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  • 2248. Aussie apps in location data hack, time's up for TikTok and Twiggy bridges AI US-China gap

2248. Aussie apps in location data hack, time's up for TikTok and Twiggy bridges AI US-China gap

Plus: why is everyone talking about VLC's wizardry?

Author

Cam Wilson
January 13, 2025

Issue 2248 - Monday 13th January, 2025

In Today’s Issue

  • Aussie apps listed in location data hack

  • Time’s almost up for TikTok

  • Twiggy bridges US-China AI gap

  • Cheap Logitech wired mouse, Belong mobile starter pack, Happrun portable projector, Epson Ecotank ET-1810 printer, Apple AirPods 4, Google Pixel Buds Pro 2, TP-Link Deco Wi-Fi mesh router 2-pack, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera

The News

Aussie apps listed in location data hack

Last week, word broke that US-based location data broker Gravy Analytics had been hacked ($). What makes this more interesting than your run-of-the-mill data breach is that it appeared to show that this firm was getting users’ location data by exploiting the way that the online advertising industry works, so that not even the app developers knew what was going on. Here’s how it normally works: The Sizzle Pty Ltd knowingly collects and sells the data from SizzleApp users. In this case, hacked data from Gravy Analytics suggests that user data was obtained via the app’s participation in the online advertising real-time bidding process which is the split-second auction between potential advertisers for each ad that’s shown to a user. (Here’s a good Reddit comment that explains it some more.) So this is like if a random ad agency was trawling through Domain, sending staff each Saturday to auctions, profiling and recording details of the buyers and selling that information. If true, this hack shows how the business model that powers the internet makes it impossible to avoid having your intimate details put up for sale, even if you do everything possible to protect your privacy short of throwing your phone in the ocean. Anyway, here’s some lists published of allegedly affected apps if you’d like to look yourself. From Australia, I’ve spotted Gumtree, Cricket Australia’s live cricket app and Radio Australia but, let me stress, these are unconfirmed, so I’ve gone to them to ask. (See something interesting? LMK)

Time’s almost up for TikTok

Barring any surprises, TikTok will be banned in the US in less than a week. To recap: After Trump first tried to but gave up, it was Sleepy Joe Biden and the 117th United States Congress that passed a 2024 law that gave TikTok’s parent company ByteDance until January 19, 2025 to sell its US operations or be banned. ByteDance has steadfastly refused and has appealed the law to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Friday and did not seem too convinced. The two major national security arguments being levelled for the ban are: 1. China will use it to slurp up data about our teens and 2. to spread propaganda via the black-box algorithm. Neither are super compelling to me since all of our data is out there anyway for anyone to buy (see above) and because there’s been zero conclusive proof publicly shared about the latter. But I expect that the ban will be upheld and TikTok will be banned because countries are allowed to legally pass stupid laws. In effect, though, I think the impact will be a bit less than what it might sound like; this ban only affects app stores, so it won’t stop people who already have it downloaded or can sideload the app. Will we see Australia follow suit? Not likely, imo. We’re used to social media companies bowing to the whims of other nations’ semi-authoritarian political leaders ($).

Twiggy bridges US-China AI gap

If you wondered why the ground was shaking on Saturday, it wasn’t an earthquake but the ripples from a Twiggy Forrest-organised AI panel attended by the US and China!!! I jest a bit, but the Minderoo Foundation-supported online chat ‘How will artificial intelligence impact security relations between the United States and China? US and Chinese perspectives’ — apparently five years in the making — is fascinating because of just how complicated the US-China stuff has gotten on AI. The US has been trying to keep ahead by boosting its own chip production and trying to hamstring China’s development by limiting its access to hardware. Meanwhile, China has been making progress with its own domestic models. There has been speculation that perhaps the US’s tactics had backfired by forcing Chinese companies to create more efficient AI models. The recently announced DeepSeek V3 apparently outperforms GPT-4 and Llama 3.1 but only cost $5.5 million (!) to train (compared ($) to $100 million for GPT-4). Relatedly, the US Defense Department added Chinese tech giants Tencent and CATL to its "works with Chinese military” company list which doesn’t actually do anything but will likely scare off business.

VLC is wizardry

I was tipped off to something beautiful by a great Bluesky post by extremism researcher Robert Evans:

“after days of grifters and con men at CES we stumbled upon the booth for VLC. they were all dressed as wizards and told us, "we have nothing to sell, we just decided to show up". i told them I'd been using their software to pirate media for 15 years and they said "keep doing that"

Robert Evans

Improved only by this image from another Bluesky user Arthur Tayt-Sohn

For those not familiar, VLC is a long-running, open source video player that can play just about anything you throw at it. The VLC people were at CES promoting the way-too-rare good use of AI to be added to VLC: on-device AI-powered automatic captioning. Hell yeah, brothers.

Bargains

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday afternoon. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

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Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.

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