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Your house has been Googled – but don’t call the police
Parents might be wary of smart toys due to privacy and data security concerns, but Australian homes with young children have an average of 7.8 internet-connected devices tracking family activities....
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Global review shows link between social media use, body image and eating...
Body image has remains a top personal concern for young people in Australia, with 76% concerned about the issue. Social media use by teens is rising at the same time – with more than 90% on platforms...
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Explainer: How does GPS actually work?
Twenty thousand kilometres above our heads, 31 satellites are whizzing past each other so that we can understand exactly where we are on the planet. This group of satellites is called GPS, or Global...
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Australian scientists unveil new military satellite dish – here’s how it works
A new type of military communications device was unveiled at the 15th Australian Space Forum in Adelaide last week. The device is called the Compact Hybrid Optical-RF User Segment (CHORUS) prototype...
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Do period tracking apps need better data leak-protection?
Flinders University law experts are raising questions about the privacy of personal health data collected by period tracking apps and other ‘FemTech’ products and ways this data could be used by third...
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What impact does radiation from communication technologies have on animals...
Responding to public concerns about the effects of new telecommunications technologies, like 5G, on the natural environment, Australia’s radiation safety regulator and Swinburne University...
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Your Bluetooth headphones could be spying on you
Along with the Spice Girls, Beanie Babies, and the Macarena, the ‘90s brought us wireless technologies which freed us from the mess of cables connecting our (desktop) computers to the internet and our...
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Australian Government responds to privacy commissioner’s AI warning
The Australian Attorney-General’s Department is considering the privacy risks associated with artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT in its review of the nation’s Privacy Act. The department says...
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Explainer: Answering the why in Wi-Fi (and Bluetooth)
Today, it’s almost impossible to remember the world before wireless technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which are now so ubiquitous even our hairbrushes, juicers and coffee pod machines come...
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Psychologists find there are four types of social media user; which one are you?
Social media users fall into four categories and each is associated with personality and behavioural traits, according to research by psychologists from Washington University in St Louis, US. The...
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Core blimey! A virtual museum for tooling up on stone artefacts
Professor Mark Moore says nominating his favourite 3D model among the extensive collection of virtual stone artefacts on the Museum of Stone Tools is the equivalent of asking: ‘which is my favourite...
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Australians spent $4.21 billion on video games last year
Cost of living concerns haven’t dampened Australians’ love for video games, with consumers spending $4.21 billion on games hardware, software and peripherals in 2022, according to new data released by...
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Google’s AI chatbot Bard gives European privacy regulators pause
The European release of yet another artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot has run aground over privacy concerns. Google’s AI chatbot Bard cannot be released as planned in the European Union until the...
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Degenerative AI: Researchers say training artificial intelligence models on...
When artificial intelligence (AI) large language models are trained on machine — instead of human — generated data it leads to model collapse, according to a study by UK and Canadian researchers. “In...
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What is Australia’s GPS augmenter ‘SouthPAN’?
Australia’s satellite positioning system is becoming more accurate. Last year the Australian and New Zealand government launched an early version of the Southern Positioning Augmentation Network...
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Generative AI could automate sexual abuse and child grooming, eSafety...
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has already received a number of complaints about non-consensual distribution of deepfake intimate images, and expects this type of abuse to grow in volume as...
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Addressing the massive climate and energy costs of AI
Scientists from the University of Cambridge say the research community needs to take responsibility for the environmental impacts of cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) to avert...
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Video games play leading role in technological advances
If you think video games is a niche industry, think again. The global video games industry is worth around $250 billion, Ron Curry, CEO of Australia’s Interactive Games and Entertainment Association...
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The slow implosion of a searchable web
Could it be that the last thirty years have been a Goldilocks-like ‘sweet spot’ between a world where information was too difficult to access, and a world where it has become impossible to locate any...
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All the news that’s fit
About a billion seconds ago (that’s 31 years, 7 months) I had a virtual reality startup running out the proverbial garage in San Francisco. I spent my time trying to work out how to engineer a...
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Elon Musk’s satellites buck convention
Elon Musk: CEO, tech-bro or generalissimo? The controversial tech billionaire’s interventions in the Ukraine war have ignited a raging debate over the responsibilities – and culpability – of...
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Commerce is at the heart of the Web, but it didn’t have to be
Load a web page in 2023 and it bristles with surveillance: cookies track our comings and goings, while ‘fingerprints’ uniquely identify a specific browser on a specific computer on a specific network....
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Starlink satellites ‘leaking’ signals that interfere with radio telescopes
Steven Tingay, Curtin University When I was a child in the 1970s, seeing a satellite pass overhead in the night sky was a rare event. Now it is commonplace: sit outside for a few minutes after dark,...
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‘Zombie’ electrons trapped in 3D for the first time
Physicists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have achieved a world first by trapping electrons in a three-dimensional crystal. They believe the electrons in this ‘zombified’ state...
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Parents can probably relax about screen time
Worried parents can probably relax a little about screen time with an “umbrella review” of the research finding the effects on children are pretty small, and sometimes beneficial. According to new...
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The cause behind the Optus outage explained
Optus has revealed the cause behind last Wednesday’s network outage, which affected about 10 million customers Australia-wide for more than 12 hours. So, for those of us that don’t speak tech, what...
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The end of social networks as we’ve known them
On the 18th of November 2022, Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, announced that he would be reinstating the accounts of nearly all of the platform’s users who had been banned for violating the site’s...
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Water bear and sea star on scientists’ emoji wish list
Emoji are everywhere, and have become a surprising source of controversy in scientific circles. Neuroscientists are calling for a mouse maze emoji, while renewable energy advocates wait for their wind...
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Does playing video games lead to violence?
Fortnite, Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto are among the most popular games for young people aged 8 – 17 years old, according to new research from the eSafety Commissioner. Many of these games...
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With so much to watch, are we binging more?
The rise of streaming platforms and smart TVs has changed the way we engage with television and movies, offering more choice – in what and when – we watch than ever before. In the second episode of...
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Laws catching up to smart TV technology
New laws could soon require smart TVs to display Australian free-to-air television and catch up services. Late last year the Australian Government introduced amendments to the Broadcasting Services...
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Autonomous vehicles and the need for a fourth traffic light
The world of research into autonomous vehicles has thrown up a fascinating new approach to traffic management with a “white light” being proposed to reduce congestion. A modelling study conducted by...
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6G research targets new frontier for communications
Europe has turned its attention to the next generation of telecommunications technology promising higher speeds. The technology would better support education and telesurgery, and lead to “digital...
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The lure of loot box undermines do no harm legislation
In a 2019 video YouTube’s most popular personality, MrBeast, gave almost $US10,000 to a live streamer simply for playing RAID: Shadow Legends. It was not declared as advertising, but MrBeast was one...
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How can you stay safe from cyberattacks?
Cybersecurity failures and cybercrime continually make the news. To protect yourself from complex cybersecurity threats, no one defence is sufficient. Instead, a multifaceted approach is essential....
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The difference between hardware and software when it comes to cybersecurity
Hardware and software are the two elements that make any computing device functional. Hardware refers to physical components, such as the processor, hard drives, RAM and motherboard. These components...
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Quantum internet on the horizon after hybrid network success
Researchers have designed a new kind of transmitter-receiver which could send entangled photons over an optical fibre. The concept could see a future “quantum internet” merged with current...
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Device harvests energy from radio signals to power sensors
Scientists have built a device that can harness ambient radiofrequency signals, like Wi-fi and Bluetooth, for energy. The invention, say the researchers, could help to improve the energy efficiency of...
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Contact established with satellite Kanyini after launch
The Kanyini satellite being inspected ahead of being packed up for its journey to the Launch Service Provider. Credit: Simon Casson South Australia’s first state-owned and manufactured satellite,...
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Silicon chip could pave the way for 6G communications
Australian engineers have designed a new silicon chip doubling the amount of data which can be transmitted, propelling forward the development of 6G communications. 5G – or 5th-generation technology...
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