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Section 252
After a lot of excitement and visions of Tom Cruise abseiling in to Treasury to steal the NOC list, I mean Budget 2019 documents, it seems instead that someone was trying out search terms in the websi…
Govt use of algorithms under scrutiny
A new independent agency that oversees the use of algorithms in government decision-making is required to counter unintended bias. That's the recommendation from researchers at the University of Otago…
Brislen on Tech
Whether Chinese telco-equipment maker Huawei is a puppet of a Communist regime or a pawn in the international machinations of two super powers is pretty much immaterial at the moment.
The company …
Caution urged on introducing new laws to combat 'deepfakes'
It can take less than 30 mins for a skilled person using consumer-level tech to create a realistic video and audio recording of the Prime Minister that is completely untrue. But that is not a reason t…
Huawei vs the US Govt: is this a knock-out blow?
Huawei's problems with the US administration have turned from bad to worse following the US President's decision to sign an executive order banning the use of telecommunications equipment from Chine…
Regulating social media: lessons from Britain’s first highway code
Social media has risen from nowhere to become the dominant media platform on the planet in a short space of time, but at a cost. What can we learn from other rapidly developed technologies and how the…
Brislen on Tech
It looks like it's the end of the line for Pond, the government's resource sharing service for teachers.
Part of Network for Learning (N4L), Pond was supposed to be a leading-edge social network wh…
NZ and France seek to end use of social media for acts of terrorism
New Zealand and France are to lead international efforts to figure out how to manage the promotion of terrorism and extremism via social media channels.
The meeting is to be held in May as part of …
Brislen on Tech
Sir Paul Callaghan said we need to build an environment where talent wants to live, where we have 100 companies at the $1 billion mark that aren't farms, and that we absolutely can build this second s…
Copyright updating, please wait
New Zealand's 25-year-old copyright law is out of date and badly needs an update to meet the needs of New Zealanders in the Internet era.
The long, long version is in InternetNZ's 58 page submissi…
Brislen on Tech
The departure of Simon Moutter from Spark's biggest seat spells the end of an era in New Zealand telecommunications. And Facebook takes a puff on Big Tobacco's finest product - a PR campaign designed …
EU passes copyright directives
Articles 11 and 13 - the so-called link tax and upload filter - are introduced and new laws will be drafted by member states but will it achieve what its proponents suggest or will it be the end of th…
Facebook forced to explain itself some more
Facebook faces more pressure after court documents revealed it knew about Cambridge Analytica's scraping of data months before news broke.
Brislen on Tech
Privacy. It's one of those things that you may not realise is important until you've lost it. Once it's gone, there's no getting it back. Once your mother's maiden name or your first pet's name is out…
DNA law under review
New Zealand was among the first countries to pass laws governing the collection and use of DNA in criminal investigations. But, like pretty much all new technology, its application has evolved in leap…
Brislen on Tech
I made my eldest daughter cry this morning. I told her about the robot on Mars, Opportunity, and how it was finally out of juice.
Only I made the mistake of telling her as I heard it - via Jacob Ma…
When is a hack not a hack?
The South Canterbury Property Investors' Association collection of the private details of renters is one thing, sharing them with members is something else but exposing them to the internet for all th…
Australian parliament hack attack
Australian politicians are being forced to change their passwords following an attempt to hack the Australian federal parliament's IT system.
Termination for convenience in ICT contracts: It isn’t always that convenient
When ICT projects fail (and it has been reported in the past that two thirds of projects in New Zealand are failing) the customer's first reaction is often to look at terminating for breach. However…
Brislen on Tech
It's tough at the top, as Apple CEO Tim Cook is finding out. And another day, another Facebook travesty - this time, conning teenagers into install a VPN on their phones so they could scoop up all the…
