Tim de Sousa
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timdesousa.bsky.social
Tim de Sousa
@timdesousa.bsky.social
190 followers 420 following 410 posts
Privacy, Information Governance and Tech Ethics wonk, based in Sydney Australia. Mediocre ukulele player. Slightly snobbish about coffee.
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timdesousa.bsky.social
Tim de Sousa @timdesousa.bsky.social · Jun 4
I’m having a day. So let’s not talk about privacy, let’s talk about art.
timdesousa.bsky.social
I’m way too pleased with myself on this one. Anyway, this is Sidney (the aggressor) and Daisy (the innocent party).
Sidney and Daisy the caramel oodles. A watercolour of Sidney the oodle sneaking up on Daisy the oodle.
November 17, 2025 at 10:08 AM
timdesousa.bsky.social
Alien (1979)
November 16, 2025 at 10:08 PM
timdesousa.bsky.social
Oh there’s a crime here alright
ozkitsch.bsky.social ozkitsch @ozkitsch.bsky.social · 4d
In the UK, McDonald’s is trying to pass off this monstrosity as an Australian delicacy
November 14, 2025 at 9:18 AM
timdesousa.bsky.social
techbros have invented...the handbag
alastair.is Alastair Coote @alastair.is · 6d
Must be frustrating when you post your April Fools joke almost six months ahead of time by mistake
November 11, 2025 introducing ipnone Pocket: a beautiful way to wear and carry iPhone Born out of a collaboration between ISSEY MIYAKE and Apple, iPhone Pocket features a singular 3D-knitted construction designed to fit any iPhone ISSEY MIYAKE Cna Apple today unveiled iPhone Pocket. Inspired by the concept of "a piece of cloth," its singular 3D-knitted construction is designed to fit any iPhone as
November 12, 2025 at 11:32 PM
timdesousa.bsky.social
VPNs are the cornerstone of all corporate security, so good luck with that.
mikestabile.bsky.social Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 6d
The British government admits it is now monitoring VPNs use by UK residents. Regulator Ofcom has contracted with an AI-powered surveillance service to detect the number of citizens using VPNs to evade the Online Safety Act.

The UK tech minister has said a VPN ban is on the table.
Exclusive: Ofcom is monitoring VPNs following Online Safety Act. Here's how
Ignoring VPNs risks creating ineffective laws, but tracking them threatens people's privacy
www.techradar.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Reposted by Tim de Sousa
fabiochiusi.bsky.social
"Draft changes would create new exceptions for AI companies that would allow them to legally process special categories of data (like a person’s religious or political beliefs, ethnicity or health data) to train and operate their tech"

www.politico.eu/article/brus...
Brussels knifes privacy to feed the AI boom
Draft proposals obtained by POLITICO show EU is breaking sacred privacy regime to placate industry.
www.politico.eu
November 11, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Tim de Sousa
cameronwilson.bsky.social
the government forcing the wiggles to do a podcast episode as punishment really shifts the Overton window of regulatory enforcement possibilities

www.accc.gov.au/medi...
November 11, 2025 at 4:30 AM
timdesousa.bsky.social
What is ‘prototyping’, a story in three acts.
A pencil sketch of a red tailed black cockatoo A rough watercolour of a red tailed black cockatoo An impressionist watercolour of a red tailed black cockatoo
November 11, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by Tim de Sousa
eff.org
There is no such thing as "just" metadata. ssd.eff.org/en/module/w...
Why Communication Metadata Matters
As its name suggests, metadata is data about data. Metadata is used in a variety of contexts, often for cataloging information, like tagging keywords in a video so it’s easy to find later. When it comes to computers, people often first think of "file metadata," which includes details about when...
ssd.eff.org
November 8, 2025 at 10:59 PM
timdesousa.bsky.social
Weekend painting subject identified.
quietlynow.bsky.social Pat Lillich @quietlynow.bsky.social · 12d
@alan678.bsky.social 's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #LunchTime
this one is kind of traditional - but still a favorite. really love Puffins. #photography #EastCoastKin #Puffin #Birds
a puffin with clown like markings and orange/red rings around its eyes comes back from the sea with a brightly colored beak full of fish.
November 6, 2025 at 10:35 PM
timdesousa.bsky.social
Client: Our security is great! We don't need an assessment!
Also client:
perryodontal.bsky.social Perry Areolar @perryodontal.bsky.social · 15d
the password to the louvre surveillance server was "louvre"

www.thesocialpost.it/2025/11/02/f...
according to the liberation newspaper, documents dating back to a 2014 inspection by the French National Agency for the Security of Computer Systems reported a staggering detail: "the password of the louvre's video surveillance server was simply " louvre. "
November 6, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Reposted by Tim de Sousa
stilgherrian.com
Australia's social media age restrictions, what's in and what's out, updated today. www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/ind...
Services that eSafety considers will be age-restricted social media platforms Facebook Instagram Kick Reddit Snapchat Threads TikTok X (formerly Twitter) YouTube Services that eSafety considers will not be age-restricted social media platforms Discord GitHub Google Classroom LEGO Play Messenger Roblox Steam and Steam Chat WhatsApp YouTube Kids
November 5, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Reposted by Tim de Sousa
joshtaylor.bsky.social
One month out from the under-16s ban and almost all of the users caught up in the Discord data breach caused by age assurance appeals were based in Australia, OAIC has finally confirmed. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Discord age-assurance data breach includes 68,000 Australian users Almost all of the users of video game chat platform Discord who were caught up in October’s data breach are located in Australia, making up 68,122 of the disclosed 70,000 users, Guardian Australia has confirmed. Discord informed in October that a third-party customer service provider that the company was using for age verification had been compromised, with approximately 70,000 users affected, and usernames, email, billing information, IP addresses, and a small number of government ID images. Discord began using facial age assurance to check the age for users in the UK and Australia earlier this year. The company said facial images and ID images “are deleted directly after” ages are confirmed, but Discord’s website noted that if verification fails, users can contact the trust and safety team for a manual review. Ahead of the introduction of age assurance measures on social media in Australia as part of the under-16s social media ban, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner confirmed 68,122 Australians were affected by the breach. Discord had previously refused to break down the number of Australians caught up in the breach, when asked by Guardian Australia.
November 3, 2025 at 6:33 AM
timdesousa.bsky.social
What a pack of flamin’ galahs
Watercolour of a galah family
November 2, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Reposted by Tim de Sousa
menotti.bsky.social
ladies and gentlemen...we got him
October 30, 2025 at 7:10 PM
timdesousa.bsky.social
I hardly needs be said, but 1) Facial recognition is flawed and does not have 100% accuracy 2) It's generally less accurate on POC 3) Any automated decision-making system needs an appeals mechanism, which would inc. referring to relevant evidence (e.g. ID docs). This is nuts.
josephcox.bsky.social Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 20d
New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”
October 30, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Tim de Sousa
joshtaylor.bsky.social
Kind of an interesting story of the AFP cracking into a crypto wallet from the new commissioner today, after discovering random numbers in the notes app www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/...
During a protracted investigation, the AFP identified a well-connected alleged criminal, who we suspected had stockpiled cryptocurrency from selling a tech-type product to alleged criminals around the world. The accused criminal is incredibly bright, in his early 30s, but he was certainly no alleged Gucci gangster given he lived a frugal life while living with his mum and dad. During a search warrant at the alleged offender’s home, our digital forensic team identified password protected notes on his mobile phone. Our members accessed the notes on his phone and found an image on his device displaying random numbers and words. The numbers were divided into groups of six and there were more than 50 variations of the number groups. Our digital forensics team determined it could be related to a crypto wallet – but the accused allegedly refused to hand over his passwords for his crypto wallet, which is a Commonwealth offence that carries a penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment. We knew if we couldn’t open the crypto wallet, and if the alleged offender was sentenced, upon release he would leave prison a multi-millionaire – all from the profits of organised crime. For our members, that was not an acceptable outcome. So, the task was assigned to one of our unassuming yet incredibly talented data scientists, who kept looking and looking at the number sequences. He knew something was not right. And then he had one of those scientific epiphanies. He realised the alleged offender had tried to create a crypto booby prize in how the numbers were presented. Our data scientist then removed the first number of each number sequence and then was able to decode the right sequence of numbers into a 24-word recovery seed phrase. That opened the wallet, which had a whopping $9 million. “What made you think to remove the first number of each number sequence?” His supervisor asked. He replied that some of the number strings felt wrong and they looked like they were not computer generated. He said they looked like a human had modified the sequence by adding numbers to the front of some sequences. How amazing is that? And it was not a one-off for this member. He recently did it again with another wallet, using different methodology, recovering more than $3 million in crypto.
October 29, 2025 at 2:18 AM
timdesousa.bsky.social
This is like using a rube goldberg machine to open a door, millions of times a day. The power costs of this must be insane.
downwithdan.bsky.social Dan of the Year @downwithdan.bsky.social · 23d
Brace for another wave of x refuges
& What's happening: Elon Musk confirmed that X will delete all heuristics from its recommendation system within six weeks. In other words, the familiar logic of likes, replies, and reposts that shaped Twitter for years is about to disappear. In its place, Grok, the platform's in-house Al model, will read and watch more than one hundred million posts and videos every day to decide what users see. At the same time, X is testing a new interface that keeps users inside the app even when they open external links. How this hits reality: This marks the first time a major social platform has handed full control of content discovery to an Al model. Engagement farms, trend-hacking accounts, and traditional growth tactics may soon lose their edge. The new winners will be those who write in ways that Grok interprets as engaging, turning social media optimization into a new form of prompt engineering. This shift could reshape influencer strategies, ad targeting, and even political communication in a matter of weeks. • Key takeaway: X did not just change its algorithm; it replaced it with an Al reader. Your reach will soon depend on how fluently you can speak Grok.
October 26, 2025 at 10:57 PM
timdesousa.bsky.social
We can all agree that milestones and anniversaries are arbitrary and a social construct, but I think we should also jump at any reason to celebrate. So, in that vein, it’s been a whole year since I started sketching and painting. Let’s try a retrospective.
October 25, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Reposted by Tim de Sousa
infosec.skyfleet.blue
Toys “R” Us Canada warns customers' info leaked in data breach
Toys “R” Us Canada warns customers' info leaked in data breach
Toys "R" Us Canada has sent notices of a data breach to customers informing them of a security incident where threat actors leaked customer records they had previously stolen from its systems.
www.bleepingcomputer.com
October 23, 2025 at 10:37 PM
timdesousa.bsky.social
This board game famously does not have any plot whatsoever.
October 22, 2025 at 12:05 PM
timdesousa.bsky.social
This is deeply unethical
ketanjoshi.co Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 29d
You already know this is bad, but I absolutely guarantee the details in this article are at least 12x as bad as you think they are

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
AI-generated ‘poverty porn’ fake images being used by aid agencies Exclusive: Pictures depicting the most vulnerable and poorest people are being used in social media campaigns in the sector, driven by concerns over consent and cost Supported by theguardian.org About this content Aisha Down Mon 20 Oct 2025 08.00 CEST AI-generated images of extreme poverty, children and sexual violence survivors are flooding stock photo sites and increasingly being used by leading health NGOs, according to global health professionals who have voiced concern over a new era of “poverty porn”. AI-generated images of extreme poverty now appear in their dozens on popular stock photo sites, including Adobe Stock Photos and Freepik, in response to queries such as “poverty”. Many bear captions such as “Photorealistic kid in refugee camp”; “Asian children swim in a river full of waste”; and “Caucasian white volunteer provides medical consultation to young black children in African village”. Adobe sells licences to the last two photos in that list for about £60. In the past, leading charities have used AI-generated images as part of their communications strategies on global health. In 2023, the Dutch arm of UK charity Plan International released a video campaign against child marriage containing AI-generated images of a girl with a black eye, an older man and a pregnant teenager. Last year, the UN posted a video on YouTube with AI-generated “re-enactments” of sexual violence in conflict, which included AI-generated testimony from a Burundian woman describing being raped by three men and left to die in 1993 during the country’s civil war. The video was removed after the Guardian contacted the UN for comment.
October 21, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Tim de Sousa
jamesomalley.co.uk
Films: We need to hack a keycard, obtained by seducing one of the guards. We then need to drop in from the skylight after jumping from a plane, and dodge all of the lasers and traps, carefully switching the jewels for fakes that weigh the same to avoid tripping the alarm.

Real life:
October 19, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Tim de Sousa
asherwolf.bsky.social
US credit and data trader Experian has been fined €2.7 million by the Dutch privacy watchdog AP for illegally collecting and selling personal information to assess creditworthiness www.dutchnews.nl/2025/10/priv...
Privacy watchdog hands €2.7 m fine to credit score firm Experian - DutchNews.nl
US credit and data trader Experian has been fined  €2.7 million by the Dutch privacy watchdog AP for illegally collecting and selling personal information to assess creditworthiness. The company sold ...
www.dutchnews.nl
October 19, 2025 at 8:29 AM
timdesousa.bsky.social
Who exactly is the market for the toilet cam that secures pictures of your bowel movements with end to end encryption?
techcrunch.com TechCrunch @techcrunch.com · Oct 19
Home goods company Kohler recently unveiled a new device called the Dekoda — a $599 camera that can be attached to your toilet bowl and take pictures of what’s inside.
Kohler unveils a camera for your toilet | TechCrunch
Home goods company Kohler recently unveiled a new device called the Dekoda — a $599 camera that can be attached to your toilet bowl and take pictures of what’s inside.
techcrunch.com
October 19, 2025 at 10:10 PM