If you're in Australia and logged in to Google or Microsoft but their search engine doesn't know how old you are, you may soon be asked to share government ID, undergo facial age estimation, or complete a credit card check. 🙋‍♂️ Details in our story, featuring RMIT University's @lisagiven.bsky.social:

Australia’s privacy watchdog has handed down its first ruling on the use of online tracking pixels, finding searches related to IVF, birth control, and prostate conditions were collected and shared with social media platforms without users’ consent ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...

The world's smallest QR code: 50nm x 50nm, done using a scanning tunneling electron microscope. Why? Because it's cool pushing around single atoms ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...

Microsoft has accelerated its quantum computing timeline to 2029 after the company’s latest quantum chip allegedly outperformed its predecessor by 1,000 times. Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...

More details on the MIFF breach below 👇

Most ransomware gangs truly don't discriminate when choosing their targets. Case in point:

Fresh gelato scoop from @lennyeggsbenny.bsky.social 🍦

Internet giants Google and @cloudflare.social have warned the encryption standards underpinning modern digital security may be broken by quantum machines sooner than expected. Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...

I mean it is April Fools today 🫠

Proud to have been nominated in six categories at last night’s IT Journalism Awards, and a big congrats to our regular @information-age.bsky.social contributors @jeremynadel8.bsky.social and David Braue for their highly commendeds and @lennyeggsbenny.bsky.social for his noms as well 👏

Anthropic says governments “should not resort to threats or retaliation” in dealing with contractors they do not align with, after the American AI firm sued the Trump administration for labelling it a supply-chain risk because it did not agree to new terms for military use of its systems.

Deceased actor Val Kilmer will be ‘starring’ in an upcoming feature film thanks to the use of generative AI. Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...

AI fuels a surge in Australian data centre emissions | Information Age | ACS ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...

With all the compounding economical catastrophes being forecasted atm, it's easy to forget we have a potentially significant price-hike for power bills on the horizon. The cause? A major spike in data centre investment in Australia. More info at IA 👇 ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...

Neither of them is a cat, we promise. Story by @lennyeggsbenny.bsky.social:

Grok, the flagship AI chatbot of Elon Musk’s xAI, has promoted blatantly false information about Sunday’s mass shooting at Bondi Beach. Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

Browsing Shutterstock this morning and someone has already made weird AI images of a fake Bondi Beach memorial. The company says it "does not review AI-generated content for compliance with Shutterstock’s content compliance standards", but AI must not be used to generate false or harmful imagery. 🤷‍♂️

Grok is spreading misinformation about the Bondi Beach shooting

This is fucking grim. Somebody invented a white guy, an "IT professional" named Edward Crabtree, who stopped the Bondi shooting and spread it all over the internet, which was picked up by AI agents and slop aggregation sites. The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.

As Australia rolls out its unprecedented youth social media ban for under-16s, many non-complying teenagers are about to discover the hard way that virtual private networks (VPNs) won’t be enough to trick the system. Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

Australians are being warned about a new scam in which criminals pose as federal police officers and pressure victims into handing over their cryptocurrency. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) says the scheme is spreading fast – and it’s catching people off guard. Read more:

🚨 NEW: A majority of Australians say they have little to no interest in today's Melbourne Cup, according to polling from Essential 39% of people say the race normalises animal cruelty, including 63% of Greens voters

New: Optus executives say staff failed to escalate information regarding the severity of a 14-hour Triple Zero outage in September caused by an incorrect firewall upgrade, which was linked to more than 450 failed calls and three deaths. More from today's heated Senate committee hearing 👇

Uh, who’s gonna tell them? “We felt the injunction was an important course of action to further protect our customers and so far, it has been effective in preventing the stolen data being accessed, released or published by third parties”

Cybersecurity experts are warning that injunctions – an increasingly popular legal tactic flaunted as protecting data breach victims – are putting people at greater risk of cybercrime. More from @troyhunt.com, Cythera's Euan Prentice, Dvuln's Jamieson O'Reilly and Cyber Cognition's Michael Collins.

Insightful article as always from you @lennyeggsbenny.bsky.social I agree with the cohort the injunction impedes the ‘goodguys’ and the criminals wont heed it

Spoke to some local experts about the rising trend in data breach injunctions. Was surprising to see how unified people's opinions were on this: ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

Cybercriminals have published 153GB of alleged Qantas customer data after the airline refused to co-operate with ransom demands. Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

Apparenty # Deloitte will partially refund the Australian government after acknowledging that # GenAI was used in a report containing fabricated references and quotes. ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

Carla says go read No Purchase Vol II ✨ (and my short story about human expression and AI within)

Submissions close for this today: www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

The founder of global hacking website BreachForums will serve three years in prison after judges challenged an initial sentence of just 17 days ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

#BREAKING 🚨 Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, according to a report by a United Nations Commision of Inquiry The report has found Israeli authorities have "intended to kill as many Palestinians as possible" and committed the crime against humanity of extermination

Just a touch windy in Naarm

yikes

We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.

A popular free VPN has been accused of spying on its userbase after security researchers observed it taking non-consenting screenshots of user browsing activity. Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

Australia is stuck in the “worst of possible worlds” when it comes to AI and the use of local data, according to Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood, arguing that reforms to copyright law could help Australian companies compete globally and strengthen the local AI industry. Read more:

Another gross breach of international law from Israel as it again abducts civilians from international waters. This time it’s the crew of the Handala who were trying to bring food and medicine to the people of Gaza, to break the siege and mass starvation imposed by Israel.

The people on Handala have done more to press for basic human rights and peace in the past few days than the Albanese Government has done in nearly 2 years. End the two way arms trade, let Handala provide aid and force Israel to end the mass starvation of the people of Gaza. Free Palestine 🇵🇸

Exclusive | The government claimed it had nothing to do with handing $900 million to an Israeli company steeped in the Palestinian genocide. New documents show that's false, writes Bernard Keane.

More Australian breakthroughs in quantum! 💡

If you told me in 2013 (when I first watched Her) that I'd eventually interview a man who watched the film with his AI wife, I truly don't think I'd have believed you. Chris was an open book on this topic. Really insightful conversation about the burgeoning AI dating phenomena. Read below 👇

Super interesting read here about relationships with AI chatbots, by @lennyeggsbenny.bsky.social 👇

Younger job seekers are getting a reputation for ghosting workplaces even after they have landed a job, leading some employers to overlook Gen Z candidates entirely, a new report has found. Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...