Australias

Australia’s privacy watchdog has launched an inquiry into how TikTok harvests personal data and whether it is being done with consent.The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) will examine whether the social media platform has breached the online privacy of Australians through the use of marketing pixels, which track people’s online habits. This can include where they shop, how long they stay on websites and personal information, such as email addresses and mobile phone numbers.Liberal senator James…

When the Indigenous hip-hop artist Charmaine Jasmine Armstrong – also known as Dizzy Doolan – started spitting rhymes 22 years ago she was one of a handful of women in Australia’s rap scene.There was no one to teach her how to put songs together, promote herself, apply for grants or even upload music. In the early 2000s the Australian scene was dominated by white men – groups like the Hilltop Hoods.“There was no other female rappers that I knew of really doing their thing,” Dizzy says. “There was no one to look up to,…

Australia's Eagers Automotive said on Friday a cyber incident impacting some of its IT systems is affecting the company's ability to finalise transactions for certain new vehicles, which have been sold and ready for delivery.Corporate firms in Australia have seen an alarming rise in cyber security breaches since last year, even prompting the country's government to reform cyber security rules. Australia set up an agency in February this year to oversee government investment and help coordinate responses to hacker…

Australia is a land of natural wonders, from the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest to Kakadu National Park and the Blue Mountains. But because of the country’s naturally dry and biodiverse climate, it’s particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events that have been exacerbated by climate change. All of those wonders have been affected in recent years by bushfires, extreme heat waves, rising temperatures and floods.  Queensland is dealing with the worst flooding in history in the…

by Andrew Edwards, Christine Schlesinger, Ellen Ryan-Colton, Greg Barber and Peter Jacklyn, The Conversation Credit: CC0 Public Domain As the semi-arid Pilliga Scrub burns in New South Wales, many of us are thinking about fire once again. It's an El Niño summer in the hottest year on record. And there's a remarkable amount of grass drying out and ready to burn.…

by Yohanna Villalobos, Benjamin Smith, Pep Canadell and Peter Briggs, The Conversation Australia’s Carbon Budget 2010-2019. A product of the National Environmental Science Program - Climate Systems Hub; and a contribution to the Global Carbon Project - Regional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes-2. Credit: NESP-2 If you really want to know how much Australia contributes…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Until the 1960s, railways dominated freight across every distance bar the shortest. Much freight went by sea, and some by truck. But…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Australia's ability to sustain its local manufacturing industry is under threat by a generational loss of crafts and hands-on making expertise. This threat is compounded by some manufacturers moving operations offshore over the last four decades, causing a slow decline in practical making skills and loss of…

by David John Eldridge, Andrew Macintosh, David Alan George and Don Butler, The Conversation Forests are highly unlikely to grow on semi-arid terrain like this, even if grazing animals are removed. Credit: TBC, CC BY-ND If you run a large polluting facility and can't work out how to actually cut emissions, you might buy carbon credits to offset your emissions from the…

A flock of Cryptogyps lacertosus (left) watch on and wait their turn as several individuals of Dynatoaetus pachyosteus (center, right) feed from the carcass of a dead Diprotodon optatum in the Late Pleistocene Naracoorte landscape in southern Australia. Credit: Natural history reconstruction artist John Barrie (courtesy Flinders University)A new eagle and vulture have been discovered in fossil deposits.Australia’s only vulture, and a fearsome extinct eagle, are among the earliest recorded birds of prey from the…