Toronto, ON, January 15, 2014 — The Edward Snowden revelations have highlighted how little Canadians know about their own government’s surveillance operations. The questionable activities of the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) and its “Five Eyes” partner, the NSA, have shown that we are vulnerable to both indiscriminate data collection and warrantless surveillance. There has […]
Praise for the Edward Snowden’s sacrifices comes from an editorial written by Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The writer suggests Snowden’s efforts will long be remembered as heroic: Edward Snowden is a courageous American hero and will be remembered as one long after the “war on terror” is replaced by some other pretext for […]
Edward Snowden’s recent revelations about the NSA spying on its citizens have sent citizens in search of a privacy-focused search engine – enter Privacy by Design Organizational Ambassador, Duck Duck Go. With over 1 billion searches in 2013, Duck Duck Go’s usage more than doubled after the release of the NSA files, demonstrating that online […]
This week, more methods that the NSA uses to gather personal information were revealed. It seems the dragnet for capturing information is more diverse and larger than anyone could have imagined before. Above is journalist Jacob Applebaum’s keynote speech from the 30th Chaos Computer Club conference in Hamburg, Germany. He presents a summary of the multiple ways […]
As even more alarming details about the NSA’s methods were published this weekend, the calls for changes to the surveillance and security polices of Canada continue to grow louder. The National Post‘s Jesse Kline composed an insightful editorial about the pressing need for a national debate outlining that it is not a partisan issue, rather an […]
Journalist Glenn Greenwald spoke with EU Commission committee on mass surveillance yesterday and his full conversation with them is available above. Highlights of the discussion included Greenwald outlining that the NSA’s ultimate objective is that it is “nothing less than the elimination of individual privacy worldwide.” Also yesterday, the United Nations voted on a new resolution to […]
Yesterday’s important ruling which indicated that the NSA’s activities have been illegal and unconstitutional has generated a tremendous amount of discussion. Above, CNN’s Anderson Cooper talks about Snowden’s methods with journalist Glenn Greenwald. Below is a statement from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on the ruling: “Judge Leon’s ruling hits the nail on the head. It makes clear that […]
Some very positive news today as a federal judge has ruled that the NSA’s program which collects information on nearly all telephone calls made to, from or within the U.S. is likely to be unconstitutional. This is a significant setback for the NSA and more lawsuits similiar this one are currently before the courts. The […]
The world’s biggest technology companies today launched a new website demanding changes to the secretive ways the world’s governments are collecting personal data from the internet. This collection of technology leaders are calling for greater transparency and significant legal reforms to protect personal privacy. Sensing that the public is losing the trust in technology firms, Microsoft, Yahoo, […]
This past weekend, Colin Freeze of the Globe and Mail published a detailed overview of how CSEC became such a large organization. The agency’s growth since the events of 9/11 have been enormous and its budget has increased by more than $175 million. The article describes its framework and responsibilities, its historic relationship with the “Five Eyes” […]
