### Issue 1444 - Friday 3rd September, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- WhatsApp cops a 225 million euro fine for violating GDPR laws
- Apple Wallet gets drivers licence support (in some US states)
- Twitter is going wild with new test features, mostly around payments
- The Sizzle forums are cool and fun and you should join if you are a paid subscriber
- Cheap Edifer USB speakers, Bose earbuds, Rode SmartLav, iPhone 12, Audioengine HD3 speakers, Casio calculator watches & 20% off digiDIRECT's eBay store

## The News

### WhatsApp cops a 225 million euro fine for violating GDPR laws

After a 3 year investigation, the Irish Data Protection Commission has fined WhatsApp a 225 million euro for infringing the EU's GDPR laws. According to the regulator, Facebook and WhatsApp were not transparent enough about the information it gave users about how their data is processed by and between the two companies following Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp. Of course, WhatsApp has said it's more transparent now and isn't happy about the fine, saying the it's "entirely disproportionate"" and will appeal it. Interestingly, the other EU members were not happy with the size of the fine, saying it should be higher and that Ireland went soft because their worried about upsetting their tax haven cash cows.

### Apple Wallet gets drivers licence support (in some US states)

Citizens of Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah can add their drivers licence into their Apple Wallet and use NFC at TSA checkpoints in select US airports. Some things to note - "users do not need to unlock, show, or hand over their device to present their ID" and "Apple's mobile ID implementation supports the ISO 18013-5 mDL". It's pretty similar to Service NSW's digital drivers license, which uses a QR code instead of NFC to do the "is this a legit ID?" check. Gonna be interesting to see how wide spread the devices to read these IDs become. If I just want to show my age at the bottle shop but I don't want to carry my physical drivers licence, are they gonna have to install new hardware to scan my phone?

### Twitter is going wild with new test features, mostly around payments

Twitter has been busy testing new features. Super Follows are now a thing for some US-based iOS Twitter users. You can pay "creators" a monthly fee to receive special tweets from them. Ticketed Spaces are Spaces (the group audio chat thing) but with money involved. You can pay up to $999 to join in the audio chat. The Tip Jar feature is getting Bitcoin support via the Lightning Network, which considering Jack Dorsey's cryptocurrency fetish, I'm surprised it's taken this long. More excitingly, Twitter is testing auto-archiving of old tweets and letting you remove yourself from a thread! I'd pay for that Twitter Blue bullshit if it had those features in it. Finally, there's a new Safety Mode option that'll let you "temporarily autoblock accounts sending harmful or abusive tweets".

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### The Sizzle forums are cool and fun and you should join if you are a paid subscriber

Earlier this week I launched a forum for paid Sizzle subscribers and in just a short few days over 270 people signed up and have hundreds of posts already. Here's some of the more popular ones:

- People sharing their favourite YouTubers, podcasts and what they're reading at the moment.
- Recommendations for Home Assistant compatible smart switches & tech for new parents (aka baby tech, haha).
- A real world experience of using MoCA (media over coaxial) devices to use TV antenna cabling for data instead of Ethernet.

If you're a paid subscriber and haven't dived in to the forum, now is a great time to pop in. Half of you are in bloody lockdown anyways, so I know you've got nothing better to do.

## Bargains

- Edifier R12U USB powered speakers - $15 from Amazon
- Bose QuietComfort Buds - $289 from Myer
- RØDE SmartLav+ microphone - $65 from Amazon
- 20% off at digiDIRECT's eBay store if you're after any camera gear
- iPhone 12 64GB/128GB - $979 or $1,059 at JB Hi-Fi
- Audioengine HD3 bookshelf speakers - $399 at Scorptec
- Casio CA-53WF-2B calculator watch in blue or green - $33.05 from Creation Watches

## The End

📻 Bogie - Caleb Landry Jones

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

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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.​