Blockchain: Owning Your Data

12/09/2019

In my last piece, I threw together some thoughts about how blockchain could reshape how we approach work. It offers itself perfectly – if implemented right – to essentially abolishing the idea of corporate hierarchies, decentralising online platforms and giving individuals autonomy and security. Like the rise of the Internet, however, which promised similar ideas of freedom, blockchain is being hit with corporate influence. In this piece, though, I want to talk about one way blockchain fights back against the most lucrative market to ever exist: data.

Continue reading “Blockchain: Owning Your Data” →

Blockchain Technology Can Reshape Work

11/09/2019

I have been reading Blockchain Revolution by Don and Alex Tapscott recently – at an admittedly slow pace, I’ve had a lot of reading to get through for university – and researching blockchain elsewhere. It’s a bizarre read, not because I don’t understand the concept of blockchain, but because the authors appear pro-capitalism while so many of the benefits they have talked about so far lend themselves more towards abolishing it piece by piece.

Continue reading “Blockchain Technology Can Reshape Work” →

How Is FaceApp Different to US Apps?

19/07/2019

Because it’s Russian. If this were a YouTube video I’d jokingly say ‘bye’ and put the outro music on. The app’s popularity has blown up in the last week due to its new aging filter, with almost 13 million new users this month alone. But while so many have fallen right into it, others have picked up on privacy concerns – because, shock horror, what if a government could access that data?

Continue reading “How Is FaceApp Different to US Apps?” →

China’s Surveillance A Dark Mirror of Our Own

06/05/2019

A few days ago, Human Rights Watch released a report about China’s extensive and quite Orwellian surveillance program, rolled out in the Xinjiang region. Through an app accessible by police and authorised government officials, incredible amounts of data on any given person is collected and stored to be monitored. 1984 plays out like a textbook in China, but what about the West? Here it’s like a play with the curtains closed.

Continue reading “China’s Surveillance A Dark Mirror of Our Own” →

Free Service? No, You Are the Product

29/01/2019

A longer read than usual. It would be prudent to begin by saying that there is an obvious distinction between the public and private sector here. In the public sector, it is not profit but the efficiency and benefit of the service to the public that is the main goal. Things like public transport, medical care, education, etc. are all areas that should belong to, and remain invested in by, the public as those services are critical to the progression of society. Thus making them free, or at least subsidised to some extent, is worthwhile in the long term. Private enterprise, however, cannot, by definition, offer “free” services – there must always be a profit, and therefore a price to consumers. Clive Palmer also features here, because of course the shit “meme lord” has made the news again.

Continue reading “Free Service? No, You Are the Product” →

The NBN, LNP, and Murdoch Walk Into A Bar…

11/01/2019

… and the NBN does not make it out alive. For anyone paying any attention, it was incredibly obvious that the intentional sabotage of the National Broadband Network was done to please our great media overlord, Rupert Murdoch. So why is it taking so long for everyone to be angry about this abuse of power that has drastically and negatively affected our country?

Continue reading “The NBN, LNP, and Murdoch Walk Into A Bar…” →

Pine Gap: A Reflection

01/01/2019

I recently read the book Pine Gap by David Rosenberg, who worked for the NSA and was stationed at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs in Central Australia, for 18 years. The mostly US-run and secretive base has been the centre of numerous conspiracy theories and protests, but David’s book (as he explains his intention to be) dispels a lot of the wild ideas, while confirming the more expected details.

Continue reading “Pine Gap: A Reflection” →