO microSDXC card - $25.88 from Pocket Shop's eBay store
- Untitled Goose Game for Switch - $15 from Nintendo eShop
- DJI Neo Fly More Combo - $479 from The Good Guys
- 10% off Ultimate gift cards at ALDI starting on 25th Sept

## Image Of The Day

The diagram below shows the guidance system of the Minuteman III missile (1970). This guidance system contains over 17,000 electronic and mechanical parts, costing $510,000 (about $4.5 million in current dollars) (Ken Shirriff)

## The End

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