January 23, 2014

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.

Investigative Journalist Andrei Soldatov was invited to make a contribution to an inquiry on the Russian electronic mass surveillance system.

February 28, 2014

Citizen Lab Security Researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire was interviewed about NSA surveillance for Zeit, Germany’s largest weekly paper.

Professor Deibert spoke about the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, also known as “The Surveillance Games”.

Citizen Lab Researcher Jakub Dalek, along with Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan of Agentura.Ru, gave a talk at the Andrei Sakharov Archives and Human Rights Center in Moscow, Russia on the general security landscape for activists.

What to do about the growing “Digital Arms” market? The spread of technologies like mobile phones and social networks have enabled corporations and governments to eavesdrop on a mass scale. Fulfilling the demand for surveillance tools, a range of companies now sell surveillance backdoors and vulnerabilities, described as “lawful intercept” software.

Citizen Lab Communications Officer Irene Poetranto authored an op-ed in The Jakarta Post on 14 December. In Time for greater transparency, Poetranto writes about the recent spying allegations by the Australian spy agency and the market for surveillance technologies.

Governments’ use of biometric systems have raised privacy concerns and the need for greater transparency and accountability. This is because these systems collect and store individuals’ physical traits such as fingerprints, facial recognition, iris scans, and other personal characteristics. Biometric identification has been criticized as being error-prone and unreliable, as well as being fundamentally detrimental to privacy, free expression, and the right to anonymity, especially with regards to vulnerable individuals such as dissidents, whistleblowers, and journalists. Members of the Cyber Stewards Network are active in efforts to raise awareness on the use of biometric systems and surveillance technologies.