News
Citizen Lab's latest news and announcements.
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.
Independent Peer Review of Amnesty International’s Forensic Methods for Identifying Pegasus Spyware
Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International requested that the Citizen Lab undertake an independent peer review of a sample of their forensic evidence and their general forensic methodology. We were provided with iTunes backups of several devices and a separate methodology brief, and independently validated that Amnesty International’s forensic methodology correctly identified infections with NSO’s Pegasus spyware.
Correspondence between the Citizen Lab and NSO Group Regarding The Great iPwn
In its most recent response to the Citizen Lab regarding the The Great iPwn report, NSO Group extended an invitation to meet and discuss the Citizen Lab’s concerns and NSO Group’s “program” in more detail. We do not believe this invitation is made in good faith and have declined.
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.
Citizen Lab Responds to NSO Group and Continued Spyware Abuse
As highlighted by a coalition of human rights organizations in a letter to NSO Group released today, NSO Group continues to fail in human rights compliance. The company has fallen far short of numerous promises and commitments it made, in particular with regards to transparency and its human rights due diligence framework.
University of Toronto Magazine: The Extremism Machine
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.
Bill C-11 Explained
On April 22, the Citizen Lab published recommendations for Bill C-11, proposed updates to Canadian federal commercial privacy legislation. In this explainer, we discuss those recommendations with Christopher Parsons, the post’s lead author.
Canada’s Proposed Privacy Law Reforms Are Not Enough: A Path to Improving Organizational Transparency and Accountability
Given our experiences, we have specific recommendations for how any federal commercial privacy legislation must be amended to better protect individuals from the predations and power of private organizations. In making our recommendations we have chosen to focus almost exclusively on the Openness and Transparency, Access to and Amendment of Personal Information, and Whistleblower sections of Bill C-11.
Ron Deibert Receives ISA Award
Citizen Lab founder and director, Ron Deibert, has been honoured as a Distinguished Scholar by the International Studies Association (ISA). Delivered every two years, the award honours “exceptional scholarship accomplishments and contributions to the development of the study of International Relations in Canada.”