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]]>CANBERRA: Australia’s spies have expressed frustration at technology companies that encrypt their messaging and communications systems, calling on them to stop the practice.
The head of ASIO, Mike Burgess, pictured, says it’s a matter of fact that intelligence agencies bug homes and cars, so why not cyberspace?
Fair question, except those technology companies, like Facebook, Twitter, Google etc. aren’t playing the game.
Burgess told the Institute of Public Administration that, because they’re not co-operating, proponents of encryption technologies are acting outside existing social norms.
Burgess said private conversations are actually a good thing, but … “the real challenge comes when you have a lawful need.” He means, when intelligence agencies want to bug your phone.
The problem with Burgess’s argument is that it comes directly out of the pages of the Peter Dutton playbook. The Home Affairs Minister has referred to Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg as morally bankrupt, along with other social media platforms, blaming them for an increase in child exploitation.
Burgess is not a happy bunny, especially as, instead of listening to his and other spy bosses’ pleas for a social media more open to scrutiny, the platforms are instead fortifying their communications encryption.
The ASIO boss‘s speech is certain to draw the ire of Australia’s technology community, who already railed at the government’s Assistance and Access Act, more commonly known as the Encryption Act.
The Act compels public servants to help investigators access encrypted data, but it can’t be working too well so far, judging by Burgess’ frustrated tones. – Chris Castellari
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]]>SAN FRANCISCO – Following Facebook’s adoption of a permanent remote workforce, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pulled up the anchor to set sail from Silicon Valley, following three months of lockdown to combat the coronavirus.
But he also dashed a Silicon Valley dream: that tech workers would be able to take their generous salaries with them and fulfil fantasies of working long-term from tropical beaches while sipping pina coladas.
Alas, that’s not to be, it seems. Zuckerberg, a bit of a killjoy, addressed employees in a publicly broadcast livestream on his Facebook page and said that salaries would be based on an arbitrage of where workers live.
The company, one of Silicon Valley’s biggest employers, is giving US workers who are approved to work remotely until January 1, 2021 to let the company know where they plan to base themselves. Zuckerberg said he expects half of Facebook’s workforce to take him up on the offer over the next five to 10 years.
Even as many tech workers dream of a future in low-tax states, others fear that the shift to remote work could push wages lower and warn that being far from headquarters could steepen the climb up the corporate ladder.
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]]>The post Facebook Lite Coming To Oz Shores appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>Facebook says it brought the Lite version to more developed countries as users can still have lower connectivity.
“We want to make sure everyone has the option to use this app if they want,” Facebook says.
The Lite platform includes its core experiences like News Feed, status updates, photos, notifications and more.
Introduced in 2015, its Lite version uses less data, is less than 1MB to install and is easily accessible across all networks. It was first introduced across countries in Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia.
It is available for download now on Android with iOS to follow. It is available in other countries including the USA, UK and New Zealand.
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]]>The post Bloody Monday: New Tech Stocks Sell-Off Stokes Industry Fear appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>Facebook fell 4.6 percent, on track for its worst day in nearly a year and eliminating over US$20 billion of its market value, while Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet each lost more than one percent.
For Apple, this followed a major fall of US$50 million on Friday (CDN, Monday).
It closed Monday’s trading at $150.58, down $1.31 on the day, and well below the $158.67 price the shares were going for a week previously, let along the year’s top of $164.94.
The sight of poor crowds at Apple stores worldwide on Friday, launch day for the new iPhone 8 range, may well have affected the market.
Underscoring growing concerns about a shift in investor focus, a quarter of the 68 stocks in the technology index have seen recent drops of 10 percent or more, which many on Wall Street define as a major correction.
“I think we’re seeing more of a rotation out of some hot-flying tech names into small-caps, some of the names that may well benefit from tax cuts,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.
Investors dumped many other recent tech favorites including Nvidia, down 4.04 percent, and Applied Materials which lost 3.4pc. Videogame makers were also down, including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts, which both lost more than three percent.
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