“Do Not Track” – Recent Developments in Internet Privacy

Fresh off successful efforts to quash the Stop Online Piracy Act, a number of internet companies are turning to consumer privacy issues. Web giants like Google and Facebook have been facing mounting political pressure and popular demands for greater user choice and control over privacy settings. In the forefront of the debate is the proposed Do Not Track mechanism to restrict the tracking of user data. In the hands of web service providers and advertisers, information relating to consumers’ online activities –  such as browsing history, search terms and geographical location –  are pieced together to form a digital fingerprint of interests and preferences. This knowledge enables the delivery of personalized content and targeted behavioural advertising. The industry fears that strict privacy measures could negatively impact advertising revenue, a substantial component of corporate growth. Read the rest of this entry »

Google’s New Privacy Policy: Going Too Far?

Anyone who uses one of Google’s multitudes of services recently has been confronted with Google’s new Privacy Policy, which was implemented on the 1^st of March. Internet privacy is obviously a major concern for users and governments alike, and this new policy has been met with mixed reaction. Canadian reaction has suggested that it is a step in the right direction, whereas American lawmakers have asked for changes, and this week the European Union has suggested that the changes are in breach of European law. The multiplicity of reaction means it is important to understand what the changes are and why so many have come to their unique positions about it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Google Announces New Privacy Policy

Last week, Google announced its new privacy policy, which will take effect on March 1. Google is doing away with the over 60 different existing privacy policies for its various products and replace them with one single shorter and simpler privacy policy.

Those who are most affected by this change are people with Google accounts. Under the new privacy policy, if a user is signed in to the Google account, Google will be able to collect and combine user information from across its various products and services. For example, Google will be able to collect and analyze your search terms on the Google search engine and suggest related videos when you next go onto YouTube. This will enable Google to form fuller and more comprehensive user profiles. As Google emphasized in its announcement, this change will allow it “to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.” Read the rest of this entry »

Ontario Court of Appeal Recognizes Tort of “Invasion of Seclusion”

In its recent ruling in Jones v Tsige, the Ontario Court of Appeal formally confirmed the existence of an actionable cause for invasion of seclusion. While the tort of appropriation of personality has long been recognized in Ontario, this appellate decision is the first in the province to give an unequivocal right of action based on breach of privacy. The court surveyed the relevant common law and statutory landscape in Ontario, other provinces, US, and Commonwealth, as well as Charter jurisprudence with respect to the protection of privacy rights. It concluded that “[r]ecognition of such a cause of action would amount to an incremental step that is consistent with the role of this court to develop the common law in a manner consistent with the changing needs of society”.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Phone Book in Your Pocket

In an age where the phone book has nigh become obsolete, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has used it to analogize the federal government’s proposed lawful access legislation. His analogy was a response to serious privacy concerns over the proposed legislation, raised by the likes of Privacy Commissioners at both the federal and provincial levels. Lisa Austin, associate law professor at the University of Toronto, has responded in kind with an op-ed piece in the Globe and Mail. She looks at how this legislation will expand the government’s ability to get access to private internet data without judicial oversight. Are the privacy issues with our telephone usage really the same as the privacy issues with our internet use? Read Prof Austin’s article here.

Carrier IQ faces lawsuits over controversial tracking software

Last week, a furor was caused by software developer Carrier IQ, who develop software used to track mobile phone usage in diagnostic and network monitoring purposes. A researcher, Trevor Eckhart, reverse-engineered his HTC Evo Android phone and found that Carrier IQ’s software tracked his keystrokes, search queries and text messages with no ability to turn it off. He posted his results in a YouTube video showing ostensibly how his information was recorded and transmitted to carriers in the background on his phone. The video attracted massive attention, gathering 1.5 million hits in a week, and evoked a cease-and-desist letter from Carrier IQ’s legal team which they subsequently withdrew and apologized for after the Electronic Frontier Foundation stepped in.

Read the rest of this entry »

Crowdsourcing Justice in the London Riots

Following Vancouver’s example in June, social media has once again been enlisted to help identify the rioters and looters of London’s riots last week. Scotland Yard has posted stills from surveillance cameras on their Flickr account, asking for help in identifying suspects. And independent “name-and-shame” sites have also cropped up, including one Tumblr site called “Catch a Looter”. A twist in London’s case, however, is the potential use of face recognition technology, a tool the Vancouver Police Department declined to use in their investigations.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Legality of Online Anonymity: Two Cases

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently released two decisions, one last month and one last week, on the issue of online anonymity, tackling that delicate balance between competing privacy interests, the public interest of promoting justice by facilitating the prosecution of defamation and the underlying values of freedom of expression. Read the rest of this entry »

Dropbox Accounts Accidentally Open to All for 4 Hours

A code update Monday afternoon introduced a bug which made Dropbox accounts password-free, meaning anyone could have logged into anyone else’s account with only the email address, for about four hours. The breach occurred between 1:54pm and 5:41pm Pacific time and was fixed at 5:46pm. According to Dropbox’s blog post, however, only less than one percent of users logged in during that period. Read the rest of this entry »

LawTech Camp a success

On Saturday, June 18, 2011 the University of Toronto Faculty of law was host to an innovatively structured gathering featuring a series of sessions and discussions on issues relating to law and technology. Based on the idea of BarCamp–user generated gatherings, or “unconferences”–the sessions arose from the suggestions and proposed discussion topics put forward by the participants and attendees at the sessions.

Sponsored by CILP, lawyerlocate.ca, SapnaLaw, Mitchell E. Kowalski and My Legal Briefcase, lawTechcamp featured sessions that dealt with a range of issues, from questions around social media in the courts, privacy issues in the context of corporations and PIPEDA, free access to law through organizations such as CanLII, and the strengths and challenges that arise from cloud computing structures, the topics were diverse and the resulting discussions were at times lively. Read the rest of this entry »