Good morning. We’re halfway through the week, and today’s edition of 5 Things is the 365th we’ve ever posted. Let’s get into the tech news.
1. ACMA slams Outdoor Supacentre for spamming
Outdoor Supacentre has paid a $300,000 penalty for breaching Australian spam laws. An ACMA investigation found that the offroading retailer sent upwards of 83,000 marketing text messages to customers, including 81,000 to customers without their consent, and 1,500 to customers who had previously unsubscribed from marketing information. “Businesses have a responsibility not to send unwanted spam and also to respect people’s wishes when they ask to stop receiving these messages,” ACMA member Samantha Yorke said. The retailer had been sent five spam compliance alerts by the ACMA in the leadup to its investigation.
2. Singtel denies plan to divest Optus
Yesterday, the AFR ran a story reporting that Optus owner Singtel was considering the divestment of the begrudged telco. Now, iTnews has Singtel denying this plan. “Singtel views its stake in Singtel Optus Pty Limited as strategic and believes in the long-term outlook of the Optus business,” the company said in a statement.
3. PayPal and Block join the fun
Tech giants PayPal and Block have come to play this layoff season, cutting 2,400 and 1,000 jobs respectively. PayPal President and CEO Alex Chriss said in a statement that it was cutting 9 per cent of its workforce because “we are doing this to right-size our business, allowing us to move with the speed needed to deliver for our customers and drive profitable growth.” Meanwhile, Business Insider has the scoop on Block’s layoffs, reporting that CEO Jack Dorsey told workers “a large number of our teammates” (1,000 people, or 10 per cent of the workforce) would be made redundant. Everything is fine!
4. Adobe cans website product
Blomberg reports that, in the wake of Adobe’s collapsed $US20 billion acquisition of web design product Figma, the company is now scrapping its own rivalling product, XD, altogether. “We have no plans to further invest in it,” an Adobe spokesperson told Bloomberg. The program was originally put on ice while the deal was negotiated.
5. Mercedes-Benz source code exposed on GitHub
A report from Redhunt Labs has flagged that Mercedes-Benz source code is at risk, with the team uncovering “a potentially disastrous data leak incident involving the automotive giant.” A token was leaked by an employee on a GitHub repository, giving the user unrestricted access “to the entire source code hosted at the internal GitHub Enterprise Server.” Access to the repository included connection strings, cloud access keys, blueprints, design documents, passwords, API keys, and other critical information.
BONUS ITEM: Looks like Universal’s failed ‘Dark Universe’ has been turned into a theme park land.
Universal has resurrected the Dark Universe branding for their new theme park land.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 30, 2024
Releasing in 2025. pic.twitter.com/KYJ1ZzIxDv
Have a lovely day.