antti.vilpponen.net

Australia is one step closer to a totalitarian society with the announcement from the Government that their filtering test on the Internet was successful. While I do think there are many websites around that nobody should visit, it’s not appropriate to start controlling where people are able to surf. That’s similar to stating who’s allowed to publish certain kind of newspapers.

Senator Conroy has stated that the blocking can be done with 100 percent accuracy. The only problem in this equation is that who gets to decide what’s being blocked? In their test, they managed to blacklist poker sites, YouTube links, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites as well as religious sites – including Christian ones. There was even a Queensland dentist being blocked and if this project is taken further, no one will find out who’s being blocked in the future.

It’s really sad to see Australia take steps toward this direction.

David Speers of SkyNews Australia interviewed Rupert Murdoch, the Chairman and CEO of News Corp. about a ton of different things. They also touched on the issues of Australian immigration laws and while Murdoch defended the more multicultural and liberal immigration approach, but disapproved of extremists and while doing so, this 78-year old business tycoon gave them the finger!

I strongly suggest you watch the interview, if Rupert Murdoch is previously unknown or unfamiliar to you. It’s less than 40 minutes and gives a very good overview of the man and his ideology towards the world. For example, the thing that keeps on intrigueing me is the fact that he is constantly on the edge of things in the online world and has very strong opinions about it.

I also think that he is partially misunderstood for his views on paid news. I do agree he has a point in there. However, where he goes wrong in my opinion is that he defends the loyalty people have towards newspapers and thinks the world is partially wrong for not supporting loyalty or longer term subscriptions of news, be that in paper or digital format.

The problem is that while we believe paid news in their current format being served online do not work very well, Murdoch defends the future of news in the format of being commercial. I also believe the non-existence of a good digital push channel brings in challenges to the picture. Newspapers have been so successful in the past as they were one of the only “on-demand” ways of consuming news. It was up to you to decide when you wanted to enjoy them, compared to the television for example where you had to be in front of the box at a certain time to enjoy them.

I see that there is some future for paid news in the format that they are “pushed” or made more available to me than in their current format where I have to go and fetch them from a website, be that through a computer browser or its mobile counterpart. I’m thinking of something in the line of digital readers like Kindle and Nook.

However, I strongly suggest you take the time to watch this interview. Even though it does not go into great depth in many of the topics they cover, it does explain a lot of his views on the world and why he does things the way he does.

Kevin Rudd, the new PM of Australia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol just a moment ago in Bali, Indonesia. This is a major change in a fight against climate change with regards to Australia. I’m not sure Kyoto is the right agreement to stop climate change, but it sure is a big step to slow it down.

Good on ya Mr Rudd!

Linux Overdose blogs how he got permission to link to the Aussie Gov’t pages @ australia.gov.au (I won’t create the link since I haven’t asked permission – pun intended).

This is like asking people to ask you permission before they mention your name…

Helsingin Sanomat reports today that one of the big three banks in Finland, Sampo, is recording conversations between the staff and the customer without the customer knowing it. This is very disturbing in my opinion.

Why? Because you build trust in banks as an institution that is loyal to its customers and respects them – apparently they don’t. Would you trust someone enough to give them your life savings to watch over when they breach your privacy? Secondly, what if these conversations got stolen or accidentally lost? Then they’d be in the wild for anybody with a bit of interest in your financial issues to listen to.

The really sad thing about this is that the lawyer from Finnish Financial Supervision organisation, Harri Hirvi, thinks that as long as the tapes stay inside a closed group there should be no problems. My jaw dropped open when I read this. With this quote, he basically accepts “illegal” activity in the financial markets as long as it stays undercover and nobody knows about this.

When I was in Australia, most companies recorded their conversations with customers when you would call them. The difference is, they told you in the beginning of the call before you were connected to anybody that your call was used for training purposes. I didn’t like this too much either, but at least they let me know! You could always avoid the call and walk to their office to ask about things.

Word of advice: Do stay interested in your privacy rights – otherwise we’ll end up like this guy.

Update: And the news just in – Sampo has decided to stop recording conversations due to customer complaints.