Post Tagged with: "surveillance"

Bill C-13: Podcast on Cyber-Bullying and Internet Surveillance Legislation

I appeared on The Docket podcast with Leo Russomanno and Michael Spratt to discuss the Conservative governments new cyber-bullying / internet surveillance legislation – Bill C-13.

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May 2, 2014 Comments are Disabled ExtPodcasts

Who Owns Our Secrets: A Panel Discussion

I participated in a talk at the Toronto Public Library titled Who Owns our Secrets. The discussion was moderated by Brent Bambury of CBC Radio and participants included former CSIS Assistant Director Ray Boisvert, world-renowned surveillance scholar David Lyon and BC Civil Liberties Association Policy Director Micheal Vonn. We discussed the balance between security and privacy.

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April 3, 2014 Comments are Disabled Video

If U.S. Cloud Computing Isn’t Good Enough for the Canadian Government, Why Should It Be for You?

In August 2011, the federal government announced plans to consolidate more than 100 different email systems used by over 300,000 employees into a single, outsourced email system. While the email transition is currently underway – Bell won the nearly $400 million contract last year – the decision quietly sparked a trade fight with the United States that placed the spotlight on the risks associated with hosting computer data outside the country.

At the heart of the dispute is the emergence of cloud computing services such as web-based email, online document storage, and photo sharing sites. These services are based on a computing infrastructure that relies on huge computer server farms and high-speed network connections that allow users to access their content from any device connected to the Internet.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that cloud computing services offer the promise of convenience and cost savings, but at a price of reduced control over your own content, reliance on third-party providers, and potential privacy risks should the data “hosted in the cloud” be disclosed to law enforcement agencies without appropriate disclosure or oversight.

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March 12, 2014 19 comments Columns

If U.S. Cloud Computing Isn’t Good Enough for the Canadian Government, Why Should It Be for You?

Appeared in the Toronto Star on March 8, 2014 as Time for Consumers to Think Local for Cloud Computing In August 2011, the federal government announced plans to consolidate more than 100 different email systems used by over 300,000 employees into a single, outsourced email system. While the email transition […]

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March 12, 2014 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Internet Surveillance: What Canadians Can Do

Over the past eight months, the steady stream of Snowden leaks have revealed the existence of a massive surveillance infrastructure intent on capturing seemingly all communications, including metadata on phone calls, Internet searches, and other online activity. While much of the surveillance originates with the U.S. NSA, the leaks suggest […]

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February 11, 2014 13 comments News