SharonM
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These are excerpts from an article from the National Post concerning the Bill C-22
Mark Carney's surveillance state online.
What else can you call a government that’s working to outlaw online anonymity? That plans to ID internet users as if going online is the same as entering a bar? That plans to create the equivalent of a human rights tribunal for offensive speech online?
These are just some of the consequences that will come from Bill C-22 , which could effectively ban VPNs, and Bill C-34 , the proposed internet censorship scheme. While they’re not law yet, there’s little standing in their way now that the Liberals have a majority. Indeed, despite the chorus of objections that have been raised to Bill C-22 by the tech sector and by Canadian civil society, the Liberals fast-tracked it and passed it in the House of Commons on Thursday.
The initial draft of Bill C-22 permitted the government to build a back door into the personal data of every Canadian — thereby breaking encryption and effectively banning the use of VPNs, which mask a user’s internet provider address. It also forced every online service provider to hold on to that data for one year.
Other major problems remain. The bill would allow the public safety minister to make secret orders compelling online service providers to reveal personal data to the government, which those online service providers would be prohibited from notifying the subject of the search. In other words, prepare for warrantless searches made for secret reasons against targets who won’t be allowed to know. It’s a system primed for abuse — especially when taken in concert with the proposed law on online censorship.
While the bill provides for age-verification data to be destroyed after it’s been used, it could still make it easier to track the online behaviour of individuals by forcing users to make accounts to browse websites, and would put their personal privacy in the hands of unsecured age-verification services. For example, in April, the European Union’s forthcoming age verification app was hacked soon after cybersecurity experts got their hands on the code.
Canadians have it bad enough with human rights commissions punishing the expression of opinion already . At the very least, though, there was some shelter in anonymity. The Liberals are planning to take that away by eroding data security, giving themselves the tools to surveil our online activity in secret, and marching us before handpicked internet-comment adjudicators when we say something too harmful for their comfort.
MSN
Mark Carney's surveillance state online.
What else can you call a government that’s working to outlaw online anonymity? That plans to ID internet users as if going online is the same as entering a bar? That plans to create the equivalent of a human rights tribunal for offensive speech online?
These are just some of the consequences that will come from Bill C-22 , which could effectively ban VPNs, and Bill C-34 , the proposed internet censorship scheme. While they’re not law yet, there’s little standing in their way now that the Liberals have a majority. Indeed, despite the chorus of objections that have been raised to Bill C-22 by the tech sector and by Canadian civil society, the Liberals fast-tracked it and passed it in the House of Commons on Thursday.
The initial draft of Bill C-22 permitted the government to build a back door into the personal data of every Canadian — thereby breaking encryption and effectively banning the use of VPNs, which mask a user’s internet provider address. It also forced every online service provider to hold on to that data for one year.
Other major problems remain. The bill would allow the public safety minister to make secret orders compelling online service providers to reveal personal data to the government, which those online service providers would be prohibited from notifying the subject of the search. In other words, prepare for warrantless searches made for secret reasons against targets who won’t be allowed to know. It’s a system primed for abuse — especially when taken in concert with the proposed law on online censorship.
While the bill provides for age-verification data to be destroyed after it’s been used, it could still make it easier to track the online behaviour of individuals by forcing users to make accounts to browse websites, and would put their personal privacy in the hands of unsecured age-verification services. For example, in April, the European Union’s forthcoming age verification app was hacked soon after cybersecurity experts got their hands on the code.
Canadians have it bad enough with human rights commissions punishing the expression of opinion already . At the very least, though, there was some shelter in anonymity. The Liberals are planning to take that away by eroding data security, giving themselves the tools to surveil our online activity in secret, and marching us before handpicked internet-comment adjudicators when we say something too harmful for their comfort.
MSN
