Citizen Lab Research Manager Masashi Crete-Nishihata was interviewed by Al Jazeera regarding censorship practices in popular Asian instant messaging applications.

Strathmore Law School in Kenya and the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) have published a report on Internet shutdown in Ethiopia.

In this report we analyze Windows and Android versions of web browser UC Browser, and find they transmitted personally identifiable information with easily decryptable encryption and were vulnerable to arbitrary code execution during software updates

This report describes a malware operation against the Syrian Opposition. We name the operator Group5, and suspect they have not been previously-reported. Group5 used “just enough” technical sophistication, combined with social engineering, to target computers and mobile phones with malware.

The following is a statement from Citizen Lab Director, Ron Deibert, concerning a defamation suit recently filed, and then discontinued by Netsweeper against the University of Toronto and Ron Deibert.

The United States Department of Homeland Security has filed a proposal to collect social media details from visitors to the country. Citizen Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Christopher Parsons commented on the privacy implications of the proposal, as well as broader trends in social media monitoring by security officials.

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert authored an op-ed for CBC News detailing the newly revamped Access My Info tool, which now includes fitness trackers and dating applications. The tool allows Canadians to exercise their right to inquire about the information that technology companies store about them.

The DIY Transparency Report tool helps smaller organizations produce holistic transparency reports. Such reports comprehensively explain to customers, citizens, and government agencies alike how an organization can, and does, receive and respond to government requests. It does so by guiding organizational members through the process of developing a holistic report, while empowering them to customize their reports to reflect their organizational profile.

Access My Info (AMI), a web tool used to submit disclosure requests to companies on the data they collect and share with third parties about their customers, has now been expanded to submit disclosure requests to fitness tracker companies and dating applications.

Citizen Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Christopher Parsons reviewed documents on BlackBerry for the CBC, and was interviewed by VICE on Canada’s RCMP’s use of IMSI catchers.