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This week we're in conversation with Adam Ford, who is Managing Director ANZ for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (full bio below). IAPP is the largest and most comprehensive privacy community around the globe. We have a wide-ranging conversation about the trends and emerging demands on the privacy profession, the role privacy practitioners are playing in AI governance ch...

This week, Arj is joined by elevenM colleague Jonathan Gadir to discuss the small business exemption to the Privacy Act. The exemption means that businesses with an annual turnover of $3 million or less are generally exempt from complying with the Act. We explore the pros and cons of the exemption, and whether the government is is likely to remove the exemption as part of current reforms to the Pr...

This week, Arj is joined by elevenM colleague Brett Watson to discuss regulators – who they are, what they do, and the influence they have on public policy. The conversation focuses on one regulator in particular – Australia’s privacy regulator, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. In a few recent public communications, most notably an opinion piece relating to TikTok’s informati...

This week we're in conversation with Chandni Gupta, Deputy CEO and Digital Policy Director of the Consumer Policy Research Centre (see below for her full bio). The CPRC is Australia’s only dedicated consumer policy think tank. Our conversation with Chandi explores how the concept of product safety applies to digital products, and the ways in which the constant push towards more frictionless on...

Is there anything about you on the internet you wish you could take down? This week Arj is joined by Jonathan Gadir to discuss the "right to be forgotten" or "right to erasure" - a provision in data protection regulations overseas that is being considered as part of the reforms to the Australian Privacy Act. Overseas, the right has enabled individuals to have newspaper articles...

Dr Katharine Kemp (bio below) is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney, and Deputy Director of the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation. In this conversation, we explore how privacy and competition policy concerns are increasingly coming together, particularly in actions underway against tech giants like Meta and Apple. We also discuss Dr Kemp's recen...

This week, Jordan is joined by elevenM colleague Jonathan Gadir to break down the stoush between Elon Musk and Australia's eSafety Commissioner. In recent weeks, Musk and his platform X have resisted calls to globally remove content related to a stabbing event in Sydney in April. The standoff has opened up a conversation about the merits of regulating so-called harmful online content, and the...

In this special episode for Privacy Awareness Week, Jordan sits down with Australia’s Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind. It's a great chat, covering the Commissioner's first impressions of the role, her professional background and how it shapes her approach, her regulatory priorities and what she hopes to achieve as Privacy Commissioner, and of course the PAW theme - what it's all about...

It feels a little like déjà vu, but this week we discuss the US's newest, best candidate for a federal privacy law - the American Privacy Rights Act. With bipartisan and bicameral support for the draft law the mood is cautiously optimistic, though there's a very long way to go. We'll discuss what Australia can learn from the more novel elements of the proposed new law, and we'll ex...

News feeds, search results, directions across town, even job or rental applications - opaque algorithms determine an increasingly large proportion of our lives. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission is going after landlords for using algorithms to illegally fix rental prices. Back home, a secret algorithm determines how detainees in immigration detention are treated. Through the lens of these tw...

This week we break down the US Department of Justice's suit against Apple, claiming the tech giant is engaging in unlawful behaviour. In particular we examine the DOJ's charge that Apple has long justified anti-competitive behaviour on the basis of claims about better privacy and security. The suit raises interesting questions about the the tradeoffs between privacy and competition, and th...

This week on the podcast we analyse a US plan to force TikTok owner ByteDance to divest or sell the platform, or be banned from US platforms. The move - strongly supported by the US House of Representatives - follows years of proposed plans and attempts to ban TikTok in various ways. We unpack the concerns about the wildly popular social media platform, and explore criticisms of the ban ranging fr...

This week Jordan asks Dr James Meese to explain Meta's announcement that it doesn’t intend to renew the commercial deals it made with Australian media companies under the News Media Bargaining Code.   Dr Meese (full bio below) is an Associate Professor at RMIT University, where he researches personalisation and recommendation in the news media sector and has recently published a book examining...

** Content warning: This episode contains discussion of Child Sexual Abuse Material ** Australia's eSafety Commissioner is trying to force tech giants to scan cloud storage for illegal and harmful content. Apple says this could undermine security protections and facilitate mass surveillance.   This is just the latest skirmish in the crypto wars - a 50 year old policy debate about how to balanc...

To mark 100 episodes, this week we reflect on the topics covered on This Week in Digital Trust since its inception. Arj and Jordan also share four key insights and learnings that have emerged through their discussions, and how these have shaped (and are shaped) their world views. If you'd like to share some feedback with us, we'd love to hear it. https://forms.office.com/r/6HxEztcC85   Cre...

Supermarkets have been under intense scrutiny in Australia over a range of issues, including alleged profiteering in a cost of living crisis, and poor treatment of workers and suppliers. In this episode, we explore how the use of advanced technologies and digital platforms by the two supermarket majors may be contributing to these issues, and further entrenching market dominance. Links: Four Corne...

This week we go deep on doxing, the practice of "dropping docs" on someone in order to expose their information to a hostile digital audience. Our conversation is triggered by some recent doxing examples in the Australian media, which has prompted the Federal Government to propose a new law against dxxing as part of its privacy reform agenda. We discuss the origins of doxing, prominent e...

In the face of tech and AI hype, there's an emerging march away from technology taking place around the globe. This week we explore recent developments fitting this trend, including a proposed law in Australia that give will employees a "right to disconnect" from work, and another that seeks to improve conditions for gig workers. We also take a deep dive into the resurgence of the Lu...

With more than 60 elections taking place around the world this year, the risks posed by deepfakes was already a bubbling concern - until Taylor Swift took the issue stratospheric.  Deepfake explicit images of the US musician created by generative AI went viral on X, prompting officials and analysts to start to properly reckon with the problems posed by the technology. We explore the scenarios in w...

Ever wondered what can be inferred about you just from the way you walk? This might be a growing concern as the use of biometric technologies - which include solutions that offer "gait analysis" - become more common. This week we explore how biometrics like fingerprints, faceprints and behavioural attributes are being used in different contexts, for purposes including identification, ver...

This week it's the next instalment of the Australian Government's consultation on Safe and Responsible AI. Arj and Jordan break down the government's 'interim response' to the consultation, and the case for regulation that it puts forward. Though the detail is yet to come, we evaluate the government's proposals - new mandatory guardrails, updates to existing laws, internati...

This week we dive into the murky world of data brokers, courtesy of a new report by Reset Tech Australia. The report provides a fascinating window into how data brokers operate - particularly the granular categories and segments that online users are categorised into. This data is sold to advertisers and, in some cases, even law enforcement bodies and other authorities.  We share our reactions abo...

This week we explore the world of trust and safety, those teams at digital platforms and other tech service providers entrusted with ensuring services are safe for users. These teams have grown in size and influence over the past decade, in response to the growth in the use of social media as well as the emergence of challenges including mis- and disinformation and increasing hate speech. But they...

*** SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK *** We'd love to hear your thoughts on the podcast: https://forms.office.com/r/6HxEztcC85 ********* We're signing off for 2023 with a relaxed re-cap of the year. We reflect on the big conversation topics of the year (AI and privacy reform), what surprised us, what disappointed us and what we're looking forward to in 2024. Thanks to everyone who listened, appeare...

This week we explore the human side of cybercrime, via a conversation with Dr Jonathan Lusthaus, director of The Human Cybercriminal Project at the University of Oxford. Jonathan (full bio below) has spent over a decade researching who cybercriminals are, what drives them, and how they organise themselves, collaborate and innovate. We explore his findings – which he chronicled in his book Industry...