One Step Ahead

The Australian Government has promised to review the laws concerning "spyware" (a term used to describe software that installs itself on a computer without the user's full knowledge, and then transmits information back to the spyware author). IT Minister Helen Coonan has committed to reviewing these laws as part of a broader review of electronic security, with the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA).

So far all we've got is a general notice of intent. It will be interesting to see whether this translates into genuine action, leading eventually to strong international laws banning spyware. I doubt it, though. If anything does happen, we're likely to end up with watered-down or ineffectual laws, as happened with the Anti-Spam law last year.

In the meantime, DCITA has released an on-line guide to e-security for small business, which is a good start. You can also protect yourself further with The Common Sense Guide to PC Security.

Large companies who have ignored search engine marketing might be in for a rude shock when they first turn their efforts in this direction. They might discover that the best search engine positions have already been snapped up by smaller businesses that are promoting their products (legally, as registered affiliates of the large company). In her new book, Search Engine Advertising Catherine Seda talks about this problem, where companies can suffer a signficant loss in profits because smarter, more nimble affiliates were savvy enough to recognise the value of Internet marketing before the lumbering giants turned in that direction.

This just goes to show the power of Internet marketing for even small businesses. While large companies with multi-million-dollar advertising budgets are throwing their money at expensive ad agencies, the smaller players are quietly - but profitably - turning to the Internet for their advertising.

On a similar note, while conducting a Google advertising campaign for a client, I discovered recently that I could get top placement in Google for the keywords "election", "australian election" and even "John Howard" for just 9 cents a click. It was so easy, because the big media organisations just haven't bothered advertising, so it was a cinch to grab top spot for bottom dollar.

Australians are highly likely to be targeted by "phishing" scammers, who pose as banks, other financial institutions and other reputable organisations in an attempt to trick Internet users into revealing confidential information. According to a report from Internet security experts Symantec, Australia's well-developed banking sector makes it an attractive target for scammers.

Many Internet users are now getting used to these sort of scams, and can recognise them at a glance. However, scammers are getting more sophisticated, and constant vigilance is required to keep them at bay.

The Labor Party, vying for election as Australia's government next month, has proposed a new law to stop hard-core pornography from reaching children. The new plan would require Internet Service Providers to install mandatory filtering programs that would force adults to verify their identity before viewing X-rated Web sites.

Sigh ... It's election time, so I guess we should expect pollies to be promising everything under the sun.

The fact is that Australia already has laws to protect children from adult material. Unfortunately, the law has proven to be a dismal failure. Why would we expect the new law to be any different? It won't be. It's just another stupid promise to try to garner a few votes come the election.

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has been accused of being a spammer, after it was revealed that he hired his son's company to send unsolicited e-mail to constituents in the Prime Minister's electorate.

Political parties are exempt from the new anti-spam laws in Australia. However, the opposition parties have accused Mr Howard of breaching the spirit of the law.

Yes, the Prime Minister is a spammer. Not by the strict definition of the law, but certainly in the eyes of most Internet users.

But I can't understand why his opponents are criticising him for it (Well, actually I can understand it: It's a few weeks away from an election!). The law clearly states that political parties are exempt. So, sooner or later, a politician would take advantage of it.

This is not "cynically exploiting a loophole" or "a clear case of double standards", as the Labor Party's technology spokesperson Senator Kate Lundy says. The exemption is written into the law, and Mr Howard is entitled to use it.

BUT ... and this is a big but ... It should never have been written into the law in the first place! Politicians should not be allowed to send spam. There's simply no reasonable argument in favour of exempting political parties (nor charities and schools, for that matter) from the anti-spam provisions.

So rather than these politicians claiming to be shocked by one of their own taking advantage of something written in the law that they themselves wrote, we would all be better served by them removing that exemption. But you won't hear many pollies taking that approach. Why? After all, it would stop them from spamming in the future!

I reported recently that Australia has recently hit the million user mark with broadband access. However, that still puts us two years behind other developed countries, according to consulting company AT Kearney.

Part of this is due to technical reasons (Australia's infrastructure doesn't support the very high-speed access that other countries enjoy), and part of it is political (for example, Australian law requires "Universal Service Obligation" for its telecommunications network, which means in effect that if everybody can't have it, then nobody can). The Australian government is also doing less than many of its OECD counterparts in providing governmnet support for broadband access.

What does this mean for your Web site? Simple: Don't rely on your users having broadband access. You still have to design your site so that the 90% of other users can access it effectively.