1984 - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Data retention is necessary red tape: Turnbull

  Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he's aware of the costs a mandatory detention scheme will place on the telecom industry.

• ASIO head says government is no Big Brother

  ASIO is not carrying out mass surveillance of average citizens and the agency is subject to an appropriate level of oversight, according to the organisation's head David Taylor Irvine, director-general of security.

• Fears about facial recognition overblown: AFP

  The Australian Federal Police has dismissed Orwellian fears about facial recognition, advocating the biometrics technique as a critical piece of the law enforcement toolset for protecting citizens.

• Kangan Institute weighs security, privacy with CCTV surveillance network

  Kangan Institute has tried to strike a balance between campus security and student privacy while expanding its digital CCTV network, according to Kostas Kyrifidis, a senior consultant at the Institute’s resource management group.

• Apple's behavior a throwback to 1984, Adobe CTO says

  Apple's refusal to allow Flash on the iPhone hurts innovation and is "like 1984 in a lot of ways," Adobe Systems' CTO said on Wednesday, implying that Apple has become the "Big Brother" it rebelled against in its iconic TV ad from that year.

• Amazon's 1984 Kindle credit: thank you, Big Brother!

  There are things that should be left enough alone and Amazon's Orwellian removal of the book "Nineteen Eighty-Four" from Kindle e-readers is one of them. Orwell would have gotten a kick out of this, yet Amazon seems to miss the humor in it.