Crucial decisions about the National Broadband Network's engineering design and points of interconnect topology that will have a direct impact on service pricing are expected by the end of the month.

An additional pool of $80 million in venture capital has been created through the Innovation Investment Fund, with information technology and new media companies likely beneficiaries.

You really have to wonder at what you would need to do in this country to attract a penalty - let alone conviction - for breaching the privacy of others. Because the unauthorised and systematic collection of the personal information of millions of Australians citizens - including emails, bank account details and passwords - apparently isn't enough.

The Australian Privacy Foundation is still seeking confirmation that the personal information of local citizens collected by Google Australia through its StreetView cars is being stored in Australia.

The newly-created Office of the Australian Information Commissioner would bring with it an era with much easier access to public sector information and a boon for Gov 2.0 practices, Parliamentary Secretary Kate Lundy said.

The Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner's handling of the Google StreetView WiFi privacy breach had been "a travesty" and an abrogation of specific responsibilities, the Australian Privacy Foundation has charged.

Google Australia remains a prosecution target of federal investigators over its systematic and unauthorised collection of personal data through its fleet of Street View cars, with the Australian Federal Police currently assessing advice on possible breaches of Commonwealth criminal law.  

Malcolm Turnbull, not unreasonably, wants the most rigorous tests of project oversight and financial transparency applied to the National Broadband Network. Which is quite right, of course. It is, after all, the largest single infrastructure spending project ever undertaken in this country.

A cost-benefit analysis may not be the right instrument to apply to the National Broadband Network project, according to Western Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, who says the NBN Company business case will make more relevant reading.

The Opposition had misunderstood proposed telecommunications regulatory reforms and was wrong in claiming that any deal between Telstra and NBN Co would not be scrutinised by the consumer watchdog, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says.