The last few months have been interesting. Two of the leading purveyors of facial recognition technology (Microsoft and Amazon Web Services) have all but admitted that the technology is not yet suitable for unsupervised automated decision-making. Apparently, humans are still… Read More ›
Surveillance
Covert DNA data banks in Canada: Quebec Court of Appeal is split
“Is the state free to collect the DNA of persons under suspicion of criminal activity by tricking them into giving up their DNA, keeping those samples indefinitely and using them as they see fit, without any prior authorization and without… Read More ›
Problematic Ontario Pawnbrokers Act to be repealed
An interesting nugget in the Ford government’s recently introduced Bill 66, titled “Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018” is Schedule 2, which repeals the Pawnbrokers Act. The repeal of the Pawnbrokers Act will end legislation that has, for more than 100… Read More ›
Possible purposes for a smart city public digital stewardship
Sidewalk Labs (a Google affiliate) asserted in a blog post accompanying its October 15, 2018 smart city draft governance proposal that the Sidewalk Toronto project at Quayside “can set a new model for responsible data use in cities – anchored… Read More ›
Statistics Canada – A failure of contextual integrity
It isn’t about whether Statistics Canada has a legal right to compel data about Canadians from financial institutions and credit reporting agencies. It isn’t about whether Statistics Canada has a good cybersecurity track record. It isn’t about whether the data… Read More ›
Trains, Voice and Video Recorders, and PIPEDA
In a late move, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has raised concerns with the privacy exceptions in Bill C-49 regarding the use of locomotive voice and video recorders (LVVRs). The exceptions would diminish the protections of railway… Read More ›