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This week
IN THE NEWS: Disinformation and Misinformation on Digital Platforms, ACCC says scam calls are increasing, and more.
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Disinformation and misinformation are not new trends; digital content that is verifiably false, misleading, or deceptive has been around for almost as long as the internet has existed. ACCAN research released in November 2021 found that nearly half (48%) of Australians don't know where to go to complain about dating apps, 34% of Australians don’t know where to go to complain about social media services, áand 39% are unsure where to go to complain about job search sites. In this context, efforts to improve the public’s awareness of initiatives like The Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation are needed [ACCAN].
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Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chairwoman Delia Rickard said scam calls had in fact been increasing "for some years" and were becoming "incredibly frustrating" for authorities working to track them and ultimately block them. "Telcos have blocked hundreds of millions of scam calls — the numbers are phenomenal," she said. "We are seeing more scams and more scam calls and the phone remains the number one way for scammers to reach people." [ABC]
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Kundabung residents who say their requests for help to bridge the digital divide have fallen on deaf ears will attend a meeting with telecommunications providers and politicians at Kundabung Community Hall on Tuesday. Many people who live in the area, north of Port Macquarie, have reported problems with phone and internet services for years. The problem escalated last month when residents said services suddenly dropped out about midnight on January 13 [SMH].
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The Interactive Trouble Shooting Guide for Sky Muster and Sky Muster Plus is now available on the nbn website. The guide is a fully interactive “clickable” PDF. This tool will empower our customers, enabling them to troubleshoot themselves with a user-friendly format, hopefully saving them time in calling their Retail Service Provider (RSP) and in turn assisting RSP’s by lower call volumes in to their call centres [NBN co].
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Outgoing competition boss Rod Sims has warned the landmark infrastructure deal between Telstra and TPG Telecom, aimed at expanding choice and coverage in regional areas, may cause mobile plan prices to rise. Mr Sims, who fought Vodafone Hutchison Australia and TPG Telecom in Federal Court after opposing their proposed merger in 2019, said his team was yet to look over the detail of the deal, but he was concerned it could lead to less competitive prices [SMH].
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Small business owners and managers across Australia are invited to share their perspectives about cyber security, to better understand what will help support small businesses to implement effective cyber security practices. You could win a $500 VISA Gift Card, just by completing this short 5-minute survey saying in 25 words or less "What is needed to support and encourage small business to implement effective cyber security practices?". This survey is supported by the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia (COSBOA), with grant funding from auDA (au Domain Administration Ltd), which is the policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .au domain space [COSBOA].
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The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has released the latest Notifiable Data Breaches report, covering July to December 2021. The report shows 464 data breach notifications, up 6%, with 55% of these attacks due to malicious or criminal attacks. Health service providers are the top industry reporting data breaches, followed by finance [iTWire].
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Severe storms in Sydney have seen Internet outages across a wide area, with services down across the North Shore. Telstra NBN broadband services are down and mobile broadband in Mosman, has slowed to a crawl as consumers taking to their mobile phones for home and office broadband needs [Channel News].
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At the request of Michael Lavarch, Board Chair, and with the endorsement of the Board, Ombudsman Judi Jones has changed the effective date of her resignation from Thursday 31 March to Friday 29 April. During April, Judi will only be fulfilling those decision-making aspects of the role that cannot be delegated [TIO].
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The expansive growth of consumer internet of things (IoT) has created a range of concerns around privacy, security, and their broader societal impacts. This article reports on findings from interviews with 32 key stakeholders from the fields of information security, policy and regulation, the IoT industry, consumer and privacy law, and academia in Australia [Harkin].
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Tel: (02) 9288 4000
Email: media@accan.org.au
Web: accan.org.au
Twitter: @accan_au
Facebook.com/accanau
LinkedIn: accan.org.au/LinkedIn
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Although we take care to direct subscribers to sites with accurate and reliable content, we advise that ACCAN is not responsible for the content within external sites and has no control over the views, services or information contained therein. Information contained on external sites may not necessarily reflect ACCAN's policy, standards or beliefs.
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network's representation of residential and other consumers' interests in relation to telecommunications issues is made possible by funding provided by the Commonwealth of Australia under section 593 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. This funding is recovered from charges on telecommunications carriers.
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