Category: privacy

Tweak Your Tech Settings to Protect Your Privacy

So much of our sensitive personal data is being tracked and sold that trying to protect our privacy can seem like a pointless exercise. We can disable the location tracking on phone apps only to find new apps stalking us the next time we check. We can turn off personalized advertising and still get bombarded…


Police Use of Facial Recognition Technology Could Threaten Charter Rights: Lawyers

The use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement without the proper legal safeguards in place threatens privacy, free speech, and peaceful assembly rights protected under the Charter, a technology and human rights lawyer says. Testifying before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics on March 21, Cythnia Khoo said the use of…


Big Brother Is Getting Bigger

“This is a surveillance tool, and it’s disguised as a payment mechanism,” Erik Bethel said of the Chinese regime’s new digital currency. In this episode of “American Thought Leaders,” host Jan Jekielek and Bethel, a global finance analyst, discuss the situation in China, and the threat of the digital yuan to the U.S. economy and to…


Tory MP Asks Privacy Commissioner to Investigate Hack of Freedom Convoy Fundraiser

Conservative MP and ethics critic James Bezan is asking the privacy commissioner to investigate the hacking of the GiveSendGo crowdfunding platform and subsequent leak of private information on donors to the Freedom Convoy fundraiser. “The illegal hacking of crowdfunding platforms and email accounts has resulted in tens of thousands of Canadians’ personal information being circulated…


Privacy Advocates Push for Government-Wide Facial Recognition Restrictions

After a recent successful campaign for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to dump its facial recognition program, privacy activists are now turning their attention to other agencies that use the technology. Reports last month of IRS requirements for taxpayers to upload selfies for an identity verification program run through ID.me prompted immediate backlash from public…


Commons Calls for Halt to Collection of COVID 19 Phone Data Over Privacy Concerns

OTTAWA—The House of Commons called on the government Tuesday to suspend plans by the Public Health Agency of Canada to collect data from millions of mobile phones to help understand travel patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. MPs passed a motion urging the government to suspend a plan to extend the collection of cellphone location data…


Commons Ethics Committee Wants Cellphone Data Collection Halted Over Privacy Concerns

OTTAWA—The House of Commons ethics committee has called for a halt to the Public Health Agency of Canada’s plans to collect data from millions of mobile phones as a way to understand travel patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee passed a motion Monday calling on the federal government to suspend plans to extend the…


Penn State Employee: Medical Privacy Has Taken a Back Seat During the Pandemic

Penn State University Reference and Instruction Librarian Sarah Hartman-Caverly holds privacy in high regard. That is why she has not disclosed her vaccination status to her employer. She says vaccination mandates should stimulate a public conversation about medical and digital privacy. She works at the Berks County campus of Penn State University. Penn State required…


Digital Pound Could Hit Financial Stability and Erode Privacy, UK Lawmakers Warn

LONDON—A digital pound used by consumers could harm financial stability, raise the cost of credit and erode privacy, though a version for wholesale use in the financial sector demands greater appraisal, British lawmakers said on Thursday. Britain’s central bank and finance ministry said in November they would hold a consultation this year on whether to…


Conservatives Ask Privacy Czar to Probe Pandemic Related Use of Mobile Location Data

OTTAWA—A Conservative MP is asking Canada’s privacy commissioner to investigate federal reliance on data from mobile devices to understand travel patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter to privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien, Tory MP John Brassard accuses the Public Health Agency of Canada of secretly using the pandemic to violate the privacy of Canadians….