On February 28, 2011, our Office is holding its second Insights on Privacy armchair discussion. We've invited behavioural economist Alessandro Acquisti and sociologist Christena Nippert-Eng to talk about what motivates us to reveal or conceal details of our personal lives, and how we protect the private lives of others around us.
Read moreData Privacy Day 2011
Read moreMany people will be getting shiny, new wireless gadgets this holiday season. This might be a new smart phone, a laptop or netbook computer, or a tablet such as the iPad. One of the most attractive features of these devices is that they can connect to the Internet wirelessly, using Wi-Fi networks found in homes, offices, and many public locations (hotspots). This is a great feature, but it does come with risks.
Read moreThe Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) is holding the first armchair discussion in its Insights on Privacy Speakers’ Series. Our first event will take place on Friday, December 10th with Chris Soghoian and Jesse Hirsh. Chris and Jesse will report from the frontiers of the privacy landscape and give their thought-provoking insights into what the future of privacy might look like. Known as stimulating speakers, Chris and Jesse will no doubt push some boundaries and engage the audience on their assumptions and understanding of privacy, identity and reputation online.
Read moreSome of our public education efforts at the OPC focus on talking to young people about online privacy. How they face the challenges of controlling their information online and protecting their privacy is an important skill to surviving – and thriving- in a digital environment. Increasingly, we see it as part of a suite of skills necessary for digital citizenship.
Read moreLast week, you may have heard about Firesheep, a plug-in for the Firefox web browser that lets an eavesdropper take over another user's session—such as a login to Twitter or Facebook—by intercepting packets on a local network and copying the victim’s cookie. What Firesheep does is to take advantage of a known security flaw and make it easy to exploit, by carrying out sidejacking (or session hijacking). There are two main parts to this exploit:
Read moreHave you ever looked yourself up online and wondered how companies you have never heard of know your name? Where did they get your information and what are they using it for?
Read moreWith new technologies emerging all the time, it can be hard to stay in the loop in terms of privacy. Many applications and websites have privacy settings, but using them might not always be straightforward or obvious (or even seem to matter), especially to youth. That’s why the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is proud to be a sponsor of the Youth Privacy Online Conference in Toronto, held on Wednesday, December 1st.
Read moreBy now, many of you have heard of the information that is “leaking” from Facebook applications, and how this wide-ranging problem might affect your personal privacy.
Read moreUnderstanding how we construct and manage our online reputations is crucial in our understanding of how people determine what to make public and what to keep private in online environments. The interview below, with Firefox's Creative Director Aza Raskin, has some interesting observations on what the construction of identity and memories could look like in the future. Also, around 4:35, he talks about the work Mozilla has been doing to create a set of privacy icons in the style of Creative Commons licences to help people understand how their data is being collected and used.
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