Author: Christopher Parsons

Policy wonk. Torontonian. Photographer. Not necessarily in that order.

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Quotations

2014.7.11

The importance of access to information is clearer when the right to freedom of expression is considered more narrowly. Suppose that our concern is with expression on a specific subject: for example, about government’s effectiveness in executing a policy. In some cases, government agencies may be informational monopolists: that is, they may have exclusive control over critical information required for intelligence discussion of the policy. If no right of access is recognized, the right to free expression is hollowed out. Citizens will have the right to say what they think, but what they think will not count for much, precisely because it is known to be grossly uninformed. A more sensible approach would be to treat government monopolists just as we treat private media monopolists, by curbing their monopoly power so that we may promote free expression.

Alasdair Roberts, “Structural Pluralism and the Right to Know”
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Quotations

2014.7.10

Arguments about the right to information should be resolved by reference to its role in protecting the fundamental interests of citizens, and not by reference to the history or structural characteristics of the institution holding the contested information.

Alasdair Roberts, “Structural Pluralism and the Right to Know”
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Crypto certificates impersonating Google and Yahoo pose threat to Windows users

Crypto certificates impersonating Google and Yahoo pose threat to Windows users:

OS currently has no reliable way to detect bogus credentials released into the wild.

Yet another reason why (a) the certificate authority system is broken; (b) Microsoft is stuck trying to fix problems that it (partially) brings upon itself; © Chrome is arguably the most secure – if not privacy protective – of the major Web browsers.

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Aside

The NSA’s Utah data centre

The NSA’s Utah data centre, as taken by the EFF.

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Quotations

2014.7.9

Transparency certainly destroys secrecy: but it may not limit the deception and deliberate misinformation that undermine relations of trust. If we want to restore trust we need to reduce deception and lies rather than secrecy. Some sorts of secrecy indeed support deception, others do not. Transparency and openness may not be the unconditional goods that they are fashionably supposed to be. By the same token, secrecy and lack of transparency may not be the enemies of trust.

Onora O’Neill, “Trust and Transparency”, the BBC Reith Lectures.
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Voices from the frontlines of censorship: Andrei Soldatov:

Basically, the Russian approach is all about instigating self-censorship. To do this, you need to draft the legislation as broad as possible, to have the restrictions constantly expanded – like the recent law which requires bloggers with more than 3.000 followers to be registered – and companies, internet service providers, NGOs and media will rush to you to be consulted and told what’s allowed. You should also show that you don’t hesitate to block entire services like YouTube – and companies will come to you suggesting technical solutions, as happened with DPI (deep packet inspection). It helps the government to shift the task of developing a technical solution to business, as well as costs.

You also need to encourage pro-government activists to attack the most vocal critics, to launch websites with list of so-called national traitors, and then to have Vladimir Putin himself to use this very term in a speech.

All that sends a very strong message. And as a result, journalists will be fired for critical reporting from Ukraine by media owners, not by the government; the largest internet companies will seek private meetings with Putin, and users of social networks will become more cautious in their comments.

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Privacy and surveillance: Eight things every Canadian should know

Last night CJFE hosted a panel discussion, “Should Surveillance Scare You?” at the NOW Lounge in Toronto.

The event, moderated by Toronto Star National Security Reporter Michelle Shephard, featured Christopher Parsons, a post-doctoral fellow at the Munk School’s Citizen Lab, in conversation with Wesley Wark, a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. The panelists lent their voices and views to the emerging debate over issues of surveillance, intelligence, and national security in a Canadian context.

Below are eight key takeaways from the conversation, which addressed everything from why Canadians should care about surveillance to what you can do to protect yourself online.

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This App Helps Reveal What Personal Data Is Stored by Canadian ISPs

This App Helps Reveal What Personal Data Is Stored by Canadian ISPs:

To find out what people could expect to learn by using the Access My Info tool, I spoke to one of the main people behind it: Chris Parsons, a post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.

“The privacy tool should let individuals know what information is being collected, and what’s being stored,” he said. “Additionally, telecoms’ responses should be informative if somebody wants to ask ‘have you exposed my information to government or another entity.”

Parsons and the team plan to crowdsource the replies that telecoms provide to users to gain a much better understanding of just what’s being held onto by service providers. Presently, it’s not exactly clear if ISPs track the sites we visit, or how long our mobile phone texts are stored.

Will the tool let users know if their data has been handed over to the police without a warrant? “Maybe,” said Parsons. “Companies would have to ask police before letting us know, so as not to jeopardize any ongoing investigations.” The same goes for finding out which agencies have had access to our information.

In any case, Parsons said, finding out what information could potentially be shared with authorities is the first giant step towards an informed discussion about privacy in Canada.

“This is our information, and we have a right to understand how it’s being managed. It’s not clear from the companies how they’re doing it. They don’t tell us,” he told me.

Parsons made it clear that the way the Access My Info tool works is very simple. It’s really just using existing legal powers available to citizens and bringing them into the digital world. The Citizen Lab had already released a template letter for doing the same thing, but the tool makes it even easier auto-fill request forms.

Moreover, Access My Info is based on an open platform. As a result, it can be reconfigured to send the same kinds of legal requests for information to all kinds of companies: credit card companies, banks, stores, or even car companies.

Parsons pointed to the example of OnStar, General Motors’ in-car service. Because it tracks the car’s location and other data, OnStar has proved a valuable resource for law enforcement. Thanks to this new tool, Canadians could soon be petitioning GM to find out how long their location data is stored.

 

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Canadians Don’t Trust the Harper Government’s New Cyberbullying Bill

Canadians Don’t Trust the Harper Government’s New Cyberbullying Bill:

Canadians were largely unmoved by the Edward Snowden leaks and the disclosure of mass surveillance programs like PRISM, with few showing any serious worries about domestic government surveillance in a poll by Abacus Data in June 2013. But now a new poll by Forum Research suggests Canadians are growing suspicious of the latest Conservative cyberbullying bill C–13, with most rejecting a piece of legislation many think is more about beefing up government surveillance powers than protecting teens from bullies.

The poll asked over 1400 Canadian adults if they agreed with the central provisions of the bill, with three quarters disagreeing with the Harper government, and just one in seven approving. Disapproval went across gender and social status.

…

“I think that the survey demonstrates, once again, that Canadians are very interested in privacy issues,” said Christopher Parsons, a postdoctoral fellow at the Citizen Lab, a group that monitors surveillance issues.

“The fact that there is such low support for C–13, even amongst Conservative voters, speaks to the partisanship that the current government has demonstrated in trying to advance the legislation,“ he said.

To Parsons, the poll is reflective of Canadians growing interest with privacy issues. He thinks Canadians expect there to be legitimate checks and balances on government intelligence-gathering powers, with C–13 sorely lacking even the most basic oversight mechanisms.

 

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Want to put a snooping government back in its place? Click here

Want to put a snooping government back in its place?:

A new app helps people create compelling and legally solid requests to ISPs for the personal information the company has about them. I suggest that anyone who cares about their privacy use it to learn to familiarize themselves with what data is being held by the telecoms they’re patronizing and when that data is being shared. (You’ll find the tool at Openmedia.ca/myinfo.)