Privacy fears spur public forums
Everyone is collecting information on someone — big government, big business, colleagues and competitors, friends, family and maybe even ex-lovers.
It seems like surveillance and spying are the new currencies of the digital age.
That’s leading to a growing unease with, and lack of trust in, the Internet itself, much less the systems, regulators and companies that keep the web working and accessible.
Although there has been little official debate on this important issue, whistleblowers are certainly pushing the agenda. The technology industry itself is now starting to show concern about unfettered government surveillance, and there are calls for strong, effective, genuinely transparent and truly independent oversight of the Internet’s operation.
“It can’t be just engineers, it can’t be just product managers ... We need to make sure that technology serves society and empowers us, makes us better people and makes the world a better place,” warns Jules Polonesky, director of the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank.
Public calls for proper legal and technical safeguards to secure online privacy rights are being voiced in a number of new venues across the country: Polonesky himself is part of a new Canadian web video series about digital privacy in a hyper-connected world, and how it affects our relationships with friends, families, colleagues and communities.
Magazine publisher The Walrus and digital developer rdigitaLIFE created Private Life: The Paradox of the Digital Age; Ramona Pringle, Ryerson University professor and independent filmmaker, is host and producer.
The six-part series features noted Canadian and international privacy experts and technology commentators who debate notions of privacy and public good, and discuss what we give up and what we gain from our digital bargain with the new surveillance state.
Surveillance by that state is surely a global issue now, the commentators note: business data and personal information is sent across borders and into the cloud in ways that require broad new measures to protect against unwanted, unwarranted or illegal intrusion by any public or private sector entity.
It’s time for a kind of interna- tional digital bill of rights, they say, with global mechanisms to hold (data) users accountable for the safety and security of the information they collect, while also keeping those who provide the data — willingly or unwillingly, that’s us — well-educated and informed about its treatment.
Those are among the topics for discussion on the upcoming International Privacy Day, and a special Symposium to be held Jan. 28 in Toronto, hosted by Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.
Big surveillance demands big privacy, says Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, and she’s assembling the experts needed to form a response to that demand.
The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta is planning a free, fullday forum about data privacy in Edmonton on Jan. 28, as well.
Another upcoming event, the Pathways to Privacy Research Symposium, is to be organized and hosted by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) with support of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in March.
With its theme of Helping Canadians Find Pathways to Privacy, conference sessions in Toronto will be open to the public and available via a live webcast.