From the category archives:

Privacy

On Telecoms, Privacy and Tyranny

February 13, 2008

It is a perilous path when companies and governments decide that the law does not matter and the corporation is merely an agent of the state for however it may wish to monitor customers. Yesterday, it was reported that the customer records of more than 3.4 million Canadians were stolen in mid-January. It took four [...]

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How Not to Handle a Privacy Breach

April 25, 2007

Talvest customers’ records missing more than three months and still no explanation from company or privacy watchdog as to what happened. It has now been more than three months since Talvest Mutual Funds, a division of CIBC, reported to the public that a back-up computer record went “missing” during transit. The actual loss took place [...]

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Privacy Commissioner Drops the Ball —Again

March 27, 2007

Last January it was the huge privacy breaches involving Winner stores and Talvest Mutual Funds. As we noted with considerable dismay at the time on these pages, Canada’s federal Privacy Commissioner waited weeks before going public with the information, leaving customers whose privacy had been compromised in the dark. Now, the problem involves Rogers Communications [...]

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Centre Calls for Senate Hearings on Canada’s Privacy Breaches

January 25, 2007

The Centre for Corporate & Public Governance has written to the chairman of Canada’s Senate Banking Committee to urge that it commence hearings into recent privacy violations involving the personal financial information of millions of Canadians. The call was made in response to the tremendous number of inquiries and comments the think tank has received [...]

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Outrage of the Week: Canada’s Hapless Privacy Commissioner

January 19, 2007

Once again, privacy, or the breach of it, is in the news. Millions of customers of retail chain TJX in Canada and the United States have had their financial information and credit card numbers exposed to hackers. In Canada, Talvest Mutual Funds, a division of CIBC, one of that country’s largest banks, said a backup [...]

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Three Kings Worth Saluting

January 15, 2007

The celebration of Martin Luther King day serves also as a reminder that America has produced other kings who have changed the world for the better. Civil rights and music are two contributions that have given the United States a unique place in the hearts of many, regardless of native language or culture. This is [...]

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Outrage of the Week: U.S. Terrorist Ratings and Traveller Data Collection Program

December 15, 2006

A nation founded upon such noble ideas as individual liberty and respect for privacy must never allow those sacred principles to be tarnished by the prying eyes and empire-building efforts of bureaucrats. Reports surfaced this week that the U.S. government has been collecting personal information about travelers entering the country, without their knowledge, and assigning [...]

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America’s Assault on Privacy

December 11, 2006

Terrorist threat ratings for law abiding travelers that can’t be challenged are reminiscent of totalitarian tactics which the United States so long fought. Neville Hobson, a respected blogger and innovator in the changing field of social media raises some important points on the terrorist rating system to which travelers to the US are being subjected. [...]

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