TGIF. Here’s some tech news to ease you into the weekend.
1. Chief twit sends memo to staff
Everyone’s favourite billionaire has penned his first official memo to staff, with The Verge reporting it’s not, in fact, a character-limited tweet. Not to be dramatic, the company’s new owner warned staff of a “dire” economy. He also put a stop to remote work and said his number one priority is Twitter Blue.
2. Easier access to phone data
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has introduced into Parliament amendments to Australia’s Telecommunications Act 1997. The changes, if passed, will provide law enforcement with easier access to data from telcos in the event that there is a missing person. The Greens, among others, have raised concerns with the possibility of GPS data access abuse.
The Minister for Communications @MRowlandMP has introduced the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Information Disclosure, National Interest and Other Measures) Bill 2022. See more: https://t.co/n4Wxv7W0lS. pic.twitter.com/k1GOspCNPI
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) November 9, 2022
3. Top five scams, ranked
The ACMA has released a list of the top five scam calls Aussies are receiving. The most frequent one is an Amazon impersonation. These are scam calls about an issue with your Amazon account. Second is banking/finance impersonation, usually calls/SMS/emails claiming suspicious activity, unauthorised debits, or that your account has been suspended. Next is NBN impersonation (NBN will never cold call you, your telco might). Speaking of telco, Telstra impersonation is fourth most frequent. The last is eBay. Stay smart out there, folks.
4. $3.9 billion in revenue for Optus
Optus yesterday released its results for the first half of its financial year. Revenue grew (to $3.9 billion), so too did its customer base (by 304,000), but its reporting period ended September 30, eight days after it went public with news of a data breach. Optus did say, however, that $140 million has been provided in the current period as an “exceptional expense” to help it clean up its mess.
5. Australia and Google to tackle climate change
The Australian government is expanding its partnership with Google, announcing alongside CSIRO this morning a plan to “better understand and utilise blue carbon ecosystems in Indo-Pacific and Australian coastlines”. Blue carbon refers to natural carbon sinks, which can play a role in mitigating the increase of greenhouse gases caused by human activity. The research will investigate new ways to accurately monitor, map and report on seagrass and associated biodiversity indicators.
BONUS ITEM: I was hoping to avoid this, but alas…..
Have a fabulous weekend.