Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
The
most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions,
for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts. — Baruch Spinoza, born in 1632 It's Not You, It's Me: Breaking Up With Books
The High Court will hear a case testing the public service's restrictions on free speech and political expression for bureaucrats, as it considers the 2013 sacking of a former Immigration Department worker for tweets criticising Australia's asylum seeker policy.
Two sets of legislation were at the centre of the giant parlia-storm that broke on Thursday afternoon, the details of which ordinary people, with normal lives to get on with, may have missed. Labor agrees to pass encryption laws 'to keep Australians safe' over Christmas - Labor agrees to pass encryption laws 'to keep Australians safe' over Christmas - SBS News
Last month, Hack listener Brooke said she lodged her tax return with ... said the matter will be classed as theft or fraud so will be dealt with as a crime and is thus outside of their powers.
Secret Service tests facial recognition
system at the White House
FCW.com: “The Secret Service started testing a facial
recognition system in and around the White House last week, according to a
privacy assessment released by the Department of Homeland Security on Nov. 28.
The pilot uses a facial recognition system, unnamed in the privacy document, to pore over
faces collected by the Crown closed circuit TV system that is used inside and
outside the White House complex in Washington, D.C. The goal of the project is
to determine whether a facial recognition capability can be used by the Secret
Service to identify “known subjects of interest prior to initial contact with
law enforcement” around the White House. These subjects of interest pose
potential threats to individuals under Secret Service protection. They come to
the attention of the Secret Service through their own direct communications
with the White House as well as social media posts, reports from the public and
the news media as well as information from other law enforcement agencies…”
Uber happy?
Work and well-being in the “gig economy”
Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford 2018. We explore the rise of the
so-called “gig economy” through the lens of Uber and its drivers. Using
administrative data from Uber and a new representative survey of drivers, we
explore their backgrounds, earnings, and well-being.
There is no
magical one-step solution for digital transformation, but it does require
decisive, sustained action. Paul Shetler explores how established organisations
fall into traps along the way, and where attention needs to focus to achieve
lasting change.
Cash
is dead, long live cash: The problems with Australia’s digital ecosystem
Reserve Bank governor Phillip Lowe has warned
banks and telco giants there may be a need for tighter regulation to ensure the
reliability of Australia’s digital payments ecosystem if key players can’t do a
better job preventing outages.
Senator
HUME (Victoria—Deputy Government Whip in the Senate) (09:31): I report to
the Senate in accordance with yesterday's Senate order 1322, moved by Senator
Patrick, regarding Senate order 1108, order for the production of documents to
the Senate Economics Legislation Committee. As the chair of that committee, I
report that the committee has not received any documents pursuant to the order
from the Commissioner of Taxation. I further note that a letter from the Leader
of the Government in the Senate to the Senate President, copied to me as Chair
of the Economics Legislation Committee and to Senator Patrick, has advised that
the Commissioner of Taxation
has undertaken to provide the documents sought in the order to the committee by
21 December 2018, on the basis that the committee treats the documents and
information in question as confidential. The commissioner has also agreed to
appear before the committee to provide in camera evidence in relation to the
information.
Senator
PATRICK (South Australia) (09:32): I seek leave to make a one-minute
statement.
Leave granted.
Senator
PATRICK: I think that's a really good outcome and I'm grateful that the tax
commissioner has reconsidered his position. I just point out to the Senate that
this is a good day from an oversight perspective. We cannot have officials not
obeying orders of the Senate. Once again, I think this is a very good outcome.
Thank you.
UK Investigation – Facebook allegedly offered advertisers special access to users’ data and activities - Washington Post: [see also Motherboard for coverage w/out payall]”A key British lawmaker alleged Wednesday that Facebook maintained “whitelisting agreements” that gave select companies preferential access to valuable user data several years ago, offering insight into how the company balanced concerns about user privacy with the business imperative of growing revenue. Damian Collins, chairman of a British parliamentary committee that has led a wide-ranging investigation into Facebook and its dealings with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, on Wednesday released a summary of findings drawn from documents from a lawsuit against the social network, along with more than 200 pages of documents, many of them labeled “Confidential.” Collins’ allegation echoes a key claim from the lawsuit, which was filed by an app developer in a California court. Facebook, which has long said it does not sell user data, on Wednesday denied that it used its data as a bargaining chip in exchange for advertising and other concessions, as the app developer, Six4Three, has alleged in its suit.
