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Bluetooth-enabled tasers and body-worn cameras are standard issue for police officers. But these pieces of kit have a major cybersecurity flaw which means officers can be easily tracked using simple software, as the ABC has revealed.
If police equipment can be tracked via Bluetooth, what about your phone, watch and headphones, which use the same technology? Can they also be used to track your location?
The short answer, as cybersecurity expert Paul Haskell-Dowland explains, is yes. The long answer is a bit more complicated.
And while you can eliminate this particular privacy risk by deactivating Bluetooth on your devices when not in use, there are still so many other ways we can be surveilled in our modern lives.
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Drew Rooke
Deputy Science + Technology Editor
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Paul Haskell-Dowland, Edith Cowan University
Unless you go completely offline, you cannot eliminate the risk of being tracked.
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Lev Bromberg, La Trobe University; Serrin Rutledge-Prior, Queen's University, Ontario
When activists film animal cruelty illegally, who owns the footage? And who gets to see it? A case in the High Court of Australia will answer these questions.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The government will change the rules and contain cutbacks to the concessional treatment of electric vehicles that will save the government $1.7 billion.
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Colin Hawes, University of Technology Sydney
Right now, many of these cases claiming unfair treatment are still pending. But the rulings could have big financial implications for governments around the world.
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Thomas Jeffries, Western Sydney University
Authorities are racing to contain a suspected outbreak of a rare respiratory disease. A microbiologist explains what it is and how it spreads.
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Steven Conway, Swinburne University of Technology
It’s a perfect, quick moral apocalypse for a doomscrolling public.
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Graeme Austin, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Indian courts are leading the way in extending the law of torts to include harms caused by deepfakes – if you can afford it.
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Luke Beck, Monash University
Doctors have often threatened legal action over health policy in Australia. But there is nothing in the Constitution to stop the government capping specialist fees.
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Nikki-Anne Wilson, UNSW Sydney; Neuroscience Research Australia
Hiking to a breathtaking view or losing yourself in the roar of a crowd. A neuroscientist explains why awe can feel transformative.
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Politics + Society
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
In his first term, Anthony Albanese was highly reluctant to break promises, but like we learned with stage 3 tax cuts, not immune to breaking them.
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Martin Kear, University of Sydney
The Israeli prime minister is using the ‘Gaza playbook’ to decimate southern Lebanon, but it won’t eliminate the threat from the militant group.
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Adrian Beaumont, The University of Melbourne
Anthony Albanese’s net favourability is up, according to a national Redbridge and Accent Research poll.
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Business + Economy
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Xiujian Peng, Victoria University; James Giesecke, Victoria University
The days of rapid economic growth are long gone. New analysis helps explain what has changed.
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Rahul Sen, Auckland University of Technology
Punishing penalties for not meeting investment targets? A ‘tsunami’ of Indian migrants? The full agreement suggests the deal is not that dangerous.
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Environment + Energy
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Meredith Primrose Jones, RMIT University
Many oil refineries have caught fire recently. Whether caused by drone strike or accident, the result is the same: more pressure on shaky energy systems.
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Science + Technology
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Haidee Cadd, University of Wollongong; Jonathan Tyler, Adelaide University ; Lucinda Duxbury, University of Tasmania
Without First Nations people, Kangaroo Island has burned widely over the past 2,000 years as the climate got drier.
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Arts + Culture
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Patrizia Biondi, University of Sydney
The Venice Biennale is the most prestigious recurring event in contemporary art. What does it mean that the 2026 edition will take place without a jury?
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Books + Ideas
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Johanna Harris, Australian Catholic University
Many literary masterpieces are long and wordy, but reading them can bring surprising benefits, beyond sheer pleasure. Here’s how to tackle the classics.
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Jane Rawson, University of Tasmania
Romy Ash’s second novel, Mantle, asks what would happen if a pathogen made us wake up to ourselves – and change course.
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Speed cameras or revenue machines?
“The driving public has been assailed by many automated enforcement systems for quite some time. There needs to be more pressure placed on state governments to rein in their desires to raise revenue in the name of road safety. As the author stated, there needs to be more context and consideration of the appeal process. I would posit that if I took a photo with my security camera of someone breaking into my house they wouldn't take the person identified in the camera into custody without further evidence. It seems like we have a situation with road safety that is very much akin to 'big brother'. What is obvious to me is the notion we are considered 'guilty' until we can
prove otherwise. Doesn't that go against the underlying tenet of our legal system? I would also like to point out that even with all the automated enforcement systems, the number of road fatalities has not dramatically decreased. They do not work for the purpose intended or stated, and I suspect the authorities know that.”
Bob Sibson, Adelaide, SA
Bearing the brunt
“Why is raising interest rates the only way to manage inflation? Home owners carry the burden. Why have we not looked at a variable rate of superannuation? Some industries are not affected by interest rate increases (some even benefit from them) so why not flip the script and change superannuation to be variable and the reserve bank can choose to change interest rates, superannuation contribution rates, or both?”
Melita Kemp, Nipaluna/Hobart
Fashion vs fine art
“The question of whether fashion is an ‘art’ is a fascinating one. Activities included in the ‘arts’ have varied throughout history, and have included such things as saddle, tent, hat and glove making. The current list of ‘fine’ arts, along with the distinction between ‘fine’ and ‘decorative’, was only settled in the 19th century: ‘fine’ art is essentially the product of the uncoupling of the production of ‘art’ objects from church, court and state, and the development at the same time of auction houses. The number of activities included in the category ‘art’ needs to be kept small and rarefied (one-off items, hand produced by an ‘artist’) to maintain high values. In
broad terms, fashion doesn’t fit in because it’s mass-produced and available to pretty much anyone: it would undermine the art market to start including such things as fashion as a ‘fine art’.”
Gavin Oakes, West Melbourne
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