Privacy and Access Council of Canada

THE voice for privacy AND access

Big Data

Spotlight on social media bans: A parent’s guide

Many parents and campaigners are calling for a ban on social media for under 16s, and their concerns are entirely legitimate. Children have been exposed to worrying levels of harm online for far too long, made worse by design choices that push content through powerful recommendation systems. We all agree that something must change — but experts warn against a social media … [Read more...] about Spotlight on social media bans: A parent’s guide

Bell, Let’s Talk about the Unintended consequences of revealing mental health issues

On the convergence of Bell Canada's 'Let's Talk' day (January 25) and Data Privacy Day (January 28), let's think of the unintended consequences of revealing mental health issues on social media platforms where "any information you share may be read, collected, or used by other users" including other social media platforms. Publicly available posts can be monitored and … [Read more...] about Bell, Let’s Talk about the Unintended consequences of revealing mental health issues

Global Encryption Under Threat

Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. The British government’s undisclosed order, issued last month, requires blanket capability to view fully encrypted material, not merely … [Read more...] about Global Encryption Under Threat

User-centric Consent Driven Approach to Data Access and Mobility

A new Working Group is being formed to explore the strategic need for developing — and better define the potential scope of — a new proposed standard on user-centric consent-driven approach to data access, interoperability and mobility. RationaleThe need for a new standard is borne out of recognition that conventional consent models typically involve a one-time, static … [Read more...] about User-centric Consent Driven Approach to Data Access and Mobility

LinkedIn now learns from your data

LinkedIn has automatically set “Use my data for training content creation AI models” to “ON” so that its AI can use everyone's content to train their AI tool. It’s unclear when that feature was invoked, and LinkedIn’s billion users might wonder why they’re surprised to learn about it.  Many apps and platforms change terms without fanfare, and sometimes as part of an … [Read more...] about LinkedIn now learns from your data