Emails, computers making Aussie workers dumb

Emails, computers making Aussie workers dumb | News.com.au

THE use of email and computers in workplaces has created a new literacy problem in Australia's workforce, affecting otherwise skilled and educated workers, according to a report by the Australian Industry Group.

The survey - to be released today - measures the state of literacy and numeracy skills in 338 businesses employing about 56,000 workers.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the issue was an emerging problem.

"It's something we wouldn't have seen reported by business before," she said. "There would be many older professionals that do need assistance to deal with things like email addresses."

The report found that the use of email or web-based communication had uncovered another layer of illiteracy: "employees who have a reasonable level of literacy skill but are unable to complete some workplace tasks to the standard required".

"This included tasks like using appropriate email language in communications between employees and external customers.

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"Some employers reported that employees with high-level technical skills, such as engineers, were poor communicators within workplace settings."

One-in-four businesses indicated they had concerns about the literacy and numeracy of apprentices and technicians that they were employing.

AIG chief executive Heather Ridout said the issue had become a big problem. "The skill intensity of jobs is rising all the time," she said.

The report found the services industry was most affected, with 16 per cent of service companies saying they were highly affected by poor literacy and numeracy, compared with 7 per cent of manufacturing companies and 3 per cent of construction firms.

Problem areas: Literacy/numeracy issues in the workplace:

Too much reliance on calculators for simple maths tasks

Employees' fear of giving presentations due to lack of communication skills

Employees unable to complete necessary training due to literacy issues

Inappropriate language used in emails

Big Brother Era

Google rapped by watchdog after spying on Britons' web habits 'by mistake' | Mail Online

Google was rapped by the privacy watchdog yesterday after it admitted spying on the internet habits of Britons 'by mistake'.

In an astonishing invasion of privacy, Google's Street View cars - which have roamed the UK in the last two years taking pictures of every house in the land - ' inadvertently' collected snippets of people's online activities broadcast over wireless home networks.

Google said the data was collected in short bursts as the cars passed by and the information was never used.

But the Information Commissioner's Office said the 'wi-fi snooping' was a breach of privacy - and called on the internet company to wipe the data.

Last month, it emerged that Google Street View cars were harvesting data broadcast on wi-fi networks.

At the time, the company insisted it had not collected or stored data. But it has now backtracked on its statements.

Google's head of research Alan Eustace wrote on a blog: 'It's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (ie non-password-protected) wi-fi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.




'However, we will typically have collected only fragments of payload data because our cars are on the move. Someone would need to be using the network as a car passed and our in-car wi-fi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second.'

Google said secure websites, such as those of banks, could not be accessed.

Street View has been criticised for compromising people's rights, such as showing someone being taken away by ambulance in Newham

Watched: Street View has been criticised for compromising people's rights, such as showing someone being taken away by ambulance in Newham, east London

A spokesperson for the Information Commissioner’s Office said Google had committed ‘a breach of people's personal data’.

He said: ‘Given that the frequency channels change every five seconds, Google considers it unlikely that it has collected anything other than fragments of content.

‘Further, Google asserts that it has not used the data and believes it cannot have caused actual detriment to any individual. In such circumstances there does not seem to be any reason to keep the data concerned for evidential purposes.

‘Therefore, in line with the data protection requirement that personal data should be held for no longer than necessary, we have asked Google to ensure that these data are deleted as soon as reasonably possible.’

It's not the first time Google has been at the centre of a privacy row.

In 2007, it was accused of a ‘gross invasion of privacy’ when it launched Street View. The service allows anyone in the world to type in a UK address or postcode of almost any home in the UK and instantly see a 360 degree picture of the street - including close-ups of buildings, cars and people.

It has also come under fire for storing details of millions of people's internet searches.

Zuck: Dumb f..ks.

Claim Mark Zuckerberg called TheFacebook users 'dumb f..ks' for offering personal details | News.com.au

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb f..ks.

THE growing unease regarding Facebook's perceived lack of privacy protection hasn't been helped by a leak from one of founder Mark Zuckerberg's uni mates.

The social networking site has been forced to make a public statement defending its privacy policy after websites today started publishing purported Instant Messenger comments from Zuckerberg in which he claims people using his first version of Facebook were "dumb f..ks".

Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook" on campus as a 19-year-old Harvard University student.

According to a post on BusinessInsider today, the following is an IM conversation between Zuckerberg and a friend shortly after it was launched:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard



Facebook moved quickly to address the posts. While it didn't confirm the alleged conversation, it didn't dispute it either, only saying that it wasn't going to address "dated allegations that attempt to characterize Mark's and Facebook's views towards privacy".

"The privacy and security of our users’ information is of paramount importance to us," it told the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Everyone within the company understands our success is inextricably linked with people's trust in the company and the service we provide. We are grateful people continue to place their trust in us.

"We strive to earn that trust by trying to be open and direct about the evolution of the service and sharing information on how the 400 million people on the service can use the available settings to control where their information appears."

How to delete your Facebook profile in five minutes

 | News.com.au Technology Blog

DOES Facebook make it unnecessarily hard to delete your profile?

An article on The Punch today details how difficult it has been in the past to delete your profile from the social networking site.

“I set about looking for the Delete button. Ever seen that option? I’ll save you the hassle. There isn’t one,” wrote contributor Lachlan Hardy.

In the end, Hardy was forced to delete each bit of information – such as who his friends were, who he was in a relationship with and so on – individually.

That was about 18 months ago. Since then Facebook has copped more than a few criticisms over the way it handles user data – including a report by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that found some of its practices may be illegal – and has announced some measures to address them.

So, I figured it was time for another test with a dummy account under the name “Andy Ramadge” – complete with silly photo.

The quick version

If you’re reading this article because you want a quick way to delete your account, log in to your Facebook profile and then follow this link. It should take you straight to the “Delete my account” form.

Read on for how to get to that page within Facebook.

Deleting your profile

The first place most people would look for a delete option is on the Account Settings page. And they’d be out of luck. From there you can only deactivate your profile.

Deactivating your profile is like putting it on ice. Facebook will keep all of your information, but won’t use it or display it to anyone else. This is so you can take a break for a while and come back to it later.

However, I want to delete my profile – so that all my data is removed from Facebook’s servers.

The next thing I did was search for a help page. There’s a button called About at the bottom of each page that will take you to Facebook’s profile, where you can read product announcements and so on.

On the left-hand side, there’s a link to the Help Center (sic). It’s not particularly prominent, but it is there.

The Help Center contains links to question and answer pieces on things to do with Facebook, grouped by topic. Except there’s no topic for either deleting or deactivating your profile.

Thankfully, there’s a list of the most popular search terms on the right. The third and fourth terms, when I checked, were about deleting your profile.

Clicking on one of the relevant search terms will, finally, take you the question and answer page titled “Deactivating, Deleting, and Memorializing Accounts”.

One of the questions is “How do I permanently delete my account?” The answer will try to talk you into deactivating your account instead of deleting it, before eventually offering a link to the page you want.

The last step, a form titled “Delete my account”, is pretty simple. It gives you a warning and asks you to provide your password and fill in one of those visual word tests to make sure you’re not a robot.

And that’s it, sort of. After filling in the form, Facebook will deactivate your account immediately and schedule it for deletion in 14 days, giving you a window of time to change your mind.

“Andy Ramadge” immediately disappeared from search and other people’s news feeds.

Conclusion

Facebook certainly doesn’t make it easy to delete your account. There is no obvious link to the right form, so you have to go searching for it.

Along the way you will be bombarded left and right with information about deactivating your account instead of deleting it.

However it still only took me five minutes to find the right form and fill it out, wiping poor old “Andy Ramadge” off the social networking site for good.

Dr John Yovich who did the IVF research is from PIVET medical clinic

I just got this comment regarding the post about "Dying Art: IVF could become....."  I copy from Daily Mail, stating that the doctow who did research is not from Murdoch Uni but PIVET medical clinic. Thanks for your comment, anyway.

Here is the message:
Hi, the source of this content, Daily Mail, actually attributed this research to the wrong John Yovich. The Dr John Yovich who did this research is from PIVET medical clinic, not the Professor John Yovich of Murdoch University. http://www.pivet.com.au/Our_Departments/Clinicians_Or_Specialists