Category: Links

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Links Quotations

2014.7.14

The tax increase comes as airlines face increased volatility in jet-fuel prices because of the crisis in Iraq, and as they continue to adjust to the decline in the value of the Canadian dollar, which has also hit airlines because the price of fuel is measured in U.S. dollars.

Greg Keenan, “Airlines to fight ‘unbelievably punitive’ Ontario fuel tax”

Setting aside whether it’s even a good idea to raise this particular tax – I have some doubts – if you replaced ‘decline’ with ‘increase’ in the quotation it would mirror previous complaints from airlines about raising taxes in the 90s through to today.

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Aside Links

Two Ridiculous Headphones and a Pile of Schiit

Marco has a good piece that analyses the relative value of über-high-end headphones over just-high-end sets. He reaches the unsurprising conclusion that just-high-end is enough for most people. And, in what might surprise some people, that the most technically precise sets aren’t necessarily what you want to spend your money on.

Based on my own purchases of headphones and earphones over the past 5-7 years I definitely tend to agree with him: technically neutral can be super dull to listen to though, at the same time, overly unbalanced sound profiles just destroy the songs and sounds that people pipe into their ears.

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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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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.)

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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.