This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, September 27th.   We hope everyone’s had a great Right to Know Week.  It’s been a big one — with privacy commissioners at both the national and provincial level releasing major findings, and a wave of stories that give us plenty to dig into.  We’ll begin here […]

The federal government is putting together a task force to guide its next steps on artificial intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon is promising an update to the government’s AI strategy. Solomon told the All In artificial intelligence conference in Montreal on Wednesday that the “refreshed” strategy will be tabled later this year, “almost […]

A former Royal Bank of Canada employee faces criminal charges after allegedly accessing the personal information of Prime Minister Mark Carney. Ibrahim El-Hakim, 23, of Ottawa, is charged with fraud over $5,000, unauthorized use of a computer, identity theft and trafficking in identity information. RCMP Cpl. Erique Gasse said El-Hakim allegedly used the RBC’s information […]

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has ordered a senior U.S. Justice Department official to drop an inquiry into a retired FBI agent’s involvement in a defamation lawsuit involving Alex Jones’ conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Ed Martin Jr., who leads the Justice Department’s […]

On a summer morning beside a flowing stream on Christian Island in southern Georgian Bay, Ontario, high school students bend low to scoop water and peer into its depths.  Equipped with scientific tools and curiosity, their tasks are prosaic: they test the water’s quality, search for aquatic insects and map their local watershed. But their […]

CHICAGO (AP) — Police body camera footage released Tuesday shows a federal immigration agent who fatally shot a Mexican immigrant describing his own injuries during a vehicle pursuit as “nothing major,” a contrast from the Trump administration’s characterization of events in suburban Chicago earlier this month. The Department of Homeland Security has said the officer […]

Limits on the collection of Nova Scotians’ social insurance numbers are part of a sweeping bill tabled on Tuesday by the provincial government as the legislature opened for its fall sitting. The bill includes one new piece of legislation and amends seven other acts dealing with issues as diverse as domestic violence and protests that […]

Nova Scotia’s official Opposition says it will pressure the government to address affordability during the fall legislature sitting, starting by introducing legislation to lower power bills.  NDP Leader Claudia Chender told reporters Tuesday morning her party’s bill would issue a rebate to residents that would lower Nova Scotia Power bills by 10 per cent. “Since […]

Federal and provincial privacy authorities say TikTok’s efforts to keep children off the platform and prevent the collection and use of their sensitive personal information were “inadequate.” The privacy watchdogs released the results of their joint investigation into TikTok today. They say that while the platform isn’t meant for kids under 13, they found hundreds […]

SAO PAULO (AP) — Gunmen in a car opened fire last November at Sao Paulo’s airport and killed a cryptocurrency entrepreneur in a daytime hit that was one of Brazil’s most shocking recent crimes. Police at the scene recovered three semiautomatic rifles that are restricted for civilian use. The case highlighted a growing trend: Restricted-use, […]

Canada’s auditor general wants to know whether the federal government is doing a good job protecting its assets — including dams, buildings, vehicles and more — from the increasingly severe impacts of climate change. The Department of National Defence received a notification letter — obtained by Canada’s National Observer through an access to information request […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday signed an order designating a decentralized movement known as antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, though whether he can actually do that remained unclear. Trump blames antifa for political violence. The Republican president said on social media last week during a state visit to the United Kingdom […]