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Kate Bower

@katebower.bsky.social
406 followers 1.1K following 37 posts

Consumer and digital rights advocate | Privacy | Data Rights | Fair and safe AI Melbourne, 🇦🇺

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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Why does AI hate white space? Every AI-generated image I’ve ever seen is just so busy.
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Bhaskar Mitra | ভাস্কর মিত্র @bmitra.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
A personal update.
bhaskar-mitra.github.io
Why I am leaving big tech…
After spending almost two decades in big tech, I was notified last month that I am being laid off.There have been massive waves of layoffs across the industry recently, and I am just one of the many t...
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
See what kids are saying about the Children’s Online Privacy Code on ABC’s BTN. It’s not too late to have your say, consultation closes on Friday! www.abc.net.au/btn/high/chi...
abc.net.au
Do you care about online privacy? - Behind The News
We chat to young people about online privacy and hear their thoughts about new privacy laws set to come in later this year ✏️
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
TISM are Australia’s Talking Heads
Band TISM on stage with elaborate spiky headdresses and lights behind them
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Digital Child @digitalchildau.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Digital Child is inviting academics to join an upcoming roundtable on the draft Children’s Online Privacy Code (the Code), which aims to put children at the centre of privacy protections in Australia. This is an opportunity to discuss the draft Code directly with the OAIC.
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Digital Rights Watch @drwaus.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Digital Rights Watch welcomes the first draft of the Children's Online Privacy Code, which centers on improving the online spaces that young people use, instead of restricting their access. This approach is a huge step forward and we’d like to see it work for adults as well as children
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
www.oaic.gov.au/news/media-c...
oaic.gov.au
OAIC releases Exposure Draft of the Children’s Online Privacy Code
The OAIC has published an exposure draft of the Children’s Online Privacy Code, including new rules which ensure the consideration the best interests of children before collecting, using or disclosing...
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Register for our webinar on 1April to learn about how you can participate in the public consultation for the upcoming Children’s Online Privacy Code. Hear from me and Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind. events.teams.microsoft.com/event/d9da46...
Text saying Children’s Online Privacy Code Webinar is 1 April
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
I once had an FRT vendor tell me that facial recognition would be great at weddings. It could tell you who the guests are and how they know the couple. Or you know, you could talk to the other guests and find out 🙃 So many tech solutions in search of a problem.
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Delighted to be speaking at @sxswsydney.com again. This time with the excellent Lizzie O’Shea, DRW, Sarah Davies,(A&M F) and Rispah from Telstra Foundation Youth Advisory Council. We’ll be discussing what the internet would be like if it was designed by and for children.
Portrait photo of Kate Bower with text saying Official Panelist at SXSW Sydney
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
25 years ago I worked in a shop. By virtue of its central location, we had a lot of celebrities come in to buy stuff. Without hesitation I can tell you that Henri Szeps was the kindest, the most charming, and most polite of them all. A genuinely good human. Rest in power.
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
By the time a child turns 13 more than 72 million pieces of data have been collected about them, so we’re passing children and young people the mic, to hear what protections they want from a Children’s Online Privacy Code www.oaic.gov.au/news/blog/su...
oaic.gov.au
Sunshine and double rainbows – building a better online environment for children and young people
We are developing a Children’s Online Privacy Code to help better protect children and young people online.
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Digital Rights Watch @drwaus.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
What would the internet be like if it was designed by and for children? Today is the last day of voting for SXSW Sydney's conference track, and we'd love your support to host this conversation alongside OAIC's @katebower.bsky.social: publicvoting.sxswsydney.com/profile/ca36...
publicvoting.sxswsydney.com
Handle with Care: What if the internet was designed by and for kids? | SXSW Sydney 2025
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
At the risk of someone replying ‘ok boomer’, am I listening to Triple J #Hottest100 or the TikTok #Hottest100?
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Excited to be joining the OAIC at the end of Jan to lead the privacy reform implementation task force www.linkedin.com/posts/carly-...
linkedin.com
Carly Kind on LinkedIn: Happy 2025 friends and colleagues! With big changes in technology… | 12 comments
Happy 2025 friends and colleagues! With big changes in technology, politics and regulation ahead, it's going to be busy year! I am excited to kick off the… | 12 comments on LinkedIn
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Casey Newton @caseynewton.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
NEW: Meta has quietly dismantled the system that prevented misinformation from spreading in the United States. Machine-learning classifiers that once identified viral hoaxes and limited their reach have now been switched off, Platformer has learned www.platformer.news/meta-ends-mi...
Behind the scenes, the company was also quietly dismantling a system to prevent the spread of misinformation. When the company announced on Jan. 7 that it would end its fact-checking partnerships, the company also instructed teams responsible for ranking content in the company’s apps to stop penalizing misinformation, according to sources and an internal document obtained by Platformer.

The result is that the sort of viral hoaxes that ran roughshod over the platform during the 2016 US presidential election — “Pope Francis endorses Trump,” Pizzagate, and all the rest — are now just as eligible for free amplification on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads as true stories.
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Delighted to be featured on Kendra Vant’s substack, Data Runs Deep. It’s one of my fave newsletters on AI open.substack.com/pub/kendrava...
open.substack.com
Kate Bower on data & AI in 2024 and beyond
"My biggest fear is that we fail to act ethically in pursuit of profit, that we will continue to do things we know are wrong in the name of innovation."
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Controversial opinion - Melbourne’s A1 Bakery is not a patch on Sydney’s Earlwood Lebanese Bakery. Something’s actually are better in Sydney.
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Digital Rights Watch @drwaus.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Whistleblowers raising concerns about harmful digital platforms and holding tech companies to account are supported by a new practical guide—Technology-Related Whistleblowing—built in collaboration with @humanrightshrlc.bsky.social @reset.tech @psst-org.bsky.social www.hrlc.org.au/reports-news...
hrlc.org.au
Technology-Related Whistleblowing: A Practical Guide | Human Rights Law Centre
Whistleblowers raising concerns about harmful digital platforms and holding technology companies to account will be supported by a new practical guide, released by The Human Rights Law Centre, Reset T...
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Popped into Kmart for Xmas shopping, only option to pay was the AI-driven self serve checkout. Of course I got an error that needed a human to check, in fact all 7 checkouts had errors. 1 poor overworked employee running around fixing the mistakes caused by AI. So much productivity!
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Digital Rights Watch @drwaus.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Facebook have a help page dedicated to checking whether you or your friends logged into the "This is Your Digital Life" app: www.facebook.com/help/1873665...
facebook.com
Which banned apps may have had access to my Facebook information? | Facebook Help Center
When we ban an app for misusing information, the app is no longer permitted on our platform.
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Me: as of last night, I’ve seen 25 bands play live this year Also me: why am I so tired all the time
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Information Age @information-age.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Australian #lawyers “cannot safely enter” confidential or commercially sensitive information into public generative #AI engines like ChatGPT, Gemini or Grok, authorities in three states have warned in issuing explicit guidelines on genAI’s use in law. Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2024...
ia.acs.org.au
Courts lay down law for attorney use of AI
GenAI can’t replace human expertise, analysis and judgement.
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Thanks @miahhe.bsky.social for sharing your thoughts with me and @drwaus.bsky.social
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Louisa @louisathelast.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Please tell your kids, every damn day if necessary, that chatGPT is not a goddamn search engine and you shouldn’t believe a word it says. Tell the adults too, but it’s especially imperative to inoculate kids against this
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Elizabeth Warren @warren.senate.gov · 04/12/2024
I heard this is a good place to talk about taxing the rich, breaking up big tech, and ending Washington corruption.
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Dr Kobotic @kobotic.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
'Venntel takes location data from smartphones, either through ordinary apps installed on them or through the advertising ecosystem, and provides a data feed to other companies who sell location tracking technology to the government or sells the data directly itself.' www.404media.co/ftc-bans-loc...
404media.co
FTC Bans Location Data Company That Powers the Surveillance Ecosystem
Venntel is a primary provider of location data to the government or other companies that sell to U.S. agencies. The FTC is banning Venntel from selling data related to health clinics, refugee shelters...
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Dorothea Baur - the ethics crusader @dorotheabaur.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Mira Murati: "we're about to see immense potential with abundance of intelligence, energy, and even meaning" Abundance of energy and meaning! The latter is missing from this video. And of course she has to preach that energy is abundant. Because their tech depends on it. It's like a cult. ->
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Don’t tell anyone but I’ve been using Bing since it came default on my new laptop. But I suppose that’s rather the point the ACCC is making. Default browsers and search are bad for competition and consumers are unlikely to switch (including consumer advocates who know better)
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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR SPOTIFY ITS DECEMBER WE KNOW YOU HAVE THE 2024 WRAPPED IN THERE WITH YOU
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samantha floreani @floreani.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
My review of Zahra Stardust’s ‘Indie Porn: Revolution, Regulation and Resistance’ for @overlandjournal.bsky.social is up today. It’s a potent work of research and storytelling, and is also super relevant to the current state of australian tech policy debate. overland.org.au/2024/12/plea...
overland.org.au
Pleasure politics: Zahra Stardust’s Indie Porn - Overland literary journal
By drawing out the cultures of indie porn, Stardust pushes readers to see beyond issues of content classification, aesthetics and representation to consider the political economy of pornography. She p...
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Marietje Schaake @marietjeschaake.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
The core task of democratic governments will be to reclaim the primacy of governance from tech companies, and why Trump’s election challenges this ↘️ www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
AI expert Marietje Schaake: ‘The way we think about technology is shaped by the tech companies themselves’
The Dutch policy director and former MEP on the unprecedented reach of big tech, the need for confident governments, and why the election of Trump changes everything
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
No, thanks! 🙅‍♀️ www.technologyreview.com/2024/11/20/1...
technologyreview.com
AI can now create a replica of your personality
A two-hour interview is enough to accurately capture your values and preferences, according to new research from Stanford and Google DeepMind.
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
This is tech-solutionism at its worst. Predictive AI when used on problems with a history of racism & discrimination, like criminal justice/ corrections, will inevitably entrench and amplify those biases. 1/2 www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...
thetimes.com
AI could help us predict prison violence, says justice secretary
Shabana Mahmood tells The Times Crime and Justice Commission that technology in use overseas could alert officers to incidents of self-harm, as well as unrest in jails
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Happy Christmas privacy nerds, the POLA Bill has passed 🎉🎉 More to be done but it’s still worth celebrating progress.
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Not me refreshing the ABC live blog of the Senate every 3 seconds 🫣
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ADM+S Centre @admscentre.org.au · 28/11/2024
'The Australian Ad Observatory: A web of invisible influence' 🎥 admscentre.org/ad-observato... Produced by ADM+S in collaboration with project researchers and industry partners, this short-film explores key questions, challenges, outcomes & future directions in one of our major research projects.
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Last night on ABC 7.30, I spoke about facial surveillance proliferating in pubs, casinos and stadiums. All orgs using FRT need to be reviewing the Bunnings decision & ensuring the ends justify the means. Great interviews w/ Ed Santow and Ted Dunstone too. newsapp.abc.net.au/newsapp/1046...
newsapp.abc.net.au
Is facial recognition an invasion of privacy or a necessary security measure? - ABC News
Last week, the Privacy Commission found that Bunnings breached the law when it used biometric technology on shoppers, without their consent.
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
The Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment (POLA) Bill is on the list for tomorrow. We might get privacy reform for Christmas 🎄
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Asher Wolf @asherwolf.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
"You don't like handing over government ID to a large social media platform? That's ok, you can use biometric facial recognition instead. All good!"
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
My key learning from 2 days of talking about biometrics and FRT at a privacy conference is that we (privacy and digital rights advocates) need to get better at communicating the different uses and risks of the tech & we can start by using the term biometric surveillance or facial surveillance
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Delighted to be included in this starter pack of critical voices on AI or as I like to call them truth tellers go.bsky.app/ECWQzUA
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Tama Leaver @tamaleaver.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
It's been really heartening working with @dezuanni.bsky.social, @aleeshajoy.bsky.social and Amanda Levido to produce the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child's response to the Social Media Ban for Under16s Bill that was tabled yesterday. digitalchild.org.au/research/pub...
Responding to the Online Safety Amendment Bill 2024 Social Media Minimum Age140 Experts say banning people under 16 from social media won't make social media safechildren have a right to be online and have fun, positive, educational, and safe experiences.We should be enabling Australian children and teens to be full, articulate, deeply literate digital citizens.
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kat @kgt.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
My submission to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee regarding the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024
Colourful ASCII art made with emojis of plants and flowers that spells "Don't"
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
I think we all know the answer to that one! It isn’t meaningful consultation. Completely insulting that they would introduce this bill against mountains of expert advice and then give 24 hrs to respond to it. An absolute disgrace, the Albanese government should be ashamed of themselves.
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Digital Rights Watch @drwaus.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Digital rights advocate @katebower.bsky.social joined Peter Clarke on this episode of Life Matters to chat about the Federal Government's proposed changes to Australia's privacy laws: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
abc.net.au
Critics argue consumers may remain unprotected after privacy reforms - ABC listen
The Senate has handed down its report into the Federal Government's proposed changes to Australia's privacy laws. The changes will enable individuals to sue for damages for serious invasions of privac...
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Kate Bower @katebower.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Very happy to see the Commissioner confirm what we suspected. Bunnings broke the law and breached our privacy. But the fact it’s taken 2.5 years to decide shows we need a technology specific law that clearly sets the red lines for this invasive tech.
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