### Issue 1854 - Friday 26th May, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- eSafety Commissioner "very close" to deciding if Online Safety Codes get implemented
- Huge leak of Tesla's internal database of safety complaints & Model Y best selling car in world
- YouTube snuffs out Stories, Australia has a new cyber ambassador, ChatGPT for iOS still not available in Australia
- Mullvad is the only VPN provider that appears to take privacy seriously
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap iPhone SE, refurb ThinkPad T480s, Intel NUC9 Extreme, Logitech MX Master 3S, Nokia G60, Google Nest mesh wi-fi, Apple TV, Alienware 34" monitor, Radeon RX6600, iPad Air 5th-gen, AirPods, Samsung & Crucial SSDs

## The News

### eSafety Commissioner "very close" to deciding if Online Safety Codes get implemented

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant fronted Senate Estimates last night and said that "I'm getting very close to making a determination about whether I will be registering the eight industry codes or perhaps moving to binding standards in some cases" - i.e: we still don't know if the Online Safety Codes that eSafety forced the industry to come up with 18 months ago, then revise because they didn't "proactively seek out child sexual abuse material and terrorist content", will ultimately be adopted or if eSafety will scrap them and make their own laws and force the entire IT and internet industry to adopt them.

### Huge leak of Tesla's internal database of safety complaints & Model Y best selling car in world

Someone's leaked over 100GB of data and 23,000 files belonging to Tesla, containing information on "2,400 self-acceleration complaints and more than 1,500 braking function problems, including 139 cases of unintentional emergency braking and 383 reported phantom stops resulting from false collision warnings. The number of crashes is more than 1000". The unnamed whistleblower sent this info to German newspaper Handelsblatt, who got the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology to confirm the data is real. Meanwhile, the Model Y has taken over the Toyota Corolla as the most popular car in the world in Q1 2023.

### YouTube snuffs out Stories, Australia has a new cyber ambassador, ChatGPT for iOS still not available in Australia

- YouTube is finally getting rid of Stories. On June 26th those annoying short videos that litter your subscriptions feed and disappear after a few days will be banished for good. They're still keeping YouTube Shorts however, as that's a clone of TikTok and TikTok is still an existential threat to YouTube, unlike Instagram and Snapchat, who they copied for Stories.
- Australia has a new Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology. Brendan Dowling now "leads Australia's international engagement on cyber affairs and critical technology issues, while delivering cyber capacity building, crisis response and resilience across our region". Good luck to Brendan on his new job.
- ChatGPT's iOS app is now available in 40 new countries - but not Australia. New Zealand even has access to the official ChatGPT app, but not us. What gives? I'd love to know why we were excluded, considering ChatGPT Plus on the web is available here and they even charge GST for it.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Mullvad is the only VPN provider that appears to take privacy seriously

Mullvad are probably the most reputable commercial VPN service around and who I generally recommend if people don't want to set up Tailscale or Algo or something like that. They're fanatical about not recording who pays them for access or the IP addresses of their users, so if the cops do come knocking they can't hand over any data because there isn't anything to hand over! Recently (well in September 2022) they launched the option to buy physical vouchers on Amazon. According to Mullvad, "the design of the activation code removes the possibility for third parties to link a payment to a Mullvad account, for privacy". Mullvad also has options to pay in cash via an envelope in the mail, which I thought was pretty cool.

## Friday Forum Update

Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.

- patsch noticed that Jetstar's website is pointing users to a staging area to change their account details, oops
- Griffmiester is looking for ways to get around the Netflix account sharing crackdown
- Prophesa needs a way to track their bikes should they get stolen and wants to know if AirTags are the go or if there's other options worth considering
- lukeayresryan is considering a "Green Loan" to get some solar panels on the roof of their home and is after a sanity check on the plan
- mvyrmnd has a rant about Microsoft jamming AI in every corner of Windows and collecting way too much data on its users

## Bargains

- iPhone SE (2022) 256GB - $724.62 from Titann Gear's eBay store
- Refurb Lenovo ThinkPad T480s (i5-8350U, 12GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 1080p 14") - $389.99 from Bufferstock's eBay store
- Intel NUC 9 Extreme Barebone Kit (i7-9750H CPU) - $584.22 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- Logitech MX Master 3S wireless mouse - $116.22 from digiDirect's eBay store
- Nokia G60 5G, NFC & eSIM smartphone - $334 from Amazon
- Google Nest Wi-Fi 5 Mesh Router 3 Pack - $279 from Allphones eBay store
- Apple TV 4K Wi-Fi 64GB (3rd Gen) - $159 from Techciti's eBay store
- Refurb Alienware 34" QD-OLED AW3423DW monitor - $1299 from Dell Outlet
- Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 8GB graphics card - $295.62 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- iPad Air (5th Gen, M1 SoC) 10.9-Inch Wi-Fi 64GB Purple - $806.47 from Titan Gear's eBay store
- Apple AirPods (3rd Generation) with MagSafe Charging Case MME73ZA/A - $233.40 from Titan Gear's eBay store
- Samsung 970 EVO Plus PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD 1TB/2TB - $77.22/$182.52 from Futu Online's eBay store
- Crucial 4TB PCIe SSD P3 Gen3 or P3 Plus Gen 4 - $287.82/$311.22 from Computer Alliance's eBay store

## Image Of The Day

Grace Brewster Hopper was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first linkers. Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and the FLOW-MATIC programming language she created using this theory was later extended to create COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today. (Lynn Gilbert / Washington Post)

## The End

📻 Bonnie - Cuffed Up

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## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.