BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
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Lack of appropriate safeguards led to 23andMe data breach, joint investigation finds
Inadequate security measures opened the door to a data breach discovered two years ago at genetic testing company 23andMe, Canada’s privacy watchdog says. Privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne and U.K. information commissioner John Edwards released the findings from their joint investigation of the breach, which affected almost seven million people, including nearly 320,000 in Canada. Dufresne…
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Border bill raises questions about expanded data sharing with U.S.: Citizen Lab
An organization that monitors the effect of information flows on human rights says the new federal border security bill appears to “roll out a welcome mat” for expanded data-sharing agreements with the United States and other countries. Researchers with The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto say they want the federal government to reveal…
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After Minnesota shooting, some states are more tightly guarding officials’ personal information
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lawmakers in some states are moving to delete their home addresses from online directories and Wisconsin legislators are seeking added security for a session this week after one Minnesota legislator was killed and another wounded in their suburban Minneapolis homes last weekend in what Gov. Tim Walz described as a targeted…
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B.C. police secretly took DNA from Kurdish community in tea-cup sting to solve murder
Undercover police investigating the murder of a 13-year-old girl in British Columbia disguised themselves as tea marketers to secretly collect the DNA of about 150 Kurdish community members, court recordings reveal. Homicide officers said the DNA was obtained at a 2018 Kurdish New Year celebration in Burnaby, where police handed out free tea samples in…
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Canada should not fall behind on implementing safety measures for children online
This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. ___ Author: Azfar Adib, Public Scholar & PhD Candidate, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University Recent legislation about age verification for adult content sites has sparked…
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Microsoft lets cloud users keep personal data within Europe to ease privacy fears
LONDON (AP) — Microsoft said Thursday that it is upgrading its cloud computing service to let customers store all personal data within the European Union instead of having it flow to the U.S. where national privacy laws don’t exist. The changes apply to services including Azure, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Dynamics 365, the Seattle-based…
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Amid firestorm created by Austin’s cancer secrecy, missed opportunities to build trust and educate
WASHINGTON (AP) — The secrecy surrounding Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalizations due to prostate cancer surgery set off a political firestorm, launched multiple reviews and triggered calls for his ouster. To some, the uproar may be puzzling or even offensive. An individual’s right to privacy, particularly about medical issues, is sacred. And most people have…
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B.C. writer Galloway can proceed with defamation lawsuit against rape accuser: court
Novelist and former University of British Columbia professor Steven Galloway has won a years-long battle to have his defamation lawsuit proceed against a woman who says he sexually assaulted her, an allegation he denies. The case at the B.C. Court of Appeal was a high-profile test of laws in B.C., Ontario and Quebec that aim…
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Meta offers Canadian Facebook users $51M to settle lawsuit in 4 provinces
A multimillion-dollar settlement proposed by Meta sends a message to other companies about the importance of paying attention to the country’s privacy laws, says a lawyer representing Canadians in the class-action lawsuit against the social media giant. Meta is offering $51 million to settle the lawsuit in four provinces over Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories” advertising program,…
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Government was warned two years ago high immigration could affect housing costs
Federal public servants warned the government two years ago that large increases to immigration could affect housing affordability and services, internal documents show. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press through an access-to-information request show Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada analyzed the potential effects immigration would have on the economy, housing and services, as it prepared…
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Federal prosecutor in NY issues call for whistleblowers in bid to unearth corruption, other crimes
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who presides over one of the largest and busiest offices of prosecutors in the nation in Manhattan, issued what amounts to a casting call for whistleblowers Wednesday in a bid to discover non-violent crimes his office doesn’t yet know about. The prosecutor whose Southern District of New…