News

European Commission Sued Over ACTA Secrecy

The European Commission has revealed that it is currently being sued over ACTA secrecy.  In October 2010, MEP Marietje Schaake asked several questions of the EC including one on non-transparency.  The EC’s response now includes “since this issue is currently the object of a court case lodged by an Member […]

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January 27, 2011 Comments are Disabled News

CRTC Issues Usage Based Billing Decision

I posted last week about the growing frustration over usage based billing practices in Canada. To no one’s surprise, yesterday the CRTC released its decision that confirms the practice that is likely to spell the end of unlimited Internet access from most ISPs in Canada.  Coverage from the Globe, Ars […]

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January 26, 2011 19 comments News

CRTC Endorses CCTS

The CRTC has reaffirmed its support for the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), an agency that works to resolve disagreements between Canadians and their service providers.  I wrote about the CCTS last year.

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January 26, 2011 6 comments News

Canadian Heritage Officials Questioned CRTC Reports on Fee-For-Carriage

The Wire Report reports (sub req) that documents obtained under Access to Information reveal that Canadian Heritage department officials questioned CRTC data on the fee-for-carriage issue last year.  The report indicates “the CRTC does not always present the data in a complete manner” and that it appears to exaggerate the […]

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January 25, 2011 2 comments News

Ontario Privacy Commish Sides With Opt-Out on Behavioural Online Tracking

The U.S. FTC is in the midst of considering a proposed Do-Not-Track planthat seeks to address mounting concerns about behavioural tracking of online activities for marketing purposes [the practice became apparentin one of my recent classes when we visited an online dating site to discuss the use of Google advertising only to find that dating site advertisements appeared in subsequent, unrelated browsing]. Yesterday, both Google and Mozilla announced that they would install do-not-track features on the Chrome and Firefoxbrowsers.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, one of the leading privacy groups in the U.S., makes the case for an opt-in approach, noting that it would better protect consumer  privacy and is consistent with many other U.S. privacy statutes. It adds that:

Opt-in is more effective than opt-out because it encourages companies to explain the benefits of information sharing, and to eliminate barriers to exercising choice. Experience with opt-out has shown that companies tend to obfuscate the process of exercising choice, or that exemptions are created to make opt-outimpossible.

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January 25, 2011 5 comments News