Privacy Challenges and Regulation – Danielle Miller Olofsson

Concerns about the impact of the internet on privacy have been growing in recent years Danielle Miller Olofsson discusses how information technology impacts privacy, including with the rapidly increasing role of artificial intelligence. Many governments, especially in Europe, have introduced legislation to address privacy issues and Danielle discusses their effectiveness. She also describes regulation in …

Questions About Privacy

The annual survey of students of MSci 442 consistently ranks privacy as the topic or most concern, amongst those covered in the course. This is a view that is widely held in the general population. There is debate over the level public awareness of the data that is collected as people are online and of …

The Impact of Data Analytics – An Interview With Stephane Hamel

Stephane Hamel discusses the impact that data analytics is having on society today. He argues that the collection and use of data by organisations should be of significant concern to the public and and that efforts to regulate this by governments have thus far been less effective than is necessary. Stephane recently interviewed Cambridge Analytica's …

My Big Data: Concerns, Opportunities and Policies

The Social Disruption Survey, conducted earlier this year and reported in this blog, identifies Privacy as, of the issues that it considered, the area of greatest public concern in the impact that information technology is having on society. Personal use of information technology has many benefits for many people. In addition to enabling global communications, it provides …

Interview with Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner, Province of Ontario

Interview with Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner, Province of Ontario. The discussion focused on the definition of privacy, how the internet is impacting privacy, privacy in people's lives and whether privacy is dead. Ann's concept of Privacy by Design was outlined and examples provided for it and she commented on government collection of data …

Information Technology and Privacy – 2014 Update

Since this blog began in 2011, Online Privacy and the issues associated with it have continued to evolve at a rapid pace. This post reports on issues that have emerged in the past year and the responses to them Jack Vale, an online prankster produced an amusing video that highlights the nature of the risks …

Information Technology and Privacy – 2013 Update

The original post on Information Technology and Privacy was published in 2011. That post discussed a number of areas of privacy including consumer privacy, social media and privacy, national security, legislation and law enforcement and also looked particularly at Facebook, Google and Wikileaks as applied examples on the privacy landscape. This post provides updates on consumer …

Interview with Rainey Reitman, Activism Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation

I spoke with Rainey Reitman about the internet and privacy. We discussed the current privacy situation, Google's privacy changes and privacy legislation currently being discussed in many countries. We also covered Wikileaks and Rainey gave advice on what people can do if they are concerned about internet privacy. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP-_GRBiEG0 Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSrIlmWuTsw Part 3: …

Information Technology and Privacy 2012 Update

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiQ_2h-CwPU&feature=player_embedded I have left the posting on Information Technology and Privacy from 2011 intact and am posting here additional content for 2012. This appears in the following areas. The above video illustrates the continuing complacency about privacy amongst many internet users. The following video makes this argument more forcefully. In 2012 the threat posed by …

Week 6: Information Technology and Privacy

Surveillance and information gathering has reached worrying magnitudes for many in the internet enabled world. This week we will consider the following questions about information technology and privacy: 1. What is privacy today? 2. What is the current internet privacy position? 3. What are the internet risks to privacy? 4. What impact does social media have …