Post Tagged with: "anonymity"

Anonymity; and the Internet. by Stian Eikeland (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/6CCWXH

Ontario Provincial Police Recommend Ending Anonymity on the Internet

The Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs began its hearings on Bill C-13, the lawful access/cyberbullying bill last week with an appearance from several law enforcement representatives. The Ontario Provincial Police was part of the law enforcement panel and was asked by Senator Tom McInnis, a Conservative Senator from Nova Scotia, about what other laws are needed to address cyberbullying. Scott Naylor of the OPP responded (official transcript not yet posted online):

If the bag was open and I could do anything, the biggest problem that I see in the world of child sexual exploitation is anonymity on the Internet. When we get our driver’s licence we’re required to get our picture taken for identification.  When you get a mortgage you have to sign and provide identification.  When you sign up for the Internet, there is absolutely no requirement for any kind of non-anonymity qualifier.  There are a lot of people who are hiding behind the Internet to do all kinds of crime, including cybercrime, fraud, sexual exploitation and things along those lines.

The Internet is moving so quickly that law enforcement cannot keep up.  If there were one thing that I would ask for discussion on is that there has to be some mechanism of accountability for you to sign on to an Internet account that makes it like a digital fingerprint that identifies it to you sitting behind the computer or something at that time.  There are mechanisms to do it, but the Internet is so big and so vast at this point, and it’s worldwide, I’m not sure how that could happen, but that would certainly assist everybody.  In that way I can make a digital qualification that that’s the person that I’m talking to.  If I had one choice, that’s what I would ask for.

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November 10, 2014 39 comments News

Del Mastro Targets Online Anonymity

Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro has raised the prospect of government regulation of online anonymity, arguing that Parliament should address the issue of forcing people to identify themselves before posting comments online.

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October 26, 2012 10 comments News

The Lawful Access Legislation: Does it Really Criminalize Linking & Anonymity?

The government’s plans to include lawful access provisions within its omnibus crime bill has attracted mounting attention in recent days as many commentators express concern that the legislation could create criminal liability for linking to content that incites hatred and for using anonymous or false names online. The concerns started at the Free Dominion site and have since spread to Brian Lilley at the Toronto Sun and Jesse Brown’s blog at Maclean’s

As I have argued for a long time, there are many reasons to be concerned with lawful access. The government has never provided adequate evidence on the need for it, it has never been subject to committee review, it would mandate disclosure of some personal information without court oversight, it would establish a massive ISP regulatory process (including employee background checks), it would install broad new surveillance technologies, and it would cost millions (without a sense of who actually pays). Given these problems, it is not surprising to find that every privacy commissioner in Canada has signed a joint letter expressing their concerns.

Yet while lawful access raises many issues (such that it clearly does not belong in an omnibus bill placed on the fast track), I do not believe that creating criminal liability for linking or anonymous speech are among them.

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May 11, 2011 26 comments News

Ontario Court Sets Standard For Disclosing Anonymous Posters

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has issued its appellate decision on whether the owners of the Free Dominion website can be ordered to disclose the identities of several anonymous posters accused of defamation. The original order covered email and IP addresses.  On appeal, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and CIPPIC intervened to argue that the court should take free speech and privacy rights into consideration when assessing whether an order is appropriate.

Relying heavily on the Sony BMG v. Doe case (the file sharing lawsuit that CRIA now denies exists), the court notes that it "illustrates that a court must have regard to the privacy interests of anonymous users of the Internet before granting a Norwich Phramacal order, even where the issue involved pertains to property rights and does not engage the interest of freedom of expression." 

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May 4, 2010 5 comments News

Kerr on Privacy and Anonymity

My colleague Ian Kerr appeared on CBC's The Current on Friday to discuss privacy and anonymity issues.  The podcast is here.  His book – free to download – here.

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April 18, 2009 Comments are Disabled News