Transparency and Accountability
Examinations of transparency and accountability mechanisms relevant to the relationship between corporations and state agencies regarding personal data and other surveillance activities.
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Latest Research
Canada Isn’t Doing Its Part to Stop AI Government Surveillance, Citizen Lab Director Says: Financial Post
AI is becoming a buzzword among Canadian policymakers, but should there be more focus on regulation than innovation? In a new article, Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert speaks with the Financial Post about the risks of AI. Generative AI is transformational technology, but lack of oversight poses ethical risks. “It’s astonishing how the industry is able… Read more »
Submission to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security of Bill C-8
Canada’s Bill C-8 (formerly Bill C-26) is proposed cybersecurity legislation that would introduce broad information collection and sharing powers, including the warrantless collection of information from telecommunication providers, and could also undermine encryption and communications security. In a brief submitted by the Citizen Lab to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU)… Read more »
The Citizen Lab’s Submission to the UN on Universal Birth Registration and the Use of Digital Technologies
In a submission to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Citizen Lab researchers warn of the dangerous rhetoric of “birth registration and certification as a prerequisite for other rights” and the risks digital ID infrastructure could pose to human rights.
Canada’s Outdated Laws Leave Spyware Oversight Dangerously Weak
In a new piece for Policy Options, senior research associate Kate Robertson and legal extern Song-Ly Tran discuss how outdated protections in Canada’s decades old wiretap laws fail to protect people in Canada from abuse of spyware technologies.
Unspoken Implications: A Preliminary Analysis of Bill C-2 and Canada’s Potential Data-Sharing Obligations Towards the United States and Other Countries
Our preliminary analysis of Bill C-2 situates the legislation within the context of existing research by the Citizen Lab about two potential data-sharing treaties that are most relevant to the new proposed powers being introduced in Bill C-2: the Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention (2AP) and the CLOUD Act. Both of which carry significant constitutional and human rights risks.