On January 20, 2014 the Citizen Lab along with leading Canadian academics and civil liberties groups asked Canadian telecommunications companies to reveal the extent to which they disclose information to state authorities. This post summarizes and analyzes the responses from the companies, and argues that the companies have done little to ultimately clarify their disclosure policies. We conclude by indicating the subsequent steps in this research project.

Canadians should demand more from government in reigning in electronic spying and cyber-policing. But we should also, as citizens, subscribers, and users, demand more from our internet and telecommunication service providers.

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert spoke about the security challenges governments face in the digital environment.

A top secret document leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden and obtained by CBC News shows that “Canada’s electronic spy agency, the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), used information from the free internet service at a major Canadian airport to track the wireless devices of thousands of ordinary airline passengers for days after they left the terminal.”

Canadian scholars and civil liberties organizations have come together to ask that many of Canada’s most preeminent telecommunications companies disclose the kinds, amounts, and regularity at which state agencies request telecommunications data pertaining to Canadians.

February 28, 2014

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert wrote a joint commentary with Ann Cavoukian, Andrew Clement and Nathalie Des Rosiers in the Globe and Mail today about the lack of accountability of the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC).

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert was interviewed in The Hill Times about Canada’s role in rapidly-changing cyberspace.

Citizen Lab Senior Researcher Sarah McKune was profiled in the Review of Free Expression in Canada, published each year by the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE).

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert and Senior Researcher Sarah McKune wrote an op-ed on the digital arms trade in the 13 March edition of the Ottawa Citizen.