Rebuilding Canada’s Public Square: Response to the Government of Canada’s Proposed Approach to Address Harmful Content Online
Social media is in many ways the new public square — where most Canadians now connect with friends and family, and engage in civic discourse. It has become increasingly clear that this new square is having a toxic influence on our society and democracy: hate speech and harassment targeting marginalized people; disinformation enabling extremism and […]
Why Canada Must Defend Encryption
Apple has recently announced plans to scan customers’ mobile devices for pictures uploaded to its iCloud servers as well as texts shared through its messaging app for child sexual exploitation materials, raising significant questions and concerns regarding surveillance and reigniting the debate on encryption. Western law enforcement and intelligence agencies have long warned about their […]
See Something, Say Something: Coordinating the Disclosure of Security Vulnerabilities in Canada
ll-intentioned actors are rapidly developing the technological means to exploit vulnerabilities in the web assets, software, hardware, and networked infrastructure of governments around the world. Numerous jurisdictions have adopted the policy approach of facilitating coordinated vulnerability disclosure (CVD) as one means to better secure the public sector’s systems, through which external security researchers are provided […]
Private Messaging, Public Harms: Disinformation and Online Harms on Private Messaging Platforms in Canada
More than eight in ten people in Canada use online private messaging platforms, such as Messenger, WhatsApp and Snapchat; and over half are receiving messages about the news or current events at least weekly. This growing vector for news is coming under increased scrutiny, as evidence from jurisdictions around the world reveal private messaging apps’ […]
‘Contextualization Engines’ can fight misinformation without censorship
Search engines transformed the first decade of the millennium. Recommendation engines revolutionized the second decade. Neither in their current form are sufficient for addressing misinformation. They focus on discovery and primarily rely on relevance. But they are not particularly helpful at many other important information tasks, particularly contextualization. We need better tools to help people […]
Facing the Realities of Facial Recognition Technology
Canada’s federal institutions are collecting, using, and disclosing people’s facial information. They are also increasingly relying on technology that uses this information, in combination with automated decision-making processes, to uniquely identify individuals. This is happening in Canada today, without adequate direction and protection from the Privacy Act. The use of this technology raises significant privacy […]
Facial Recognition Technology Policy Roundtable: What We Heard
In November 2020, the Cybersecure Policy Exchange at Ryerson University and the Tech Informed Policy initiative at McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy co-organized a roundtable on the governance of facial recognition technology (FRT). The event brought together 30 expert stakeholders and government officials under Chatham House Rules, to examine the implications of […]
Home Ice Advantage: Securing Data Sovereignty for Canadians on Social Media
More than three in four Canadians use social media platforms to connect with others here at home and around the world, often sharing life’s most intimate moments through public posts and private messages. In doing so, Canadians entrust these companies to secure and protect their personal data, which can include a wide range of sensitive […]
Advancing a Cybersecure Canada: Introducing the Cybersecure Policy Exchange
Cybersecurity and digital privacy are some of the most pressing challenges facing our modern world. In this report, we lay out our immediate areas of focus for the new Cybersecure Policy Exchange (CPX); explain what these technologies are; share our most-up-to-date understanding of the challenges that each presents to Canadians; and share new research of […]
The Race to Trace: Security and Privacy of COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps
Contact tracing is one of the most discussed and misunderstood policy issues as we grapple with COVID-19. In this, our first report, we explain what contact tracing is, its context, share our most up-to-date understanding of the issue, and reveal Canadians’ attitudes towards the use of the technology. We give policy recommendations to help ensure […]