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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.

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“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.)

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The new way Canadians can discover the data ISPs are collecting

The new way Canadians can discover the data ISPs are collecting:

Canadians concerned about their online privacy have a new way to find out whether their telecom provider is collecting information about them – and sharing it with third parties like government entities.

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“What we’re trying to do as researchers is identify what kind of data telecommunications companies in Canada collect, obtain, and process, and disclose to third parties,” said Dr. Christopher Parsons, a fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab.

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The Supreme Court of Canada ruled last Friday that police need a search warrant to get information from Internet service providers about their subscribers’ identities during investigations.

Privacy experts believe the ruling will force Internet service providers to change their practices on voluntary warrantless disclosure.

“The government will no longer be able to use the voluntary disclosure regime,” Parsons said.

“I think it’s a real demonstration that the need to keep people safe in Canada doesn’t mean we need to set aside their privacy rights.”

For now, though, Parsons is hoping Canadians use the tool to help gain a better understanding of the scale of information collected about them. He said it will also demonstrate which third parties are potentially accessing telecom companies’ data stores.

Potential third parties range from law enforcement like the RCMP, provincial, and municipal police, to government agencies like CSIS, CSEC and the CRA, Parsons said.

Check out and use the Access My Info tool to learn what information your telecom provider collects, retains, processes, and discloses about you.

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Supreme Court decision cheered by online privacy proponents

Supreme Court decision cheered by online privacy proponents:

Supreme Court ruled on Friday that police must seek judicial approval before they can request data about individuals’ internet identities, even in the case of serious crimes.

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“This is an amazing ruling for Canadians who are concerned about privacy,” said Christopher Parsons, a postdoctoral fellow at the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and a frequent critic of government policy on electronic privacy.

Recent revelations of widespread internet surveillance by police, not just in Canada but across much of the world, have caused alarm among academics and others concerned about lack of information around the extent to which governments snoop on citizens.

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In response to rising public concern, Canada’s telecom sector has for the first time begun disclosing details about the number and type of requests they’ve received. Rogers Communications Inc. and TekSavvy Solutions Inc. recently came forward and others are expected to follow.

The disclosures suggest a close relationship among police and at least some telecoms, where authorities routinely ask for and are given information about individual customers, typically IP addresses and phone numbers, though sometimes also the contents of email conversations.

The Supreme Court ruling means that at the very least, getting access to customer data is going to become a lot more time consuming for the police and as a result “the enormous volume of requests would have to go down,” said Mr. Parsons.

 

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Police investigations show even BlackBerry messages can be intercepted

Police investigations show even BlackBerry messages can be intercepted:

Touted as one of the most secure ways to communicate, BlackBerry smartphones have been put in the spotlight after several police investigations said they were able to track criminals who used the device’s encrypted technology.

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“It’s a problem in the way that BlackBerry has marketed some of its services to the consumer market,” said Christopher Parsons, a fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which specializes on how privacy is affected by digital surveillance.

“It’s a very difficult security posture and probably one that most users … don’t fully understand.”

Parsons said many BlackBerry owners assume incorrectly that their smartphones meet the same standards as BlackBerrys used by major corporations and the U.S. government, even though they’re not operating on the same high-level security servers that have come to define the company’s advantage over its competitors.

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Quebec’s organized-crime crackdown hinges on BlackBerry intercepts

Quebec’s organized-crime crackdown hinges on BlackBerry intercepts:

Code-named Operation Clemenza, the operation by a joint anti-mob squad of Mounties and Montreal police targeted two organized crime cells

Over 1 million PIN to PIN messages intercepted. Hopefully consumers will begin to realize that Blackberry has largely been blowing smoke about the security of their consumer-grade backend infrastructure.

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Ars tests Internet surveillance—by spying on an NPR reporter

Ars tests Internet surveillance—by spying on an NPR reporter:

A week spent playing NSA reveals just how much data we leak online.

This is an absolutely terrific piece of technical journalism. If you ever wanted to know the significance of the data that ‘leaks’ from your phone, laptop, and other computing devices then this is an absolute must-read piece.

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Cyberbullying law would let police ‘remotely hack into computers, mobile devices, or cars’

Cyberbullying law would let police ‘remotely hack into computers, mobile devices, or cars’:

Experts say police would be able to install viruses, or malware, into the electronics of anyone suspected of a crime, after gaining judicial approval.

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“There’s a series of different tactics that they could adopt. They could engage in phishing schemes — deliberately serving infected files to computers — or it could involve sending URLs to people’s emails and when they click it, it infects their computers,” he said, adding that it could also involve installing malicious apps onto Canadians’ smartphones that work as listening devices. Police could even hack into a car’s OnStar to keep tracking of location, and call logs.

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While C–13 is intended to target transmission data — call information, IP address, and location data — Mr. Parsons said it’s entirely possible that C–13 could capture basic data from Canadians’ Skype conversations, as well as a vast field of other digital information. “That’s the way that it reads,” he says.

The powers would still be subject to judicial oversight. The warrants are valid for two months for most crimes, but extends that to a year if the crime is terrorism-related, or if the suspect is connected to a criminal organization.

“Compounding that, there’s no reporting required,” Mr. Parsons said. “We won’t know if it’s 10 requests a year, a hundred requests a year, a thousand requests a year, or a million requests a year.”

Mr. Parsons calls it the dawn of Canadian ‘‘Govware.’’ Passing this bill, as is, said Mr. Parsons, “risks introducing significant, and poorly understood, new powers to the Canadian authorities.”

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Mr. Fraser and Mr. Parsons raise the practical implication of the procurement process for this sort of software. If Ottawa contracts out the creation of a digital snooping program, it risks legitimizing the creation of malware, said Mr. Parsons, adding that Ottawa should be fighting to improve the security of our electronics, not exploiting their weaknesses.

Another good piece by Justin Ling, who is quickly becoming a key go-to reporter for all federal government issues privacy- and surveillance-related issues.

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A Crisis of Accountability — The Canadian Situation

A Crisis of Accountability — The Canadian Situation:

The significance of Edward Snowden’s disclosures is an oft-debated point; how important is the information that he released? And, equally important, what have been the implications of his revelations? Simon Davies, in association with the Institute of Information Law of the University of Amsterdam and Law, Science, Technology & Social Studies at the Vrie Universiteit of Brussels, has collaborated with international experts to respond to the second question in a report titled A Crisis of Accountability: A global analysis of the impact of the Snowden revelations.

You can read about the state of Canada, as well as the rest of the report, over at Technology, Thoughts, and Trinkets.

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Teksavvy and Rogers publish transparency reports highlighting the extent of government data requests

Teksavvy and Rogers publish transparency reports highlighting the extent of government data requests:

Third-party internet provider Teksavvy and Rogers, one of the largest ISPs in Canada, have published the first Canadian telecommunications transparency reports.

Both Teksavvy and Rogers have released documents detailing the subscriber information both companies have released to police and spy agencies over the last few years. Teksavvy disclosed their transparency report first and then Rogers followed soon after.