### Issue 1580 - Monday 4th April, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- ASIC lays down the law with unlicenced "finfluencers"
- News.com.au lying about a Tesla causing house fire in Sydney
- Mandatory use of Zscaler SSL root certs on BYO devices in VIC schools
- Microsoft evaporating goodwill gained elsewhere with annoying Windows additions
- Cheap Sony OLEDs, Viofo dashcams, M1 iMac, Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite, RITEK blank DVDs & Blu-Rays

## The News

### ASIC lays down the law with unlicensed "finfluencers"

According to the AFR, "30 popular finance influencers attended an invitation-only briefing with senior officials from ASIC" last week where the regulator told them to get a financial services license or shut the fuck up. Simply put, if their followers "think they're receiving financial product advice from you" (regardless of how many times they say this is not financial advice), you need a license or you'll face a penalty. These laws exist because we learned decades ago that allowing anyone to spout financial advice unregulated ends badly. The internet and social media doesn't change that.

### News.com.au lying about a Tesla causing house fire in Sydney

I wasn't gonna bother mentioning this story, but close to a dozen people sent this in so I figure I should. The big brains at news.com.au reported this morning that a house in Sydney caught fire and killed the family cat due to a charging Tesla malfunctioning. EV charging fires are pretty rare, so TechAU reached out to Fire and Rescue NSW for confirmation that a Tesla or an EV was involved. Their response: "I have just spoken to our investigator who is on site and can confirm no electrical vehicle was in the garage nor was charging unit involved". Yet the article remains up on news.com.au as I write this (1:30pm) - what a bunch of crooks.

### Mandatory use of Zscaler SSL root certs on BYO devices in VIC schools

The Victorian Department of Education is mandating the installation of something called Zscaler on staff and student BYO devices across the state's schools. If you're not familiar with Zscaler it installs its own SSL root certificates and is designed to inspect browser traffic. The department told iTnews that "Zscaler is disabled in situations where the device connects to the school's network remotely" but wouldn't confirm that if "Zscaler monitors staff traffic from home". A privacy impact statement exists but the department "refused to release it or summarise its details". Cowards.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Microsoft evaporating goodwill gained elsewhere with annoying Windows additions

Den Delimarsky vents the multiple ways Windows takes "one step forward and two steps back with every update". Things like the UX inconsistency (so many different ways to render context menus for example), ads all over the bloody place (Edge is the worst culprit), continued UI changes for no reason (the Windows 11 file explorer context menu goddamn it!), forcing Microsoft account usage on people, all the damn telemetry that when you turn off gets re-enabled next update so much more. Windows could be awesome, but instead Microsoft are going down the death by 1,000 cuts path.

## Bargains

- Sony 65A90J 65" 4K OLED TV (and other Sony OLEDs) - $3299 from Sony's EDU store
- Viofo A129 Plus Duo dashcam - $195.50 from Amazon
- Apple iMac 24" 8-core CPU & GPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD - $1989 from Amazon
- Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite - $23.60 at The Good Guys
- RITEK DVD-R single layer, DVD-R dual layer, Blu-Ray 50 packs - $12/$35/$38 from IQ Tech

## The End

📻 This Kiss - Alex Lahey

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