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Finding a home to rent is hard enough. But before you’ve even stepped through the door for an inspection, rent tech platforms may have nudged you into a paid rewards program, charged you for ID verification, and pressured you into paying to store your own data. In this episode, Arj speaks with Chandni Gupta (Deputy CEO and Digital Policy Director at the CPRC) about the findings of their new report...

The public conversation about AI risk has collapsed into a single story about rogue and super-intelligent AI posing an existential threat to humanity. This is not only anxiety-producing, but is crowding out a much more productive conversation about harms that are real and happening right now. In this episode, we untangle three distinct categories of AI risk that keep getting bundled together: auto...

As the government finalises its tranche 2 reforms to the Privacy Act, the Privacy Commissioner is forging ahead with a crack-down on privacy-invasive online tracking and advertising. In this episode, Jordan sits down with Emma Blackmore to decode the OAIC's regulatory focus on 'pixels', what the recent determinations against Monash IVF and Medmate mean for organisations and how they si...

The Australian Government has announced plans for the next stage of reforms to Australia's Privacy Act. In this episode, we explain what changes are proposed in the exposure draft Privacy Amendment (Personal Data Protection) Bill 2026, and what it means for organisations. In sum, the reforms represent a real philosophical shift. The centrepiece is a new fair and reasonable test, which we have...

Typically, when we're discussing the lessons to be learned about a cyber or privacy incident, we’re working backwards from a negative ruling. In this episode, we discuss the OAIC's favourable ruling about Qantas' mid-2025 cyber-related data breach that affected millions of customers. While the OAIC's investigation largely clears Qantas of wrongdoing, the report highlights plenty of...

*** This is part two of our two-part series on how frontier AI is reshaping cyber risk. See part one here: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/158-cyber-breakout-what-frontier-ai-means-for-cyber/id1616386… *** Over recent weeks a wave of disclosures have lit up the technology industry about the prospect of "rogue AI". OpenAI first revealed a frontier model had broken out of its sandbox...

*** This is the first part of a two-part series on how frontier AI is reshaping cyber risk. *** In recent months the cyber security industry has been grappling with a key question: how do highly capable frontier AI models change the threat environment? In this episode we break this question down by looking at how AI has affected the cat and mouse game between attackers and defenders, and the opera...

This week we check in on what we've previously called the "AI pendulum" - the swing between a pro-safety, pro-regulation instinct that marked AI conversations a couple of years ago to the hands-off, innovation-first mindset dominating the last 12 months. Recent events indicate the pendulum may be swinging back towards a more cautious and considered view of AI. The most striking incur...

In this episode we break down the OAIC's determination against Australia's largest rental technology platform ("RentTech") 2Apply. After a year-long investigation, Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind found that 2Apply collected personal information far beyond what was reasonably necessary, and via means deemed unfair. The ruling is another example of the Commissioner's more asser...

Australia is one of the world's top per capita users of AI, but outside of large enterprises many businesses aren't using it. In this episode, we speak with Lee Hickin, Executive Director of the National AI Centre (bio below) about what it will take to close the gap between awareness of AI and safe and confident adoption. We explore current attitudes to AI in Australia, what the NAIC's...

This week we explore a shift in how social media platforms are perceived, which could open the door to them taking greater accountability for potential harms experienced by users. The trigger is two recent landmark verdicts in the US. In California, a jury found Meta and Google negligent for the design of their platforms while in New Mexico, a jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million after it was arg...

Is AI going to take all our jobs? This week we dig into this question, starting with a report from Anthropic released this year that cuts against the prevailing panic. We identify some deeper and more nuanced impacts of AI on the labour force beyond the possibility of jobs disappearing - including the re-design of roles, the loss of insight that comes when we handover "mundane" work to A...

This week we take a closer look at the rapid spread of customer‑facing chatbots on websites and explore the growing risks that come with them. While they often look like a simple website widget, chatbots are increasingly deeply integrated AI agents with access to sensitive systems, personal data and business processes. We talk about some of the real‑world snafus that have occurred, and then step t...

To celebrate Privacy Awareness Week, Jordan sits down with Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind to reflect on the PAW theme, her time in the office so far, and what the future holds. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) chosen theme for Privacy Awareness Week is Trust is built here. In every privacy complaint. In every resolution . In a wide-ranging interview, Jordan talks wit...

This week Jordan is joined by Dr Kate Bower from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to discuss the biggest shake-up to online privacy for Australian kids in 25 years, and how you can have your say. The Children’s Online Privacy Code will set out new rules for the handling of children’s personal information by apps games and websites likely to be accessed by children or pr...

This week we unpack the dispute between Anthropic and the US Department of Defense and it what it says about AI governance more broadly. What began as a contractual disagreement rapidly turned into a political and legal stoush that culminated in the designation of Anthropic as a US national supply‑chainrisk. We break down the areas of concern - fully autonomous lethal weapons and mass domestic sur...

In this episode we explore the implications of an Administrative Review Tribunal ruling that Australian retailer Bunnings was reasonably entitled to use facial recognition technology (FRT) to combat crime and staff abuse in its stores. The ruling comes after a protracted dispute, with Bunnings appealing a 2024 determination by Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind that it had breached privacy laws in us...

In our first episode for the year we revisit the big themes of 2025, and explore how they're shaping in 2026. We discuss changing sentiments around AI, its impact on the online information ecosystem, the social media ban and ongoing focus on children's privacy, and how cyber threats are evolving in the AI age. Links: TWIDT #146 Australia's grand plan for AI https://podcasts.apple.com/c...

In this episode we break down the National AI Plan released by the Government in December. The plan broadly sets out how Australia will capture the opportunities of AI, how the benefits will be spread across the economy and how it guide the safe and responsible adoption of AI. We debate whether the plan strikes the right tone, pursues the right opportunities and whether it does enough to manage th...

AI chatbots are becoming increasingly intimate spaces, with people using them for companionship, therapy and as a helpful personal assistant. While our interactions with chatbots like ChatGPT and Copilot get more personal, we're also seeing logs and transcripts of these interactions increasingly find their way to the public - via FOI requests, court orders and security and privacy breaches. We...

This week we analyse the implications of the first ever civil penalties ordered under the Privacy Act. In October, the Federal Court ordered that Australian Clinical Labs pay $5.8 million in civil penalties in relation to a data breach by its Medlab Pathology business in February 2022 that led tothe exposure of the personal information of over 223,000 people. We discuss the key insights for cyber,...

This week Arj is joined by elevenM colleague Brett Watson to breakdown the issues surrounding the rollout of facial recognition technology (FRT) across retail settings, stadiums and other venues in Australia. The Privacy Commissioner recently ruled that the use of FRT by Australian retailers Bunnings and Kmart breached Australians' privacy. Bunnings is appealing the ruling, while Kmart is also...

This week we unpack the concept of sovereign AI, which is increasingly shaping both Australian and global conversations about national AI approaches. We explore what sovereign AI means, the problem it seeks to solve, and the variety of options being proposed. We also debate how feasible it is for Australia to can achieve a truly sovereign AI capability. Links: Article urging Australia to build sov...

This week we discuss the growing use of workplace surveillance technologies, triggered by a legal case involving an Australian compliance training company. The case highlights the use of monitoring software that records an employee's screen activity and even their conversations detected by laptop microphones. With employees increasingly working from home, the case speaks to broader implication...

**CONTENT WARNING**  This episode contains discussion of suicide and mental health themes. Please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.   This week we discuss the rise of AI companions. In the midst of a continued AI acceleration push in Australia, we discuss the emergence of several disturbing stories in which AI chatbots have apparently lead young people and adults alike t...