Field notes and advisory from Paul Hewett. Data, AI, marketing, and the future of discovery.https://paulthinks.com/en-au© 2026 Paul Hewetthttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/martech-stack-collection-engine/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/martech-stack-collection-engine/The OAIC's APP 3 rewrite explicitly names AI inference, enrichment, scraping, and observation as collection events. The 'we didn't realise' defence has been retired.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTdataprivacyhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/the-architectural-half-of-post-search-discoverability/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/the-architectural-half-of-post-search-discoverability/Schema is not the answer. Why static-first architecture (Astro, edge) wins for llm retrieval, search crawlers, and agentic browsing in a post-search world.Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTarchitecturediscoveryagentichttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/google-cookie-banner-most-important-configuration/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/google-cookie-banner-most-important-configuration/Google is removing Signals as a control on Google Ads cookies and IDs from 15 June 2026. Your cookie consent banner becomes the primary thing between user data and Google's ad business.Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTdatameasurementstrategyhttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/acma-enforcement-sms-sender-id-register/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/acma-enforcement-sms-sender-id-register/Over AUD 5.4 million in penalties for basic email and SMS compliance failures. The SMS Sender ID Register becomes mandatory 1 July 2026. Unregistered sender IDs will be blocked.Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTdatameasurementhttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/oaic-is-looking-at-your-marketing-data/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/oaic-is-looking-at-your-marketing-data/The regulator has explicitly named advertising technology, AI, and excessive data collection as priority areas for 2025-26. The first compliance sweep is underway and the first civil penalty has been imposed.Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTdataprivacyhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/the-economics-of-ai-are-yet-to-be-determined/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/the-economics-of-ai-are-yet-to-be-determined/AI feels cheap. It feels cheap because investor capital is subsidising it. Four structural forces are converging that reframe the trajectory as an open question with significant downside.Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTstrategyhttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/openclaw-and-ai-agents/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/openclaw-and-ai-agents/Don't deploy this in your business. Don't allow it on any device with access to company data or client information. The automation upside doesn't justify the liability.Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTagentichttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/what-the-rba-told-us-about-marketing-strategy-for-2026/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/what-the-rba-told-us-about-marketing-strategy-for-2026/When AI told a consumer 'you have a good deal, don't switch', it wasn't providing information. It was giving advice. The RBA's data reveals a fundamental shift.Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTdiscoverystrategyhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/ai-discovery-surface-research-needs-driven-economy/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/ai-discovery-surface-research-needs-driven-economy/AI surfaces are not just answering questions; they're making recommendations, naming winners, providing decision-ready verdicts. Brands that don't appear are invisible at the point of decision.Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTdiscoveryhttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/social-media-age-restriction-audience-strategy/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/social-media-age-restriction-audience-strategy/The under-16 social media ban is live. 4.7 million accounts removed. Audience sizes on major platforms have structurally shrunk in Australia.Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTdiscoveryprivacyhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/chatgpt-advertising-what-has-changed-and-how-to-respond/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/chatgpt-advertising-what-has-changed-and-how-to-respond/ChatGPT is starting to test advertising in the U.S. This does not change current marketing in Australia, but it indicates where conversational AI is heading.Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTdiscoverystrategyhttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/ransomware-reporting-marketing-systems/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/ransomware-reporting-marketing-systems/The Cyber Security Act 2024 requires ransomware payment reporting within 72 hours. Marketing databases, CDPs, and CRMs are targets. Marketing teams need to be in the incident response plan.Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTdatahttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/digital-id-private-sector-access/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/digital-id-private-sector-access/15 million myIDs. 80 million verifications. From November 2026 the private sector can participate. This is the new identity layer.Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTdatameasurementhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/what-the-oaic-privacy-sweep-signals-for-marketers/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/what-the-oaic-privacy-sweep-signals-for-marketers/On the surface, the OAIC's first compliance sweep looks narrow. It is not. The regulator is shifting from reactive complaint handling to proactive market enforcement.Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTdatahttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/ai-in-marketing-standards-led-approach/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/ai-in-marketing-standards-led-approach/No standalone AI Act. Standards-led, not legislation-led. But the automated decision-making disclosure obligation is binding from December 2026, and the ACL already applies to misleading AI outputs.Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTagenticdatahttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/what-2025-taught-us-and-what-2026-demands/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/what-2025-taught-us-and-what-2026-demands/2025 was the year the old marketing playbook stopped working. 2026 won't be about incremental adaptation. It will be about reconstruction.Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTstrategyhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/why-australias-under-16-social-media-ban-could-backfire/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/why-australias-under-16-social-media-ban-could-backfire/The intent is sound. The mechanism is blunt. Once minors present as adults to evade the ban, the safety systems that protect them stop working.Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTdatastrategyhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/signal-loss-is-accelerating/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/signal-loss-is-accelerating/Marketing effectiveness is being eroded by a structural decline in signal quality across the major platforms. The performance impact is happening before the regulatory impact.Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementdatahttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/artificial-testimonials-and-their-impact-on-trust-and-compliance/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/artificial-testimonials-and-their-impact-on-trust-and-compliance/AI-generated avatars as artificial customers in advertising erode trust and breach Australian Consumer Law. A note on what this means for marketers and platforms.Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTdatastrategyhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/toon-a-new-way-to-structure-data-for-language-models/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/toon-a-new-way-to-structure-data-for-language-models/Token Oriented Object Notation is a compact, human-readable format for feeding structured data into LLMs. It's not a JSON replacement, but for the right shapes, it earns its place.Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTarchitecturehttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/what-dropping-ctrs-tell-us-about-the-state-of-search/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/what-dropping-ctrs-tell-us-about-the-state-of-search/Click-through rates are falling, and everyone's trying to figure out what it means. The signal is not decline. It is redistribution.Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTdiscoverymeasurementhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/what-ai-whispering-means-in-agentic-browsers/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/what-ai-whispering-means-in-agentic-browsers/Hidden manipulation of AI agents through covert instructions. The user sees nothing unusual, but the agent reads an extra layer of meaning and acts on it.Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTagentichttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/measurement-infrastructure-already-degraded/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/measurement-infrastructure-already-degraded/Google kept cookies but GA4 is now a modelled system. iOS 26 strips click IDs. 75% ATT opt-out. Server-side tracking is no longer optional, it is baseline.Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementdatahttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/some-learnings-from-measurecamp-sydney-2025/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/some-learnings-from-measurecamp-sydney-2025/Analysts are no longer just interpreters of data. They're builders, product thinkers, and technologists. Four signals from a day at MeasureCamp.Sun, 26 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/which-api-architecture-powers-the-agentic-web/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/which-api-architecture-powers-the-agentic-web/GraphQL defines what is requested. gRPC defines how it is delivered. SOAP once defined the terms. None yet define why. That missing layer is what comes next.Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTarchitectureagentichttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/aip-vs-mcp-context-vs-conduct/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/aip-vs-mcp-context-vs-conduct/MCP is the internal wiring that makes the agent capable. AIP is the diplomatic code that makes the agent trustworthy. One enables thought. The other governs action.Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTagenticarchitecturehttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/12-surfaces-of-discovery/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/12-surfaces-of-discovery/Search isn't declining; it's fragmenting. Mapping the twelve discovery surfaces where intent now meets information.Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTdiscoveryhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/an-exploration-of-reasoning-human-vs-artificial/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/an-exploration-of-reasoning-human-vs-artificial/Reasoning is less a human privilege and more a universal function of structured systems. Humans reason through awareness and intent; machines reason through scale and structure.Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTagenticframeworkshttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/the-end-of-web-crawling-probably/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/the-end-of-web-crawling-probably/Crawling is built on the assumption that information is public and predictable. The web isn't that anymore. APIs are replacing crawling as the dominant model for how data moves.Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTarchitecturehttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/the-agentic-layer/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/the-agentic-layer/By 2030, the transactional layer of the web will be dominated by autonomous agents negotiating with brand APIs. Websites won't disappear, but they'll become backend infrastructure.Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTagenticarchitecturehttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/thinking-in-layers-ux-ax-and-the-agentic-web/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/thinking-in-layers-ux-ax-and-the-agentic-web/Three definitions for concepts emerging in the near future. UX is where meaning meets mechanism. AX is where machine trust is built. AIP is how they talk.Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTagentichttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/the-three-layers-of-the-agentic-web/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/the-three-layers-of-the-agentic-web/How the emerging agentic internet separates use, intelligence, and control. UX is human trust. AX is machine trust. AIP is institutional trust.Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTagenticarchitecturehttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/fair-and-reasonable-test/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/fair-and-reasonable-test/The second tranche of Privacy Act reforms introduces a test that is separate from consent. Having consent will not be sufficient if the use fails the test. This is the single largest structural risk to performance marketing in Australia.Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTdataprivacyhttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/data-value-quadrant/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/data-value-quadrant/A practical model for evaluating how data is used in marketing. Plot consumer value against data sensitivity. Decide what to proceed with, what to redesign, and what to retire.Sat, 02 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMTframeworksdatahttps://paulthinks.com/field-notes/cuv-framework/https://paulthinks.com/field-notes/cuv-framework/Consent, Utility, Value. A simple, repeatable method for evaluating whether a data use case is ethical, valuable, and legally defensible.Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMTframeworksdatahttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/accc-digital-platform-competition-reform/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/accc-digital-platform-competition-reform/Australia is preparing an ex ante competition regime targeting dominant digital platforms. Ad tech and app marketplaces are first in line. Penalties up to 30% of turnover.Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMTdiscoverydatahttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/consumer-data-right-expansion/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/consumer-data-right-expansion/CDR is expanding into non-bank lending from mid-2026. The competitive dynamics of financial services marketing change when customer switching friction drops.Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMTdatahttps://paulthinks.com/advisory/privacy-act-tranche-1-the-foundation-shift/https://paulthinks.com/advisory/privacy-act-tranche-1-the-foundation-shift/The first structural overhaul of the Privacy Act in decades is staging in through December 2026. Three changes matter directly to marketing and analytics teams.Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTdataprivacy