The News

Google’s $55 million fine for paying Telstra and Optus to make subscribers use the search engine they’d be using anyway

Google will pay $55 million for its anti-competitive deals with Telstra and Optus to solely pre-install Google Search on their customers’ phones (ACCC). The ACCC said Google had agreed to a penalty over deals that were “likely to have the effect of making it more difficult to obtain the distribution of general search engines” between 2017-2024. This follows Telstra and Optus also agreeing with the ACCC to end their deals last year (ACCC).

The Sizzle: One of the reasons that Google has been perhaps the greatest money-making business ever is that the dynamics of search are so predisposed to dominance. Search already has a virtuous cycle: the more people who use Google Search, the more data it has to improve search results, which means more people will use it more. So the added dynamic of Google also using its enormous financial might to box out any competitor seems worthy of a rap over the knuckles.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

EU looking increasingly likely to make client-side scanning compulsory

Europe is considering a CSAM-scanning bill dubbed “Chat Control” that would force companies to analyse content from even encrypted messaging services (TechRadar). The proposal is to make mandate client-side scanning, which is device-level scanning of content against a database of content to see if there are any matches, like for known child sexual abuse material. Similar proposals in the EU have failed previously, but a new plan is already gathering steam according to a website tracking support among the member countries (Fight Chat Control).

The Sizzle: I wrote about a similar proposal in Australia back in 2023 (Crikey, $). It was ultimately watered down, giving encrypted services a carve-out as long as they “take appropriate alternative action” (Guardian Australia). While I’m uncomfortable with a compulsory system like this, I’m also uncomfortable about the growing amount of CSAM which continues to increase year on year (IWF). It’s pretty clear that we need to do something else — I’m just not sure what.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

It’s Robots Sports time, folks

In case you missed it, this year’s World Humanoid Robot Games has now come to a close. 280 teams with 500 robots travelled from around the world, including one from Australia, one report said(NEWSGD), to take part in the three-day event in Beijing. They competed in events like athletics, kickboxing, soccer and, uh, even dance. On top of the normal competitions, there were also “scenario-based events which simulated real-world settings such as factories, hospitals and hotels”. Sounds thrilling.

The Sizzle: Like self-driving cars, robots is one of those areas of tech that has constantly been “two years away from being two years away” my whole adult life. Aside from being unintentionally comical like the dashing robot who had to pull out of a race because its head fell off, I like the games Games because it gets these robot guys out of the demos and into some real situations… like robot fights.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Leftovers

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Oh, Also

Can you guess if these are valid email addresses?

I am a nerd. I write a tech newsletter. I don’t work on the technical side of email, but I’ve sent a few in my time. So, I thought I’d be great at “Email is Easy”, a game that tests you on a simple question: is this email address valid or not? Turns out, not so much! Let me know what score you get!

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

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The Sizzle is created on Gadigal 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.