Author: Ausma Bernot

Ausma Bernot is a PhD Candidate at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University. She has seven years of work experience with forensic science and research organisations across the globe, in particular China, where she had the chance to gain insights on how technologies are governed at provincial and national levels. Being fluent in Mandarin and building on existing networks in China, Ausma has excellent capabilities to access key information on both technology and governance in the country. Her current research focuses on the effects that the merging of infotech and biotech triggers in the fields of governance, surveillance, policing, and public safety. Ausma’s doctoral research explores the dynamic interaction between surveillance technologies and social context and questions totalisation of surveillance in China.

December 19, 2022 by Ausma Bernot

Not Big Brother, but close: a surveillance expert explains some of the ways we’re all being watched, all the time

Ausma Bernot, PhD Candidate, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University A group of researchers studied 15 months of human mobility movement data taken from 1.5 million people and concluded that just four points in space and time were sufficient to identify 95% of them, even when the data weren’t of excellent quality. That… Read More

July 23, 2022 by Ausma Bernot

Even if TikTok and other apps are collecting your data, what are the actual consequences?

By now, most of us are aware social media companies collect vast amounts of our information. By doing this, they can target us with ads and monetise our attention. The latest chapter in the data-privacy debate concerns one of the world’s most popular apps among young people – TikTok. Yet anecdotally it seems the potential risks aren’t really something young people care about. Some were interviewed by The Project this week regarding the risk of their TikTok data being accessed from China. They said it wouldn’t stop them using the app. “Everyone at the moment has access to everything,” one person said. Another said they didn’t “have much to hide from the Chinese government”. Are these fair assessments? Or should Australians actually be worried about yet another social media company taking their data? Read More