Legal researchers Cynthia Khoo and Kate Robertson warn that a Canada-U.S. CLOUD agreement would extend the reach of U.S. law enforcement into Canada’s digital terrain to an unprecedented extent, and that if signed, this agreement would effectively allow U.S. police to demand personal data directly from any provider of an “electronic communication service” or “remote computing service” in Canada, so long as it had some ties to the U.S.

In an opinion piece in the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Noura Aljizawi, senior researcher at The Citizen Lab, sheds light on the growing threat of disinformation in Syria, even after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. While the end of Assad’s authoritarian rule was celebrated as a victory, Aljizawi warns that disinformation—once the… Read more »

In an opinion piece for The Globe and Mail, The Citizen Lab’s Emile Dirks, Siena Anstis, Noura Aljizawi, and Ron Deibert, argue that while the final report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions (the Hogue Commission) found no evidence of Canadian MPs collaborating with foreign states to… Read more »

In a Q&A for the Digital Front Lines report by Foreign Policy Analytics, The Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert and human rights activist Carine Kanimba talk about the psychological impact of being targeted by mercenary spyware and the growing threat of surveillance technologies being misused by both state and non-state actors. They discuss how spyware… Read more »

Ron Deibert discusses the growing risks of tech-driven authoritarianism and the deregulation of the AI industry in this episode of Beyond the Headlines (BTH). This episode explores the critical dynamics of how tech giants have come to dominate political discourse, featuring the Citizen Lab’s director Ron Deibert, and Prof. Andres Kasekamp of the Department of… Read more »

China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot has raised serious privacy concerns. Speaking with Kevin Collier at NBC News, The Citizen Lab’s director, Ron Deibert, remarks that the privacy problems regarding DeepSeek are not limited to Chinese platforms, and that personal information is also used by U.S. artificial intelligence platforms. Read the article here. 

Ron Deibert, director of The Citizen Lab, discusses his new book, Chasing Shadows, with CityNews journalist Faiza Amin, offering insights into his experiences and the world of surveillance. Chasing Shadows dives deep into the world of digital espionage and misinformation, revealing how authoritarian governments monitor individuals through an insecure digital ecosystem in an attempt to… Read more »

Our network security analysis of the popular social media app, RedNote, revealed a number of issues with both the Android and iOS versions of the app.

RightsCon, the world’s leading summit on human rights in the digital age, is just around the corner and will be held in Taipei, Taiwan and online from February 24–27, 2025.  Researchers from The Citizen Lab are scheduled to speak in a series of discussions, panels, and workshops at RightsCon addressing some of the most urgent… Read more »

Jon Penney, research fellow at The Citizen Lab and an associate professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, writes an insightful opinion piece in the Globe and Mail critiquing U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempt to delay the enforcement of the TikTok ban.    Penney argues that Trump’s executive order is legally flawed… Read more »