Leefe rates the world…

A RECEPTIONIST handed a sealed envelope to Symone Anstis, 25, and her father, Michael, with a smile. It contained news potentially worth more than $80 million.

For the past four years the Anstis family had been fighting the Tax Office through every legal jurisdiction. Yesterday, on the 17th floor of the Law Courts Building in Melbourne, their dispute ended with the opening of the envelope.

A young Melbourne woman’s quest for a better tax return four years ago has culminated in a landmark High Court judgment today that could cost the federal government millions of dollars.

Google cannot be trusted to help manage Britain's new anti-terror database, the UK Government's privacy watchdog said yesterday. Records of all communications, including e-mails, text messages and the use of Facebook, Twitter and Skype, will kept by the company and internet service providers for at least 12 months under a scheme being drawn up by the Home Office.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) tells us that the government's consideration of data retention is all about maintaining the status quo, but it turns out that the status quo isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleges warranty rights violations against part retailer MSY. Amongst serious PC upgraders and hardware tweakers, MSY has a reputation for both unbeatable prices and at times poor service. Following the announcement today that the ACCC has begun legal proceedings against the retailer, it might soon be possible to attach the term 'outright dodgy' as well.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has instituted legal proceedings in the Federal Court against MSY Technology Pty Ltd and four of its related companies for alleged false or misleading warranty representations in breach of the Trade Practices Act 1974

In the lead up to the SCAG meeting in December, we’ll be running a series of guest posts on the subject. First up – John Kinbacher from Grow Up Australia. – 2010: A Ratings Odyssey

Activist group GetUp! has unveiled a television advertising campaign targeting bank penalty fees. The ad, produced in conjunction with consumer group Choice, parodies the ANZ Bank's popular "Barbara" ads. The activist ad concludes that despite the message of the ANZ campaign, when it comes to fees, ANZ is "just another bloody bank".

"Any time anyone – especially politicians – raises the spectre of evil corporations tracking the movements of consumers and manipulating their minds, invariably Minority Report is cited as a harbinger." These days online services track and predict your movements. What level of choice to people have?

It appears that Cadbury won ethical accreditation for its chocolate back in June this year, but didn't want to advertise it for fear of claims of "Green Washing". Though I have seem Fair Trade logos appearing on their products recently.

"Error Message: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords" Thats quite a long password to remember (let alone type)

Ross Gittins explains a KPMG report for the Australian Food and Grocery Council claims that there is a deficit on food import. That Australia is importing $1.8 billion more food and groceries than we export. But the devil is in the details, and what was left out of it.

The National Broadband Network will give the government an extraordinary opportunity to push its internet censorship agenda on Australians, a cyberspace policy expert says. While Stephen Conroy claims it is not technically possible as the NBN will be wholesale, David Vaile says it would be possible to 'lean on' ISPs to get them to implement the filter.

The story is titled "NBN upgrade could cost up to $400 a room". Of course this is scare mongering. Really it means that is you want to install an access port in every room, running the cables behind the wall, it will cost $150-$400 per room. The average home that uses wireless, or just runs cables through the house will not cost this much.

The Sydney Morning Herald asks Stephen Conroy about the introduction of the NBN, and writes a summary of each answer.

''A LOT of advertising is based on brands pretending that they're your friends. Brands are not my friends. I don't believe that Apple, Google and Facebook are my friends or have my best interests at heart.'' Fighting words, and curious ones, too from the writer and co-creator of a high-rating show, and now book, about the ad industry.

Mobile carriers like Telstra and Optus will soon be required to give emergency organisations the location of a mobile phone in situations where a person cannot describe where they are. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) released today a consultation paper seeking comment on amendments to the law requiring mobile carriers to "provide the most precise location information they have available on request from an emergency service organisation".

Government raises law enforcement concerns. The Attorney-General's Department has fingered the shift from landline telephones to IP telephony as the trigger for its secretive data retention proposal.

The takeover of the Australian Securities Exchange by its Singaporean counterpart would have to be one of the most awful ideas to be forced down our throats in yonks.

POOR sales have forced the Australian arm of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to go into voluntary administration. Owners of the super-sweet chain have denied the downturn has been caused by increasingly health-conscious customers, instead pointing to a number of ailing outlets affected by high rents and high distribution costs.

The Australian arm of the Krispy Kreme doughnut company is going into administration, citing poor sales and high costs.

Krispy Kreme doughnuts' Australian division is going into voluntary administration because of poor sales. The Australian arm of the US company was placed in the hands of accountancy firm Smith Hancock on Friday, it has been reported.

There's a new bill being pushed hard in the halls of Congress. It's called the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), and it already has the support of dozens of very large and influential mega-corporations. In essence, the bill gives broad new powers to the US Attorney General and Department of Justice to stomp out websites, especially foreign ones, that pose a threat to US copyright holders. Sounds like a great plan, right? Well there's Hertz, and there's not exactly.

On one side, WikiLeaks has assembled the brightest and most dedicated hacker-activists in an effort to turn the Internet into a bastion of transparency and information freedom. On the other side, the United States has combined its Department of Defense, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency in an attempt to clamp down on the Internet with censorship and encryption-banning laws. Both parties, however, have fully realized the importance of the Internet and the outcome of their battle will change the face of the world.

Between April and June of this year, Facebook reportedly spent more than $6,600 lobbying California state officials to kill the Social Networking Privacy Act. (Which seems like a lot initially, but isn't really that much)

When the media report on some wild new privacy-invading tool, it’s tempting to rush out and try it. This week brought reports of two such tools: Firesheep, a WiFi hacking tool, and the Secret SMS Replicator, an Android app for secretly forwarding texts from someone else’s phone.

Allegedly leaked email reveals legal eagles swooped on P2P in own nest. A partner from the law firm representing a film industry trade group in its battle against ISP iiNet has sent an email telling staff "not to ever use" BitTorrent on its corporate internet account.