More and more people talk about big data and algorithms to do all sorts of things. What are these concepts and what do they tell us about the world we live in?
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Digital Rights Watch have raised deep concerns over proposed changes to the Privacy Act, citing the need for community and expert consultation before any legislation is introduced.
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In the lead-up to the 2016 Census, DRW raised concerns around the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ choice to make mandatory the collection, retention and protection of citizen’s names and addresses.
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A wide variety of services, products and platforms are available free of charge online. They range from almost ubiquitous services such as Google to game apps like Pokémon Go, to highly specialised niche apps like Carr Matey (which will tell you where you parked your car, but in a pirate voice).
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Much of the content we share on the web, such as articles, pictures and videos, is subject to copyright law. That means that the right to use, share or modify the creative work belongs to the author. The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) gives authors copyright over literary, dramatic, musical or artistic ideas automatically. The author can also sell this right to someone else, like a film studio or a record label. If someone uses the work without permission from the author of the person who holds the rights (often called the ‘rights-holder’) over the work, that person may be in breach of copyright.
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Encryption puts information into a secret code so that only those with the correct ‘key’ can read it. If you send an encrypted message to a friend, as it travels to its destination, the message will be unreadable to the networks that control the wires of the internet. Only when your friend decrypts that message with her key will it become readable again, which often happens in an instant. In the context of digital information, such as on your computer and mobile phone, encryption protects important information like your internet banking details, credit card numbers and passwords from being stolen. Encryption is also important to protect your privacy on the web, and stop your personal information or messages from being eavesdropped on.
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