The inaugural edition of the Social Media CyberWatch discusses issues related to privacy awareness.

Citizen Lab joined a global coalition of NGOs to call for the withdrawal of censorship plans in Pakistan.

The past two weeks brought several important developments from Google related to online identity. The big story was Google’s revision to its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service which will go into effect March 1 and uniformly govern most of Google’s services. This raises a question. By adopting the various policy changes mentioned, does Google now have an ability to evaluate the veracity of user information associated with accounts?

On Friday, January 27, 2012, Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert will join Ontario’s Information & Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian to celebrate International Privacy Day in an event titled Beware of “Surveillance by Design:” Standing Up for Freedom and Privacy.

“Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smart phone, faces increasing challenges to its overseas expansion as developing countries tighten restrictions on mobile e-mail.

‘It’s a reflection of fears of cyber-security and espionage that now extend to mobile phones,’ said Ron Deibert, director of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, who helped colleagues uncover a plot against the Indian government that involved computers in China. ‘It’s the type of thing that will become more common for RIM as they grapple with public policy and ethical issues in emerging markets.'”

From San Francisco Chronicle

Affirming that privacy is a fundamental human right set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other human rights instruments and national constitutions; […] From The Public Voice Global Privacy Standards for a Global World The Madrid Privacy Declaration 3 November 2009 Affirming that privacy… Read more »

In a time when every person’s digital life is now turned inside out and electronically dispersed and disaggregated, does it really make sense to think solutions lie in adding to that flood? Law enforcement and intelligence don’t need to sidestep court protections and civil liberties to meet the challenges of cyber crime – they need… Read more »