Victorian Premier Dan Andrews alongside a slash fiction written about him and his relationship with Gladys Berejiklian and Brett Sutton (Image: Wikimedia, Archive of Our Own)

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Let me share two tidbits with you. Four-fifths of Australians say they’re concerned about how their personal data is being used online. About nine in 10 Australians also say they use Facebook.

How do we parse these two facts? Even if people don’t understand the intricacies of the tech giant’s data operation, everyone knows that using something like Facebook means divulging huge amounts of personal data.

It’s tempting to look at these two facts and declare that people don’t actually value privacy in a “You say you want to improve society somewhat yet you participate in society. Curious!”-type tone. If you really care, the argument goes, then you wouldn’t use Facebook (or QR check-in apps, or smartphones, or live on the grid, etc). The choice to use these technologies is, in effect, an admission that people actually want to be surveilled and everything that comes with it. Zaddy Zuckerberg take my data, pwease.

A counterpoint to this came in April this year when Apple began forcing apps to ask users to choose to have their behaviour tracked to show them personalised ads. When given the choice, data shows that 96% of consumers chose to opt out — an overwhelming result that puts to bed the weak argument that consumers actually prefer personalised advertising. This loss of data is expected to cost Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube A$13.3 billion in the second half of this year.

What this shows is that Australians care about privacy. They don’t want to be surveilled. But they also want their aunt to be able to invite them to a birthday party or go to a COVID-safe pub.

The problem is that a handful of companies have built the foundation of our digital infrastructure on an advertising model that requires squeezing every last bit of data out of us. Their utter dominance has allowed them to limit us to choosing between two options: either use our services and sacrifice your privacy or opt out of modern society.

Apple’s intervention shows how giving people a real choice relies on institutions as powerful as Facebook and Google intervening. (I should mention that Apple’s decision wasn’t entirely selfless: their own advertising service has gone gangbusters since they brought this feature in, funny that).

Last month, the government dropped a few privacy reforms: the Online Safety Code and the discussion paper for the Privacy Act review. If you want to know what the marketing sector thinks, here’s what trade journal Mi3 says: “it looks like Australia is going to go harder than [the European Union’s progressive data privacy regulations] GDPR.”

But there’s one catch: it will have to be co-developed with the industry, i.e. it is set to go through negotiation with the people who want your data.

Will we end up with a potentially transformative update to our outdated privacy legislation, or will it be watered down to allow the continuation of the status quo? We’ll see how much Parliament thinks people care about privacy. I will be keenly watching.

Hyperlinks

Co-opting the courtroom: anti-vaxxers and neo-Nazis use and abuse legal live streams

COVID-19 has forced the courts to go online, which has been broadly seen as a win for open justice. But the introduction of bad actors like anti-vaxxers and neo-Nazis means it’s not all good. (Crikey)

Cleo Smith, Gabby Petito and viral crime on social media

I had noticed the same patterns in people’s social media reaction to Cleo Smith’s disappearance as with the Gabby Petito case. Elise Thomas also noticed this parallel and wrote about the consequences for law enforcement, social media platforms and those who are affected. (The Strategist)

Twitter says any move by Australia to ban anonymous accounts would not reduce abuse

The government has been hinting at banning anonymous online accounts. At a roundtable on Friday, Twitter made the case about why it wouldn’t stop abuse — but would limit a vital form of expression for marginalised groups. (The Guardian).

Commissioner rules Clearview AI breached Australians’ privacy

Well, would you believe it? The dodgy facial recognition software company that scraped billions of photos without users’ permission broke Australia’s privacy laws and has been ordered to delete those photos. Let’s see if they comply! (Gizmodo)

How an Australian scientist became the anti-vaxxers’ favourite vaccine maker

Received more hate mail for this than almost any other piece I’ve written recently. Here I look at how an Australian vaccine maker has become the darling of anti-vaxxers because he’s been dissing other proven, safe vaccines. (Crikey)

Content Corner

We’ve done a couple of editions of WebCam now so I think it’s time to start getting weird. And so I want to welcome you to the world of Australian political slash fiction.

Slash fiction (or “slash fic”) is the genre of writing about fictional sexual relationships between two people usually of the same gender. For decades, people have written tens of thousands of words about popular characters from worlds like Harry Potter and the Marvel Universe as expressions of their own fandom and queer identity. It’s not just for erotic purposes (although it certainly can be graphic); it’s also playful and subversive.

Slash fic can also include real-life figures, including our very own leaders. Looking through the online slash fic bible Archive Of Our Own, there is a rich corpus of auspol-related stories to draw from. Here are some of my favourite pieces (needless to say these are not safe for work):

The Tragedy of Coriolanus: Australian Parliamentary Edition: if you’d been hoping for a modern adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays that sees Tony Abbott “making amends” with his rival Malcolm Turnbull, boy do I have a story for you.

Pull Together: Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard were bitter rivals. But when activists put them at peril, their joint escape brings them closer together. Chalk this up as a win for bipartisanship.

Harry Potter and the Bureau of Statistics: I put this one in to show how slash fic can sometimes be non-sexual and often blends different story canon together. Points for including former Australian statistician David Kalisch.

Damn Andrews!: Lockdown and the emergence of chief health officers as public figures was a rich vein for slash fic writers. There’s an abundance of Dan Andrews/Brett Sutton related writings. See also Deep End and No More Stupid Questions.