Al Jazeera: How Vulnerable are We to Spying Technology?
Ron Deibert joins Al Jazeera to discuss the history of NSO Group’s Pegasus technology and why the expansive commercial spyware market deserves closer scrutiny and regulatory oversight.
In the Media
Citizen Lab staff and research in the news.
The Tyee: RCMP Secret Facial Recognition Tool Looked for Matches with 700,000 ‘Terrorists’
British Columbia RCMP units secretly used a facial recognition tool that allegedly helps identify terrorists. The tool, provided by U.S.-based IntelCenter, scans images scraped from the Internet, including social media, providing clients with the possibility of matching against more than 700,000 faces the company claims are tied to terrorism.
The Extremism Machine (University of Toronto Magazine)
The Capitol uprising of January 6, 2021, led to intensified discussions regarding the rise of disinformation. John Scott-Railton, Ron Deibert, and Gabrielle Lim comment on the Citizen Lab’s mission to track technological threats against civil society.
The Agenda: Fix Social Media, Save Democracy
Ron Deibert joins TVO’s the Agenda to discuss his latest book, RESET: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society.
CBC: Despite years of war, this Syrian activist remains hopeful of her country’s future
Citizen Lab researcher, Noura Al-Jizawi, reflects on her years as a leader fighting for democratic liberation in Syria. “Speaking about democracy is a bit easy. But working towards making democracy real is a really hard job,” she says.
New York Times: A Year After Wuhan, China Tells a Tale of Triumph (and No Mistakes)
In their reporting on how China handled the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York Times cites Citizen Lab research that outlines information controls on Chinese social media during the outbreak.
The New Yorker: An Air Force Combat Veteran Breached the Senate
John Scott-Railton discusses the techniques he used to help identify individuals in the January 6th insurrection attempts on the US Capitol. Read the full story here.
The Business of Surveillance (Al Jazeera)
Citizen Lab director Ronald Deibert joins Al Jazeera to discuss the growing harms of the global surveillance industry.
Toronto Star: Canada’s Huawei-5G decision risks putting it at odds with Five Eyes allies
Speaking with the Toronto Star, Citizen Lab senior research associate, Dr. Christopher Parsons, comments on the United Kingdom’s move to ban Huawei from the country’s 5G infrastructure. As Canada works to articulate its stance on the Chinese company, it must reconcile its unique relationship with Beijing.
The Guardian: Phone of top Catalan politician ‘targeted by government-grade spyware’
Citizen Lab researchers alert pro-independence individuals were targeted in a “possible case of domestic political espionage.”