Mentioned in today’s edition: Appen, Android, Andrew Charlton, Panasonic, plasma TVs, Goldman Sachs and AirDrop. Plus, deals on Sony noise cancelling headphones, Garmin Epix Pro watches and the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE.

The News

Australian company getting gig workers to train AI systems used by US spy planes

An Australian company's gig workers are providing the data used to train AI for US spy planes while their home country is being bombed by America (Crikey, $). An investigation I've been working on with the UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals that the ASX-listed Appen has signed several contracts to provide data specifically for secretive US military units (Rest of World). Appen has millions of gig workers in countries like Somalia who have no idea that they are providing data that's being used by the US defence forces which, by the way, is still running military operations in Somalia that have killed civilians.

The Sizzle: This story is all about the supply chain of underpaid workers into the tools that are often used to make their lives worse. Appen relies on wage arbitrage — being able to pay workers in Africa a pittance — so it can sell this data for all kinds of purposes to whoever buys it. It's not even that these workers don't have a say in it, it's that they have no idea that they are actively training tools used to kill them. It's cruel, but, hey, at least some people made money out of it.

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What a surprise that mental health apps aren't protecting their users' data

Mental health apps on Android with millions of users are exposing their users' medical information (Bleeping Computer). Mobile security company Oversecured's researchers evaluated 10 apps on the Google Play Store and found 1,575 security vulnerabilities, including 54 rated as high severity that could be used to intercept login details, spoof notifications or locate the user. Several apps store data locally and in plain text. Simply put: apps that encourage you to trust them with sensitive information aren't doing enough to earn that trust. 

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Is the drop in IT manager pay an early sign of AI affecting Australian job market?

On the "AI jobs apocalypse" and "changing nature of work" themes, I was interested to see that ICT managers had a drop in wages in Australia (Information Age). These staff reported about a $10k drop in annual wages in May 2025, while other ICT roles continued to see a pay increase. That does seem a little early for this to be attributed to AI, but an expert chalked it up to the desire by companies to "stop paying people just to watch others work." One to watch. 

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Leftovers

Australia:

Rest of World:

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Oh, Also

Here's a fun AirDrop alternative

I know Google hasn't brought AirDrop to all its devices yet, so thankfully software engineer Nicolas Seriot has come up with an alternative: using an early phone protocol to transfer data via sound that's inaudible to the human ear (Seriot). He was able to use the Bell 103 protocol, introduced in 1962, to turn other data into an audio file that can be played by most speakers but not heard by most people. So don't think airgapping your computer is as simple as unplugging the internet.

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Bargains

Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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