Several people have written to me about the federal government’s online census system, which is open only to Windows and Mac users. Russell provides a good analysis of the security issues raised by the approach.
The Census and Open Source
May 7, 2006
Share this post
One Comment

Law Bytes
Episode 277: Kate Robertson on the Risks That Lie Behind Canada's Unexpected Signing of the UN Cybercrime Convention
byMichael Geist

June 22, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Michael Geist on Substack
Recent Posts
From CCH to ChatGPT: How Canadian Copyright Law Played the Key Role in Deciding a Leading AI Training Data Case in India
Starting Over: Court Filing Confirms the CRTC’s Streamer Contribution Decisions Are Dead With a Full Online Streaming Act Reset to Come
The Name on the Window Was Enough: The Attacks on Kiva’s and the Normalization of Antisemitic Violence in Canada
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 277: Kate Robertson on the Risks That Lie Behind Canada’s Unexpected Signing of the UN Cybercrime Convention
A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: The Trouble With Canada’s Quiet Decision to Sign the UN Cybercrime Convention

They’ve changed their minds
See http://www22.statcan.ca/ccr02/ccr02_003_e.htm
The restriction has been lifted for linux users. The remaining requirements are the same as for Windows/Mac, i.e. specific browser and Java versions. The text switches back and forth between “open source” and “linux”, so I don’t know if this applies to *BSD as well.