Australia Blog
News and notes from Google Down Under
Privacy Awareness Week 2019
Thursday, May 16, 2019
Whether it’s delivering search results in the correct language or recommending the quickest route home, data can make Google products more helpful to you. And you should be able to understand and manage your data—and make privacy choices that are right for you. That’s why easy-to-use
privacy features and controls
have always been built into our products. We made some privacy related announcements last week that we want to highlight during
Privacy Awareness Week
when a lot of people and businesses are actively thinking about privacy.
One-tap access to your Google Account from all our major products
A few years ago, we introduced
Google Account
to provide a comprehensive view of the information you’ve shared and saved with Google, and one place to access your privacy and security settings. Privacy controls should be easy to find and use and now we’re making it even easier to find these controls. Today you’ll see your Google Account profile picture appear in the top right corner across products like Gmail, Drive, Contacts and Pay. To quickly access your privacy controls, just tap on your picture and follow the link to your Google Account.
Auto-Delete Options
We are also introducing automatic deletion options, which will enable Google users to set a time limit for how long they want some data to be saved. They can choose to automatically delete data from their account after 3 or 18 months. These controls are available now for
Web and App Activity
and they will be launched for
Location History
in the coming weeks.
Your Data in Maps, the Assistant, and more
Late last year, we launched a new feature called Your Data in Search, which puts privacy and security front and centre in Google Search. We are now making this feature available in Google Maps and the Assistant, with YouTube coming later this month. This provides quick access to the most relevant privacy controls by making privacy settings easy to access while using our products. Any older data will be automatically and continuously deleted from your account.
Learn more about how we use data to power Google Maps
Incognito mode in Google apps
Incognito is a very popular feature in Chrome and we are bringing this functionality to additional surfaces this year. It’s available in YouTube and is coming soon to Maps and Search. Tap from your profile picture to easily turn it on or off. While using Incognito, a user’s activity, for example the places they search for or navigated to, won’t be linked to their Google account. When users turn off Incognito mode, their apps and devices will be cleared of this history, enabling them to confidently share screens with friends or family.
Chrome privacy enhancements
We also announced that we are updating Chrome to provide users with improved controls for managing cookies and stepping up our efforts to restrict “fingerprinting,” to ensure that users’ privacy choices are respected. You can read more about these changes
here
.
Personalised ads
Furthermore, as part of our continued work to improve privacy in the ads-supported ecosystem, Google will provide enhanced
visibility into personalised advertising
, and we will provide tools for others to do the same. We believe that we can build products and privacy for everyone and we are working to bring a thoughtful and thorough approach to improving user privacy in the ad-supported ecosystem.
Our work on privacy is never done and we will continue to consider new ways for our users to manage their privacy. You can learn more about these updates in our
blogpost
and check out these
5 things you can do right now to stay safer online
.
Posted by Samantha Yorke, Public Policy and Government Relations Senior Counsel, Google Australia
Computer science grants for Australian educators
Monday, May 13, 2019
Computer science skills are important across a wide range of industries, from health and science to agriculture or the arts.
Equipping teachers with the knowledge, resources and support to teach computer science (CS) has never been more important. Google continues to support CS education in Australia and New Zealand with the 2019
Educator Professional Development Grants
.
Past awardees have reached over 15,000 teachers throughout Australia and New Zealand, which in turn impacts over 390,000 students.
When Mountain Creek State High School in Queensland received their first Google funded professional development (PD) grant 4 years ago, there were no PD opportunities in the Sunshine Coast region. Since then, more than 1,100 local teachers have received quality training in areas such as robotics, computational thinking and skills development through these workshops.
Last year, 120 teachers from the region attended the school’s workshop, focused on introducing robotics and computational thinking for primary and secondary schools.
Workshop organiser and teacher Graeme Breen said these workshops are a launchpad for teachers to further engage with technology: “The participation by these schools in robotics comps such as Sumo and FIRST LEGO League is really strong evidence that teachers and schools are keen, but perhaps just need some assistance getting started, which Google funding of this event provides.”
These workshops have been pivotal not only for the teachers that attend but also for the growth of opportunities for their schools, and the attendees were "excited to see what it will look like for students across the region".
We’re excited to announce the 2019 CS Educator Grants Awardees, who will continue to motivate and inspire educators.
2019 CS Educator Grants Funding Recipients Australia:
Australia
Australian Catholic University
Australian Data Science Education Institute
Coding and Innovation Hub
Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria
Dowerin District High School
Emanuel School
Goodna State School
InTEACT
James Cook University
John Monash Science School
Joondalup Education Support Centre
Macquarie University
Murray Bridge High School
Nazareth Catholic College
NSW Department of Education (SISP)
Our Lady of Mercy Catholic College
Port Macquarie Adventist School
Queensland Society for Information Technology in Education
Queensland Society for Information Technology in Education Far North Queensland
RDA Hunter
The University of Adelaide
The University of Newcastle
SMART Program (University of Newcastle)
The University of Western Australia
New Zealand
Auckland University of Technology
CORE Education Ltd
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Congratulations to this year's awardees - we can't wait to see how you make an impact!
Posted by Marie Efstathiou, Program Manager, Engineering Outreach
A little help from Google to map your election day
Friday, May 10, 2019
With just over a week until election day, our interactive
AusVotes Election Map
is back to provide some of the most important information for the big day—like where to vote, how to get there, and who’s on the ballot. Plus, it has live data to show you where to snag a sausage sanga.
From today, Australians can visit
g.co/ausvotes
to find polling booths near them along with details about accessibility. Simply enter your postcode, suburb or electorate and
voila
—you’ll see all your local information.
Thanks to Democracy Sausage, you’ll also be able to see if there’s a sausage sizzle or cake stall at your local polling booth.
We’ve made it simple for anyone with a website to embed and display the map, which is fully customisable so you can show a national map or an electorate view (just follow the embed link in the footer).
Find out more
here
on how we are helping to connect Australians with useful and relevant information election information online, and enjoy your #democracysausage.
Posted by Drew Jarrett, Brett Morgan, Leon Nemets and Akhilesh Singh, Google Sydney Engineering team
Australia’s Eastern Health named as Google AI Impact Challenge Grantee
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
As part of Google’s
AI for Social Good
program, we
launched
the
Google AI Impact Challenge
, based on our strong belief that emerging technologies will help us address big social, humanitarian and environmental problems. We were blown away by the number of proposals we received: 2,602 applications from 119 countries, nearly two thirds of the world’s countries.
Today,
20 organisations
were announced that will share $25 million USD in grants from Google.org, credit and consulting from Google Cloud, mentoring from Google AI experts and the opportunity to join a customized accelerator program from Google Developers Launchpad - including Australia’s
Eastern Health
!
Eastern Health
will receive $1.2M AUD to develop a national monitoring system which has the potential to set international standards informing suicide prevention efforts. As ambulances are often the first point of contact with someone who is suicidal, ambulance clinical records are significantly under-utilised to treat and prevent suicide.
By using AI tools to analyse this valuable data, Eastern Health aims to uncover critical suicide trends and potential points of intervention to better inform policy and public health responses.
The other organisations selected as grantees of the Google AI Impact Challenge address issues in the areas of health, economic opportunity and empowerment, environmental protection and conservation, education, misinformation and crisis and emergency response. Find out more about other projects
here
.
Forty percent of the applications came from organisations with no previous experience with artificial intelligence, which is still a developing concept in the social impact field. Our job, as we thoroughly vetted the applications, was to choose the best projects based on feasibility, potential for impact, scalability and the responsible use of AI.
Next week, the grantees will converge in San Francisco for the kickoff of the Google AI Impact Challenge Accelerator, the six-month program run by
Google Developers Launchpad
. Eastern Health will join a local network of more than 20 non-profits in Australia supported by Google.org to use technology to help address Australia’s biggest social challenges. Congratulations Eastern Health!
Posted by Mel Silva, Country Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand
At I/O '19: Building a more helpful Google for everyone
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Cross-posted from the
global Keyword blog
Today, we welcomed thousands of people to I/O, our annual developer’s conference. It’s one of my favorite events of the year because it gives us a chance to show how we’re bringing Google’s mission to life through new technological breakthroughs and products. Our mission to make information universally accessible and useful hasn’t changed over the past 21 years, but our approach has evolved over time. Google is no longer a company that just helps you find answers. Today, Google products also help you get stuff done, whether it’s finding the right words with Smart Compose in Gmail, or the fastest way home with Maps.
Simply put, our vision is to build a more helpful Google for everyone, no matter who you are, where you live, or what you’re hoping to accomplish. When we say helpful, we mean giving you the tools to increase your knowledge, success, health, and happiness. I’m excited to share some of the products and features we announced today that are bringing us closer to that goal.
Helping you get better answers to your questions
People turn to Google to ask billions of questions every day. But there’s still more we can do to help you find the information you need. Today, we announced that we’ll bring the popular Full Coverage feature from Google News to Search. Using machine learning, we’ll identify different points of a story—from a timeline of events to the key people involved—and surface a breadth of content including articles, tweets and even podcasts.
Sometimes the best way to understand new information is to see it. New features in Google Search and Google Lens use the camera, computer vision and augmented reality (AR) to provide visual answers to visual questions. And now we’re bringing
AR directly into Search
. If you’re searching for new shoes online, you can see shoes up close from different angles and even see how they go with your current wardrobe. You can also use Google Lens to get more information about what you’re seeing in the real world. So if you’re at a restaurant and point your camera at the menu, Google Lens will highlight which dishes are popular and show you pictures and reviews from people who have been there before. In GoogleGo, a search app for first-time smartphone users, Google Lens will read out loud the words you see, helping the millions of adults around the world who struggle to read everyday things like street signs or ATM instructions.
Helping to make your day easier
Last year at I/O we introduced our Duplex technology, which can make a restaurant reservation through the Google Assistant by placing a phone call on your behalf. Now, we’re expanding Duplex beyond voice to help you get things done on the web. To start, we’re focusing on two specific tasks: booking rental cars and movie tickets. Using “Duplex on the Web,” the Assistant will automatically enter information, navigate a booking flow, and complete a purchase on your behalf. And with massive advances in deep learning, it’s now possible to bring much more accurate speech and natural language understanding to mobile devices—enabling the
Google Assistant
to work faster for you.
We continue to believe that the biggest breakthroughs happen at the intersection of AI, software and hardware, and today we announced two Made by Google products: the new
Pixel 3a
(and 3a XL), and the
Google Nest Hub Max
. With Pixel 3a, we’re giving people the same features they love on more affordable hardware. Google Nest Hub Max brings the helpfulness of the Assistant to any room in your house, and much more.
Building for everyone
Building a more helpful Google is important, but it’s equally important to us that we are doing this for everyone. From our earliest days, Search has worked the same, whether you’re a professor at Stanford or a student in rural Indonesia. We extend this approach to developing technology responsibly, securely, and in a way that benefits all.
This is especially important in the development of AI. Through a new research approach called
TCAV
—or testing with concept activation vectors—we’re working to address bias in machine learning and make models more interpretable. For example, TCAV could reveal if a model trained to detect images of “doctors” mistakenly assumed that being male was an important characteristic of being a doctor because there were more images of male doctors in the training data. We’ve
open-sourced TCAV
so everyone can make their AI systems fairer and more interpretable, and we’ll be releasing more tools and open datasets soon.
Another way we’re building responsibly for everyone is by ensuring that our products are safe and private. We’re making a set of
privacy improvements
so that people have clear choices around their data.
Google Account,
which provides a single view of your privacy control settings, will now be easily accessible in more products with one tap. Incognito mode is coming to Maps, which means you can search and navigate without linking this activity with your Google account, and new
auto-delete
controls let you choose how long to save your data. We’re also making several security improvements on
Android Q
, and we’re building the protection of a security key right into the phone for two-step verification.
As we look ahead, we’re challenging the notion that products need more data to be more helpful. A new technique called
federated learning
allows us to train AI models and make products smarter without raw data ever leaving your device. With federated learning, Gboard can learn new words like “zoodles” or “Targaryen” after thousands of people start using them, without us knowing what you’re typing. In the future, AI advancements will provide even more ways to make products more helpful with less data.
Building for everyone also means ensuring that everyone can access and enjoy our products, including people with disabilities. Today we introduced several products with new tools and accessibility features, including Live Caption, which can caption a conversation in a video, a podcast or one that’s happening in your home. In the future,
Live Relay
and
Euphonia
will help people who have trouble communicating verbally, whether because of a speech disorder or hearing loss.
Developing products for people with disabilities often leads to advances that improve products for all of our users. This is exactly what we mean when we say we want to build a more helpful Google for everyone. We also want to empower other organizations who are using technology to improve people’s lives. Today, we recognized the
winners of the Google AI Impact Challenge
, 20 organizations using AI to solve the world’s biggest problems—from creating better air quality monitoring systems to speeding up emergency responses.
Our vision to build a more helpful Google for everyone can’t be realized without our amazing global developer community. Together, we’re working to give everyone the tools to increase their knowledge, success, health and happiness. There’s a lot happening, so make sure to keep up with all the
I/O-related news
.
Posted by Sundar Pichai, CEO
Pixel 3a: the helpful (and more affordable) phone by Google
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
These days, you expect a lot from a smartphone. You want a camera that can take vivid, share-worthy photos wherever you go. You need a tool that connects you to the world with all your favourite apps and also helps out during the day. And you want a phone that has a battery that is reliable for long stretches, while it stays secure and up to date with the latest software. The Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are all of those things and more, for half the price of other premium phones.
Pixel 3a has a familiar two-tone design like it’s predecessors, fits nicely in your hand, and includes an OLED display for crisp images and bright colours. The phone comes in two colours—Just Black, Clearly White—and two sizes, starting in Australia at $649 for the 5.6-inch display and $799 for the 6-inch model. Eligible customers who activate a Pixel 3a or Pixel 3a XL by 30/09/19 and redeem by 31/10/19 can get a 3-month trial of
YouTube Music Premium
on us (
restrictions and terms apply
).
High-end features: camera, Google Assistant, battery life and security
Google Pixel 3a delivers what you’d expect from a premium device. Known for its
award-winning
camera, Pixel 3a lets you take stunning photos with features such as portrait mode and HDR+, or use Night Sight to capture shots in the dark. Google Photos is built in, so you can save all your photos and videos with unlimited storage at high quality.
1
The battery provides up to 7 hours of battery life on a 15-minute charge and up to 30 hours on a full charge.
2
Squeeze Pixel 3a for the Google Assistant to send texts, get directions and set reminders—simply using your voice.
3
We’ll help protect your Pixel 3a against new threats,
4
by providing three years of Android
security and operating system updates
. It also comes with the custom-built
Titan M chip
to help protect your most sensitive data.
5
New features at a more accessible price
Pixel makes it easy to use Google apps like YouTube, Google Photos and Gmail. And you'll get access to new features first. Pixel 3a and the entire Pixel portfolio will get a preview of AR in Google Maps—the next time you're getting around town, you can see walking directions overlaid on the world itself, rather than looking at a blue dot on a map.
6
This helps you know precisely where you are, and exactly which way to start walking (in areas covered on Street View where there’s a good data connection and good lighting).
Time lapse is coming to Google Pixel 3a, so soon you will be able to capture an entire sunset in just a few seconds of video—great for posting on social media or messaging to your friends.
Buy it in-store or online from more places
Google Pixel 3a is now available in Australia with our exclusive carrier launch partner, Vodafone. Both Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are available at JB HiFi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks and the
Google Store
. If you’re new to Pixel, you can transfer photos, music, and media quickly with the included Quick Switch Adapter.
7
If you need a little extra help, 24/7 support from Google is just a tap away in the tips and support link in the settings menu. You can even share your screen for guided assistance.
Look for
Pixel 3a
beginning today.
Posted by Mario Queiroz, GM & VP, Pixel
1
Google Photos offers unlimited online storage for all photos and videos uploaded in high quality. Photos and videos uploaded in high quality may be compressed or resized. Requires Google Account. Data rates may apply. g.co/help/photostorage
2
Approximate battery life based on a mix of talk, data, standby, mobile hotspot, and use of other features, with always on display off. An active display or data usage will decrease battery life. Charging rates are based upon use of the included charger. Actual results may vary.
3
Requires internet connection.
4
Android version updates for at least three years from when the device first became available on the Google Store. See
g.co/pixel/updates
for details
5
See
g.co/pixel/security
for additional security information.
6
Requires published Google Street View imagery, bright outdoor light, and may not be available in all areas
7
Some third party apps and data may not be transferred automatically. Visit
g.co/pixel/help
for information.
YouTube Stories: How Aussies are learning through video
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
From life-saving inventions to new ways of teaching,
meet three Aussies
who are using what they've learned on YouTube to create lasting change.
When I was in school during the 90s, watching videos in the classroom was a highlight of any week. The teacher would roll in a television on a cart, pop in a VHS tape, and then we’d enjoy whatever scratchy nature documentary my teacher had checked out from the school video library. Sight, sound and motion have always had the power to engage students.
Now, teachers and students are taking it to a whole new level with YouTube. Every day, more and more people are turning to YouTube to learn with educational videos generating hundreds of millions of views. In fact, 81 percent
*
of Aussies watch videos to learn how to do something and content with 'how-to' in the title generated more than one billion hours of watch time in 2017, up 75 percent since 2015.
Charles, Macinley and Eddie are but three Aussies using YouTube to learn and follow their passions...
Barbering for Change
After struggling in school and making some poor decisions when he was younger, Charles Lomu wanted to break the cycle and set his life on a new path--so after putting his kids to bed each night, he jumped on YouTube and watched hundreds of hours of content to learn how to become a barber. He discovered everything he needed to start cutting hair, before setting up a barbershop in his Western Sydney garage. But this isn’t your average barbershop, with his clients ranging from former inmates and young men at risk of falling into crime, to suburban blokes who find comfort confiding in him. Extending his dream even further, Charles also runs a barbering class at Granville Boys High School, working with disengaged students. He’s trying to give back to the community, not only through offering haircuts, but as someone to talk to--all with the hope of changing the problems that old world masculinity is causing in his local community. For Charles, it comes back to one simple mantra: “You don’t have to be certified to be educated, but you have to be experienced to be qualified.”
Inventing Armour to Battle Radiation
18-year-old Macinley Butson is a remarkable young woman. Long interested in science, she started inventing from early childhood and at just 17 years of age created SMART Armour--a shield to reduce excess radiation for breast cancer patients going through treatment. It’s an invention that has the potential to change cancer treatments around the world. To develop the SMART Armour, Macinley relied on YouTube videos from various creators not just to help her better understand scientific journals and research but to learn the art of making scale maille.
Many of these learning stories are also powered by an incredible community of EduTubers like
BrainCraft
,
Draw with Jazza
,
Tibees
or
WooTube
, whose videos have demonstrated the appeal of content that enriches as well as entertains.
Sharing the Wonder of Mathematics
Eddie Woo is a passionate mathematics teacher who so ardently believes in the importance of education that when one of his students was diagnosed with cancer and needed to take long periods of time off school, Eddie started recording his classes and uploading them to
YouTube
so the student wouldn’t miss out. His journey since has been remarkable. He now has over 580,000 subscribers from all around the world, 32 million video views, and is still uploading. Recently he won Local Australian of the Year and was named in the top 10 teachers in the world. But he too is a student of YouTube--turning to channels from around the world to hone his video production and presentation skills to ensure he is producing the best quality content for others. I recently spoke to Eddie and asked why YouTube? He simply responded: “YouTube is the epitome of what schools and teachers try to do. To be with the learner at their point of need. YouTube is there for me, it serves me, not the reverse. I learn because I want to not because someone told me to.”
We may not all become inventors, mathematicians or community champions but we can promise that anyone who wants to learn or teach will have ever greater opportunities to do both on YouTube. You can get started now with
YouTube Learning
.
Ashley Chang, Culture & Trends Manager, YouTube APAC, recently viewed
"Quantum Computing Expert Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty | WIRED"
.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-paqKMwiWKb4/XNDgGZYcVtI/AAAAAAAACCs/DTKoG5vkK9IO6liJ95eUbTAgxS5zA9T6gCLcBGAs/s1600/Charles_Lomu_230.jpg
Ashley Chang
Culture & Trends Manager
YouTube APAC
*Google/Ipsos ‘Human Stories Quantitative Study’, August 2017, Australia, n=2,529 males/female YouTube users aged 18-54
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