In a recent article in the National Post, Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinsky discussed the need for Canada to plan a strategy for dealing with the cyberwar that many states will undoubtedly be dragged into. They argued that increased security threats, such as the recently discovered GhostNet spy system that attacked ministries and embassies across […]
A recent Court of Appeal decision in England declared that retention of photos taken of a man by the police long after it was determined that no crime had occurred by the person was a breach of privacy. Andrew Wood was photographed as he was leaving the annual general meeting of Reed Elsevier plc, which […]
Over the past year, authoritarian governments have been cracking down on “subversive” Internet activity, attracting disapproval from human rights groups. However, U.S. technology companies have played an important role in such incidents. In the case of Chinese dissident Shi Tao, Yahoo! surrendered identifying information that allowed the Chinese government to arrest and jail him. To […]
Privacy rights are rights that attach to every individual. Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects them by asserting that “everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and correspondence.” Despite this, we know that our privacy rights (like all our other rights), are not absolute […]
In response to the growing concerns of illicit use of personal information and corresponding adverse consequences such as identity theft, financial disclosures and private health information revelation, the Office of Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) released a document entitled “Guidelines for Processing Personal Data Across Borders” on January 27, 2009. This document provides guidelines explaining […]
A six year quest of the Toronto Star has been finally put to rest by an Ontario Court of Appeal decision favouring a ‘freedom of information’ request filed by the Star. The landmark decision held that municipal government institutions, such as the Toronto Police Services Board (the "Board"), are required to produce electronically stored information that the public […]
On December 2, 2008, the European Court of Human Rights released a decision concerning the prevention of online child exploitation. The decision, K.U. v. Finland, 2 Dec 2008, App No. 2872/02, held that the Finnish government violated the right to private life of a 12-year old boy when it failed to update its telecommunications laws, […]
Last Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights made an important ruling on the privacy of a person’s unique genetic information. The European Court, citing a Supreme Court of Canada decision with approval, determined that it was an illegal violation of a person’s rights to keep a person’s DNA sample when they had no prior […]
In August 2008, New Zealand judge, Justice David Harvey, made a ruling banning the publication of the names of two men who were charged with murder, on news websites. His main concern was the ability of jurors to Google the names of defendants before trials, and easily access information on their past criminal history. He […]
Cory Doctorow is a firm advocate for digital rights and based on his bio, today’s youth can relate to his childhood experience of learning to type even before learning to write. Although, as Doctorow submits, with the advent of technology and especially the world wide web come tools of digital spying and as a result, […]