BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
-
Outside of Gene Hackman’s home, where the actor was found dead, is shown in body cam footage
ALBUQUERQE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities have released body camera footage from outside the home of Gene Hackman, where the actor and wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in late February. The redacted footage shows deputies talking with the two workers who called authorities to report seeing someone lying on the floor inside the home. With…
-
Trump officials texted attack plans to a group chat in a secure app that included a journalist
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top national security officials for President Donald Trump, including his defense secretary, texted plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, the magazine reported in a story posted online Monday. The National Security Council said the text…
-
Self-professed ‘DOGE person’ Frank Bisignano gets his confirmation hearing to lead Social Security
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration faced questions Tuesday at his confirmation hearing about efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency to close field offices and cut back on phone service at the beleaguered agency. Frank Bisignano, a self-professed “DOGE person,” was called to account for recent upheaval…
-
German government pushes back on call to close Facebook page
BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Monday pushed back against a demand by the country’s data protection commissioner to take down its Facebook page over data privacy concerns. The commissioner, Ulrich Kelber, said Wednesday that he had given the government’s press office four weeks to shut down the page. “All public agencies have a…
-
Black activist who became PM of Dominica was target of RCMP dirty tricks: documents
OTTAWA — It has long been known that the RCMP Security Service took a keen interest in Roosevelt “Rosie” Douglas, a Black rights activist who attended school in Canada and would go on to be prime minister of Dominica. But recently released records reveal just how far the Mounties would go in the early 1970s…
-
School boards urge Ontario to lift moratorium on closures
TORONTO — Ontario’s public school boards are calling on the province to lift a moratorium on school closures and to finally complete a review — started six years ago — of how those closure decisions get made. The previous Liberal government first promised the review and enacted the moratorium in 2017, when it was under…
-
Indigo employees’ data breached in ransomware attack
A ransomware attack compromised the data of current and former employees at Canada’s biggest bookstore chain, Indigo Books & Music Inc. says. In a statement on its website, Indigo said the breach on Feb. 8 left no indication that customers’ personal information, such as credit card numbers, had been accessed, but that “some employee data…
-
Privacy commissioners looking into TikTok should investigate other apps: expert
TORONTO — At least one public policy expert says an investigation into TikTok launched by Canada’s Privacy Commissioner should prompt a similar look into other apps. Vass Bednar, the executive director of the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society at McMaster University, says issues around consent and data collection surround several TikTok rivals. While…
-
TikTok investigation sign of data privacy, geopolitical climate: academics
TORONTO — An investigation into TikTok launched by Canada’s Privacy Commissioner this week is a symptom of growing unrest around data privacy, but also a sign of the extent of geopolitical tensions, academics say. The investigation revealed Thursday by the federal privacy watchdog and its counterparts in B.C., Alberta and Quebec is meant to delve…
-
Feds fail to disclose Coastal GasLink data on salmon eggs, habitat
Shannon McPhail said she felt like the “world’s biggest schmuck” after reading an email from a senior official at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The official told her it was “impossible to confirm” how many living salmon eggs were in the path of the Coastal GasLink pipeline at a major river crossing. With wild salmon populations…