Legal action by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission against Google over changes to its data privacy policy has been dismissed by the Federal Court in a big win for the US tech company. The court found that Google did not mislead Australian consumers when it changed its privacy policy to expand the scope of… Read more »
Four years of misleading users about cancellation fees if they book a taxi via Uber’s app has cost the ridesharing company A$21 million. That’s roughly Uber’s commission on 3 million $20 rides. The Federal Court ordered Uber to pay the $21 million penalty after the US tech giant admitted it had engaged in misleading or… Read more »
In early November, the Commonwealth Department of Infrastructure invited public comment on proposed Australia-wide “drone delivery guidelines” it has been quietly developing with industry stakeholders. A slick new website – drones.gov.au – boasts of the supposed benefits of delivery drones. It claims they will create jobs, provide cost-efficiency and be environmentally sustainable. The draft guidelines… Read more »
This book speaks to a disenchanted present. The heady days of internet 2.0, with its anarchic disruption, empowered prosumers, flat hierarchies and sharing economies, are well behind us now. So too is the glamour of start-ups and creative entrepreneurs, remaking the self through pure willpower while transforming capitalism from the inside out, one almond latte… Read more »
‘Chief Twit’ Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company, Tesla, has copped its third vehicle recall in Australia in less than a month from safety regulators, with the latest software glitch involving around 15,900 Model 3 and Model Y cars imported this year. “Due to a software error, the tail lamps on one or both sides may… Read more »
More than 25,000 jobs are set to be cut at three of the biggest tech companies in the world, as rapid growth during the pandemic slows and broader economic headwinds pick up speed. Reports emerged this week that Amazon is planning to lay off about 10,000 people, on the back of Facebook parent company Meta’s… Read more »
In 2020, the independent authors and small publishers whose audiobooks reach their readers via Audible’s ACX platform smelled a rat. Audiobooks were booming, but sales of their own books – produced at great expense and well-reviewed – were plummeting. Some of their royalty statements reported negative sales, as readers returned more books than they bought.… Read more »
Supermarket giant Coles will begin delivering groceries to customers via drone from next month as part of a trial with the Alphabet subsidiary Wing. The drone delivery trial in South East Queensland kicks off next Wednesday, November 2, and will cover the Gold Coast suburbs of Ormeau, Ormeau Hills, and Yatala with orders from the… Read more »
Global tech giant Microsoft is taking on Canva with a new free graphic design app in Microsoft 365. A web preview of the Designer app is already available for early use, with the company’s corporate VP, Liat Ben-Zur, saying the app is born out of PowerPoint, where Designer uses AI to make template suggestions as you… Read more »
Car sharing network Car Next Door will rebrand next month ahead of a roll out in the US next year under its new owner, Uber The decade-old business was acquired by the US tech giant for an undisclosed sum in January this year and the idea will now launch in the US in mid-2023 as… Read more »
As Melanie Perkins struggled to raise venture capital for Canva back in 2011, one of the first pitch decks she put together featured an easy to use website builder. A decade later, Perkins has realised her dream amid a suite of product upgrades unveiled this week. The cofounder and CEO of Canva said that it… Read more »
Lobby group The Tech Council of Australia (TCA) is looking to take the battle up to Singapore, China and Japan in making Australia the regional tech hub for the Asia-Pacific region, attracting global players to the country. A new report commissioned by the TCA, Turning Australia into a Regional Tech Hub, outlines the existing strengths… Read more »
Earlier this month, posters started going up around Sydney advertising an event called “In the Ops Room, with Palmer Luckey”. Rather than an album launch or standup gig, this turned out to be a free talk given last week by the chief executive of a high-tech US defence company called Anduril. The company has set… Read more »
Global search giant Google is not responsible as a publisher for serving up links to defamatory material, Australia’s High Court has ruled. The landmark decision overturns exisiting rulings by the Victorian Supreme Court and its Court of Appeal involving a $40,000 damages award against Google to Melbourne lawyer George Defteros for a hyperlink to an… Read more »
Tech giant Google has been hit with $60 million in penalties by Australia’s Federal Court for for making misleading representations to consumers about the collection and use of their personal location data on Android phones. The fine resulted from legal action by consumer watchdog the ACCC, which took Google to court in October 2019 over… Read more »
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