The News

5.7 million Qantas customers’ data, just blowing in the wind

Qantas hackers have put data belonging to 5.7 million customers online for anyone to download, the airline confirmed (Information Age). After initially demanding and not receiving a ransom, collective Scattered Lapsus$ Shiny Hunters put 153 gigs of data up for sale, then released for free, obtained by getting into Salesforce (AFR, $). Most of the customers have only had their name, email, and Frequent Flyer address released, Qantas said, but some have also had their physical address, DOB, gender and even meal preferences (Qantas). There is a court order prohibiting people from downloading this data but… I mean, better than nothing, I guess?

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Google won’t rule out going big to fight YouTube in the teen social media ban

Google continues to fight against YouTube being in the Australia’s teen social media ban. Today’s hearing for a parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s internet regulations (specifically the industry codes for search engines and the teen social media ban) has heard from Google/YouTube representatives who are stepping up their campaign against the law. On top of saying that banning under 16s from having accounts will be difficult to enforce and won’t make kids safer, Google/YT left open a potential legal challenge (mentioned in ABC News over the weekend) and getting their US operations to take the ban up with the Trump administration.

Also, this came up:

The Sizzle: It’s appropriate that this parliamentary inquiry that was supposed to cover the eSafety Commissioner’s online safety codes for search engines but has largely been taken over by the teen social media ban. There’s been a lot of other work on internet safety regulations (including the work-in-progress Children’s Online Privacy Code) that has been completely trampled by the sledgehammer of the teen social media ban.

One of the things we should remember about the government’s decision to pursue the ban: the choice isn’t between a ban and doing nothing. In actuality, the teen social media ban is eating up oxygen and attention and political will that could be used to do other reforms that would really protect kids online while not deciding that regional queer teens should just be cut off from one of their lifelines (ABC News).

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

OpenAI justifies releasing its deepfake video maker because everyone is doing it

OpenAI’s AI slop video maker Sora 2 hit a million downloads in five days (BBC) — but this attention has come with downsides too. After videos of Pikachu doing meth went viral (404 Media, $), Sam Altman said it would reverse its (illegal) stance and make the copyrighted content opt-in for use (Sam Altman). Now, OpenAI will allow the families of “recently deceased” public figures to request that their likeness be blocked (Washington Post).

Also, fake Jake Paul videos were seen by a billion people… which isn’t something I’d personally be proud of.

The Sizzle: There was a quote that jumped out to me by an OpenAI exec around the release of Sora 2 in the newsletter Newcomer:

Remember just a few years ago when all of the AI companies were talking about how we needed to be responsible about AI? Well, apparently the only thing that matters about whether you release an industrial grade deepfake maker that’s already tricking people into believing that a AI-generated reporter was arrested and sowing doubt about real videos is whether any of your competitors are doing the same thing.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Leftovers

Australia:

Rest of the world:

Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Oh, Also

Remove Sora watermarks for some, add them for others!

Following on from the last bit, one of OpenAI’s Sora safety features is its telltale watermark.

Except, people are already finding ways to remove it (404 Media, $). Even more confusingly, someone has released a tool that will add a Sora watermark to any video. The website appears to be down, but just goes to show you can’t even assume fake videos are fake anymore.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Bargains

Electrical & electronics

Computing

Mobil

The End

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