Posts tagged government
Look who’s leading the way in low-cost broadband access
Aug 15th
Here’s something that might be worth emulating by Canadian ISPs.
U.S. cable company and ISP Comcast recently launched Internet Essentials, a program that provides Internet access to low-income households for $9.95 (USD), plus taxes, per month. Upon joining the program, a family will be able to purchase a computer for $149.99. Low-income families that qualify will surely benefit from this service – but the facts behind the program raise questions about the digital divide and the right to digital literacy.
Monica Goyal
Private companies are not normally expected to be altruistic, and in this particular situation altruism has been thrust upon Comcast. When Comcast acquired media company NBC-Universal, one condition of the deal was that Comcast provide broadband access to low-income households without forcing them to subscribe to a cable package.
As I was reading Comcast’s eligibility criteria for Internet Essentials, I was particularly struck by the following criterion: No household owing monies or equipment to Comcast is eligible. Comcast is leveraging this great program to collect monies on the delinquent accounts of some low-income families. Low-income families’ indebtedness might be due in part to the high cable and broadband prices they previously faced. Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese hackers: the root of all evil, or an obvious scapegoat?
Apr 8th
By Claudiu Popa
The Chinese are apparently after our law firms now. They weren’t content to hack Google and the Pentagon. After those hacking attempts on our federal government’s Finance and Treasury Board (considered to have been two of the most secure) departments, denied any wrongdoing.
Claudiu Popa
And now they’ve set their sights on a notoriously low tech industry. But of course, their government vehemently denies it. The nerve! Read the rest of this entry »
2011: The decade of Privacy by Design starts now
Jan 15th
The Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington-based think tank that promotes responsible data practices, recently posted its First Annual List of Privacy Ins and Outs. It’s a playful – but insightful – look at what’s hot and what’s not in the world of privacy for the year ahead.
Ann Cavoukian
I was delighted (and gratified) to see Privacy by Design (PbD) make the list of what’s “in.” 2010 was a great year for Privacy by Design – the made-in-Ontario framework for embedding privacy into the architecture of technologies and practices, right from the outset. Around the world, PbD continued to gather momentum and gain increasingly widespread support. We’re clearly at a tipping point.
So what can look forward to for PbD in 2011? I’m anticipating this year as the launch of the Privacy by Design decade – one that will assure the future of privacy. Here is my “Top 5” list: Read the rest of this entry »
Most BlackBerry owners not concerned about government negotiations
Nov 10th
After a series of governments threatened BlackBerry bans, Research in Motion (RIM) negotiated to avoid service cut-offs. Canadians are split on whether the devices are actually now less secure or not.
In a poll conducted for ITBusiness.ca by Delvinia Data Collection, about six out of 10 BlackBerry owners say they feel their smartphone has about the same level of security. About one-third of respondents felt their device was “slightly less secure” and just under nine per cent felt it was “much less secure.”
A challenge to health IT professionals – patient privacy is in your hands
Oct 22nd
Earlier this year, a health care professional did something seemingly well-intentioned: she placed a USB key into her purse as she left the office, planning to do some further work at home. As it happened, the files in question were the personal health information records of 763 patients.
Ann Cavoukian
Her purse was stolen. And regrettably, all of the records – unencrypted and easily read by anyone – were lost. Lost, too, was any sense of privacy for those 763 patients.
Scenarios such as this have been played out countless times all across Ontario and around the world. Indeed, a U.S. database has documented 121 incidents of mobile computing and storage devices being lost or stolen since September 2009, impacting over five million patients. It’s a privacy problem of epic proportions, compromising the most sensitive and personal types of information possible. And it must stop – now. Read the rest of this entry »
Ambassadors are meeting today’s privacy challenges, head-on
Sep 11th
I recently appeared on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper with an alarming prediction. “World is losing grip on privacy says watchdog – Next decade will be crucial in protecting privacy” rang out the headline.
Ann Cavoukian
I was speaking at the International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust at the University of Ottawa, and my message was that we need to reframe and look at privacy through a new lens, if we expect to enjoy privacy as we know it, into the next decade.
In my two decades as a privacy professional, I would say that the biggest impact on how we think about privacy has come from the explosive growth of information and communications technologies – more specifically, the rise of online social networking and the growing reliance on wireless transmission and mobile devices such as laptops, cell phones, PDA’s and USB keys. The IT revolution not only brought about a myriad of advancements, resulting in everyday benefits to society, but it also gave birth to an entirely new catalogue of privacy concerns. Read the rest of this entry »
Canada’s new privacy bill lacks teeth
Aug 31st
A new bill known as the Safeguarding Canadians’ Personal Information Act, currently passing through Parliamentary approvals, is set to extend Canada’s existing privacy legislation. The bill will force organizations to both report any data breach to the Privacy Commissioner and to notify individuals affected by the breach, “if the organization believes that the breach creates a real risk of significant harm to the individual.”
Michael Collins
But while the sentiment behind this bill – increased transparency when data breaches occur – is sound, the bill lacks teeth.
Individuals will only be notified if the organization believes there is a need – the risk is that businesses simply won’t want to come clean and face losing not just one angry customer, but potentially hundreds should the news spread through social and traditional media channels.
In addition, the threat of financial penalties is notably absent from the bill, so where is the business incentive to comply?
Not yet too late for Ontario, BC SMBs to become HST compliant
Jul 14th
Despite a long government campaign to get taxpayers onboard with the HST which came into effect this July 1st, a majority of small businesses in Ontario and British Columbia are opposed to and unprepared for the new tax regime.
Nestor Arellano
More that 54 per cent of respondents in Ontario and 47 per cent in B.C. won’t be ready to comply with the changes, according to recent survey by poll body Angus Reid Public Opinion for Intuit Canada, a tax software developer.
No less than 35 per cent of respondents in both provinces also admitted they don’t understand the need for the new measures. Read the rest of this entry »
Yahoo! demonstrates new transparency centre
May 3rd
While attending the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s Toronto privacy consultation last week, I caught up with Anne Toth, the head of privacy at Yahoo! Anne was one of the only representatives from online services companies that took part in the event, sitting on a panel about behavioural advertising. Companies such as Google and Facebook were nowhere to be seen, despite the attention those companies have attracted from privacy authorities lately.
Privacy remains a social norm
Apr 12th
Recently, a considerable amount of controversy ensued when Mark Zuckerberg, head of the world’s most popular online social network, Facebook, was misquoted as saying, “privacy is no longer a social norm.” What he actually said was: “People have really gotten comfortable, not only with sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”
But few appear to recall his exact words – the take-away (erroneous though it may be), was that Mr. Zuckerberg no longer considered privacy to be a social norm (reflected in the many calls I received, asking me to respond to that statement). While I would not presume to speak for Mr. Zuckerberg, having spoken with his staff, they confirmed that his words were taken out of context.
