Submission
The Citizen Lab is at the forefront of investigating and reporting on abuses of mercenary spyware. Our submission highlights the capabilities of spyware and the nature of the spyware industry; how surveillance technology is used to violate fundamental human rights, and more particularly how it is related to enforced disappearances; and we provide recommendations for states, spyware companies, other businesses, civil society, and the Working Group.
In this submission, we urge the TPSB to centre precaution, substantive equality, human rights, privacy protections, transparency, and accountability in its policy on the use of AI technology by the Toronto Police Services (TPS).
Algorithmic policing technologies, including facial recognition, have arrived or are coming to Canadian cities and provinces, and they are doing so quickly. We have identified a number of significant policy, practice, and legal deficits related to the use of algorithmic policing technologies in Canada, including imminent or foreseeable impacts to human rights and fundamental freedoms including the rights to privacy, liberty, and equality, expressive and associational freedoms, and others.
It is encouraging to see the provincial government undertake efforts to improve the state of privacy law in Ontario, given the increasingly ubiquitous data commodification and surveillance of our behaviours, bodies, online and offline activities, and lives. To that end, the Citizen Lab submitted a brief which included 21 recommendations for legal and policy reform in Ontario, with a view to strengthening the privacy and data protection rights of individuals in the province.
This submission outlines Canadian technology companies and the threat they pose to human rights abroad, as well as suggests mechanisms the Government of Canada’s RBC strategy can adopt to address the harmful impacts of Canadian-made technology.
The submission reviews Citizen Lab research on the use of private surveillance technology against human rights actors, describes some of the common practices of concern among private companies in the surveillance industry, and proposes a set of recommendations for the path forward.
In light of Citizen Lab’s recent report which showed that Canadian technology is being used to block LGBTQ2 content in several countries around the world, Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert has penned a letter to MP Randy Boissonnault, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister on LGBTQ2 Issues. Planet Netsweeper revealed that Netsweeper– a company based in Waterloo, […]
In preparation for the Special Rapporteur’s presentation to the UNHRC next June, the submission reviews some of the barriers to addressing problems of technology-facilitated violence, abuse, and harassment against women and girls; contextualizes the complicated environment within which online harassment operates; and suggests recommendations to address, mitigate, and remedy these issues.
In response to the call for submissions of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression regarding the use of encryption and anonymity in digital communications, the Citizen Lab and independent researcher Collin Anderson have submitted a joint analysis, entitled “The need for democratization of digital security solutions to ensure the right to freedom of expression.”
In response to the open call of the newly-established United Nations Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises for input regarding the Working Group’s key thematic priorities and activities, the Citizen Lab submitted its views on the urgent need for greater assessment of and guidance surrounding the surveillance and Internet filtering technology sector.