Issue 2272 - Monday 17 February, 2025

Hello! I hope you had a good weekend. Two things I did that you might be interested in: I wrote about the tech I use to write the Sizzle and I forced a good friend to do an Excel challenge as part of his bucks party.

In Today’s Issue

The News

Trump excuse for tardy tech tax

Australia has “decided to go slow” on plans to tax the tech giants because of fears that Trump will slap tariffs on Australia, the government is reportedly saying (Nine papers, $). I’ve always thought the news media bargaining code was bizarre policy: a link tax trying to fix journalism’s broken business model in a weird, indirect and unfair way. The Albanese government promised that it would redo the scheme and it’s still technically possible that it’ll pass something, but it looks increasingly like it won’t happen before the election.

Trump is a convenient excuse but, to me, the code is a prime example of the Albanese government being too slow. Here’s the timeline for those playing at home:

Trump is definitely a barrier, but he’s only an impediment to passing the law because the Albanese government left it until the last minute and now we might not get anything at all. While we’re on this topic — Meta and TikTok have given the government a kick for letting YouTube escape its teen social media ban (Capital Brief, $)

Google’s fingerprinting backflip starts now

I feel like it hasn’t gotten much attention, but Google’s backflip to let advertisers use fingerprinting has now come into effect (BBC). In 2019, Google said “we think it’s bad that consumers have no choice over what data advertisers use to target them so we’re banning fingerprinting” (Google) which, as a refresher, is when advertisers use a combination of clues about a user like their IP, screen size, etc. to figure out who they are so they can profile and target them with ads. Compared with cookies — which you can clear so that advertisers don’t know you were shopping for extra small condoms or whatever you don’t want people to know about — fingerprinting is much harder to shake. Your online habits are stamped on your forehead and follow you everywhere.

In a significantly less forward-facing announcement last December, the company decided that it was “refreshing our platform program policies” (Google) to allow fingerprinting. Predictably, advertisers are happy (Ad Exchanger) but there are questions about whether doing so is even legal? I might ask our privacy commissioner so watch this space.

Australians love Dr ChatGPT

Speaking of “sensitive data that advertisers and others would love to find out about you”, one in ten Australians has asked ChatGPT health questions according to a survey published in the Medical Journal of Australia (Wiley). Under the age of 44, that number jumps to about a quarter!

According to those who had asked Dr ChatGPT, nearly two-thirds had asked “questions that would typically require clinical advice” — probably not the best source of high-risk. Among those who hadn’t used it but knew about ChatGPT, 40% said they would consider using it for health advice in the next six months. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I do not expect this to end well for both privacy and health reasons. Meanwhile, NSW has kiboshed plans to use AI as part of bail hearings because trial models did not follow all the instructions that it was supposed to help judges stay across, leading the NSW Judicial Commission to find “no evidence of a pressing need for AI solutions” (Information Age).

Oh, Also

Meta’s bizarre VR dumped support group ad

Sorry to share a social media post but you really need to see this to believe it. Amid the AI hype, you might have forgotten that Meta is still big into the metaverse (remember… “meta”). For Valentine’s Day, the company released a promo video to promote its VR “game” Meta Horizon Worlds. Bluesky user @nathievr.bsky.social shared it (Bluesky mirror) and it’s certainly something.

Here’s the original Instagram video embedded:

It begins as a virtual support group for people who’ve been dumped by text (or worse) in a fake high school gymnasium and only gets weirder from there… We’ve strayed so far from the Apple dancing commercials.

Bargains

Electricial & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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

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Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.