http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/alastair-macgibbon/ Alastair is an internationally-respected authority on high-tech crime including Internet fraud, consumer victimisation and a range of Internet security issues. Alastair is a Director of the Centre for Internet Safety at the University of Canberra (http://www.canberra.edu.au/cis) and Managing Partner of internet consultancy the Surete Group (http://www.suretegroup.com.au).  Prior to that, Alastair headed Trust & Safety at eBay Australia and later eBay Asia Pacific.  Further back in history Alastair was the founding Director of the Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC), a law enforcement unit hosted by the Australian Federal Police to coordinate Australia’s efforts to combating serious crime involving technology.  He was a Federal Agent with the Australian Federal Police for 15 years. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/every-step-you-take-google-will-be-watching-you/ Every step you take, every search you make, we’ll be watching you… Google already knows more about our habits, interests, physical symptoms, loves, affairs, locations and intentions than our closest relatives and friends may know. The lyrics to the 1983 Police song Every Breath You Take seem prescient: Every breath you take and every move you make Every bond you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you Every single day and every word you say Every game you play, every night you stay, I’ll be watching you Adding “every search you make” would just about encapsulate Google’s new privacy policy that will take effect on 1 March. Enabling Google to know more about you. Much more. By marrying things like the geolocation information it garners from maps and Android phones, with our searches, Google+ and Gmail content (yep, they scan your email) they will get a seamless picture of us. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Alastair MacGibbon) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/every-step-you-take-google-will-be-watching-you/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/every-step-you-take-google-will-be-watching-you/#item7750 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:30:37 +0000 Alastair MacGibbon | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/googles-tidy-profit-from-the-political-keyword/ I was interested to see that the Australian Electoral Commission has received complaints about political parties buying Google adwords in each other’s names: thus, when someone was searching on Google for “Julia Gillard” they would be served an ad for Tony Abbott.  And vice versa, someone searching “Tony Abbott” was served a Julia Gillard ad. Of course, under these “sponsored links” the usual “relevant” search results would appear. The Sydney Morning Herald reported Google’s response: “Both the Liberal and Labor parties have been savvy in adapting their search advertising tactics throughout the campaign including bidding on other politicians’ names.” feedback@thepunch.com.au (Alastair MacGibbon) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/googles-tidy-profit-from-the-political-keyword/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/googles-tidy-profit-from-the-political-keyword/#item3812 Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:45:48 +0000 Alastair MacGibbon | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/google-should-be-made-to-tell-us-what-it-knows-about-us/ It seems that Google’s continued mishandling of the wi-fi snooping incident means it has a different interpretation of the phrase “cooperating with authorities” than what the rest of us would reasonably expect. The New York Times recently reported that Google has given European investigators only remote access to data now stored in Mountain View, California.  Data those investigators need to determine if Google breached various tough privacy laws. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Alastair MacGibbon) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/google-should-be-made-to-tell-us-what-it-knows-about-us/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/google-should-be-made-to-tell-us-what-it-knows-about-us/#item3506 Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:35:36 +0000 Alastair MacGibbon | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/google-the-pot-and-the-kettle/ What is it about our love affair with Google that we let them take wholesale liberties with our privacy, and sit back and watch what might be one of the largest data breaches in history go by without so much as a whimper? After some prodding, Google recently admitted to European Privacy Commissioners that they had “mistakenly” collected the contents of communications between some computer users, as part of their “Street View” activities.  Mistakenly.  All around the world. For four years. It goes something like this: specially equipped “Street View” vehicles criss-cross entire nations, taking photographs of our houses and streets, geo-tagging the location with both a GPS and also by “sniffing” for WI FI connections in the area.  That way, when a person uses a Google product to locate themselves (like Google Maps), and there are WI FI networks detected nearby, Google can triangulate the device and give you an approximate location.  Pretty cool, and nothing really too scary about that, even though there were privacy concerns raised at the time.  We trusted Google. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Alastair MacGibbon) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/google-the-pot-and-the-kettle/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/google-the-pot-and-the-kettle/#item3118 Wed, 19 May 2010 19:35:16 +0000 Alastair MacGibbon | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-it-comes-to-web-safety-were-going-nowhere-fast/ 130 million. That’s how many credit card details Miami resident Albert Gonzalez is alleged to have stolen by hacking into US companies over recent years. Gonzales hasn’t been the only one busy stealing financial credentials from legitimate businesses who have collated data from our online and offline transactions, others have targeted home computers using malicious software (malware) or tricked them out of us via phishing or fraudulent websites. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Alastair MacGibbon) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-it-comes-to-web-safety-were-going-nowhere-fast/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-it-comes-to-web-safety-were-going-nowhere-fast/#item1257 Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:35:01 +0000 Alastair MacGibbon | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/personal-security-forgotten-in-rudds-rush-to-broadband/ July and August have seen a lot of activity around the new National Broadband Network (NBN).  Three Tasmanian towns will be the first linked in the network that will eventually stretch all the way around Australia.  The Prime Minister has likened the NBN project to the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The plan is for the NBN to bring 100 megabits of data, per second, to 90% of Australian homes - right to the front door - which is very different to today’s broadband experience.  Actually, it’s a bit like trading up from a ride-on lawn mower to a sports car. Politics and the economic and technical hurdles of building such a national network aside, super-fast broadband will deliver economic and social benefits.  And risks. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Alastair MacGibbon) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/personal-security-forgotten-in-rudds-rush-to-broadband/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/personal-security-forgotten-in-rudds-rush-to-broadband/#item941 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:45:19 +0000 Alastair MacGibbon | Author bios | The Punch