Hello and welcome to Friday, all that stands between you and the weekend is some tech news (plus whatever else you’ve got going on today). So let’s get this part out of the way.
1. Warning against bank scams
The ACCC has put out a warning to be wary of phone calls and texts that appear to be from your bank, following alarming reports of Australians losing their life savings to a highly sophisticated impersonation scam. Reports to the ACCC’s Scamwatch indicate scammers are using new technology to trick their victims, by making the call appear to come from the bank’s legitimate phone number or by sending a text that appears in the same conversation thread as genuine bank messages. Scamwatch received 14,603 reports about bank impersonation scams in 2022, resulting in more than $20 million in losses.
2. E3 has been cancelled… again
In a move that I think we all saw coming, E3 has officially been cancelled… Again. As our friends over at Kotaku Australia note, the state of this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo has been up in the air for the past few months, considering one publisher after another was publicly coming out to say they wouldn’t be making an appearance at the event. It led many, including us, to wonder if the event was going to happen at all.
News on #E32023 from the source. pic.twitter.com/BK7TUlb8mZ
— E3 (@E3) March 30, 2023
3. Medibank class action goes ahead
A class action against Medibank was filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria and served on Medibank on Thursday. In a statement, Medibank wrote: “Medibank understands that these proceedings have been brought on behalf of persons who acquired an interest in Medibank shares during the period 1 July 2019 to 19 October 2022 and is being brought by Quinn Emanuel”. It follows Medibank experiencing a massive cyber attack last year, resulting in the breach of data on 9.7 million current and former customers and some of their authorised representatives.
4. Lucky Europeans
Meta Platform Inc’s European users will no longer have to suffer from certain targeted advertising on Facebook and Instagram, a change that’s expected to take effect on Wednesday. The company’s user base currently encounters advertisements based on their online behaviour, things like the types of videos they watch and the links they click on. European Union privacy regulators put an order in place in January, stating that users should not be required to agree to targeted advertising when signing up for an account and should instead be given the option to limit highly personalised ads. According to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, the new plan will allow EU users to select a version of its advertising services that provide targeted ads based only broader things like their age and location.
5. Big tech commits to Aussie scene
The Tech Council of Australia (TCA) this week announced a range of new members who have all committed to the Aussie tech scene. “In joining the TCA, each of these members are demonstrating a commitment to the Australian technology sector,” TCA CEO Kate Pounder said, adding: “Coming together as an industry and collaborating on some of the most crucial issues across our economy will ensure we have the right settings in place for a prosperous future”. The new members announced include: CyberCX, Nokia, Equinix, Salesforce, Telstra and IBM.
BONUS ITEM: Were you fooled by the Pope’s alleged drip?
See you next week.