Access and Privacy Online

In this Commentary, we discuss Bill C-4, titled An Act respecting certain affordability measures for Canadians and another measure. That “other measure” is a series of amendments to the Canada Election Act creating serious impacts on people and their personal information. FIPA is conducting its first joint podcast with Michael Geist and The Law Bytes Podcast. 

Join me, FIPA Executive Director Jason Woywada and Michael Geist. Profes...

Canada’s federal C-2 Strong Borders Act is a sweeping and controversial bill that is currently moving through Parliament. The bill includes ‘lawful access’ provisions, unrelated to borders, that expand state powers to access personal information held by electronic service providers. This is not the first time that lawful access powers have been proposed, and privacy advocates across Canada have raised serious concerns about the imp...

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, June 14th.  

We’ve got stories from across the country shaped by access to information—from national defense funding to local integrity issues, wildfire preparedness, and controversial provincial actions. 

We’ll follow that with a scan of cybersecurity incidents, data breaches, and surveillance concerns that are hitting public institutions hard. 

Then we take a closer look ...

We've had a busy week with lots going on, and we plan to be back with our regular show next week. We will certainly be covering Bill C-4  and its impact on Canadian Privacy and political parties.

Given FIPA’S intervenor status with Liberal Party of Canada v. The Complainants, we will be watching closely and reporting on that in the coming weeks.

Learn more about Bill C-4: https://fipa.bc.c...

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, May 31st.  

Nova Scotia is back in the privacy and cybersecurity spotlight as a sophisticated ransomware attack triggers a probe and fallout from Nova Scotia Power’s data breach. 

We have our regular summaries of privacy, access to information, and whistleblower stories from Canada and across the world. 

And we’ll wrap up with FIPA’s review of public body practice against p...

There’s trouble in Alberta's access and privacy landscape. Recent investigations found the Alberta government is not complying with freedom of information laws, with the Information and Privacy Commissioner confirming significant non-compliance in processing access requests. Additionally, a court ruled portions of Alberta's Personal Information Protection Law unconstitutional, spotlighting ongoing tension between government policie...

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, May 24th.  

Off the top, an American hacker pleads guilty in the PowerSchool data breach, while a controversial Trump-backed snitch line raises alarms as it can collect information on Canadians. 

We also cover significant data breaches and cyber incidents affecting global companies, including a major development concerning your genetic data if you've ever used 23andMe. 

Fin...

FIPA President Mike Larsen recently delivered a lecture focusing on Surveillance & Privacy.  It’s something we thought our regular listeners would be interested in, and we’ve recorded a version for this week's commentary.  

Let's take a look at 'why Privacy matters, and why it matters right now'.  

Support these efforts by subscribing or donating. 

Send comments to FIPAOnline@fipa.bc.ca 

Access and Privacy Commentaries: https:/...

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, May 17th.  

Off the top we’ll look at the latest wave of impacts on privacy and access coming from legislative changes in Alberta, with the Government at odds with the courts and independent offices.  

We have a cluster of stories in BC spanning privacy and access to information, in addition to a troubling instance where the government appears ready to attack a whistleblowe...

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, May 10th.  

With major national and international events, from the new pope to the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe, grabbing the spotlight, there are still plenty of other stories to highlight. 

We’ll start with stories from Canada’s Local Journalism Initiative and the continued fallout from this past winter’s school data breaches. We’ll follow that up with a scan of ...

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, May 3rd.  

Our condolences go out to everyone in the Filipino community and Vancouver affected by the tragic events of April 26th. 

Off the top, the dust is still settling on the federal election, and we see the first of the Code of Silence Awards being handed out.  

We’ll look at important stories impacting access to information, privacy, and information management across ...

Election Day is Monday, April 28th!  

Be sure to listen in as FIPA President Mike Larsen, Executive Director Jason Woywada, and Legal Researcher Spencer Izen sit down with me to discuss Canada's Federal Election and FIPA’s surveys questionnaires and guides.    

Support these efforts by subscribing or donating. 

Send comments to FIPAOnline@fipa.bc.ca 

Access and Privacy Commentaries: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/ac...

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, April 26th.  

It’s Election day on Monday, April 28th! 

We’ll start with the historic fines and action being taken against Meta and Apple in the European Union for privacy violations.  

We’ll shift to the privacy and access to information stories from across Canada, including great reminders about Border search and seizures by US Border Agents.  

That will lead us into our,...

 The team here at Access and Privacy Online are taking the Easter Weekend off, and we hope you all have the opportunity to do the same. 

We’ll be back next week with more coverage of the headlines and commentary. In particular, in the coming week, we’ll be sharing a recent lecture from FIPA President Mike Larson, where he expounds on 'why Privacy matters, and why it matters right now'. 

We ...

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, April 12th. We are entering week four of the federal election here in Canada. 

We’ll start with a few national stories before diving into the local journalism reports informed by and intersecting access to information privacy and information management across Canada.   

We have a couple of non-Trump related stories out of the US before we continue to consider the chaos eman...

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, April 5th, and we are entering week three of the federal election here in Canada. 

On the radar this week: 

• Police record-keeping and the growing role of AI both inside and outside the courtroom. 

• Two scandals involving taxpayer dollars and questions of political accountability. 

• Updates on environmental topics shaped by access to information. 

FIPA was recently at the 27th Annual Victoria International Privacy & Security Summit. It was a great event with hundreds of cybersecurity and privacy professionals from around the globe addressing the topics facing the use and protection of your personal information.  

We were grateful and privileged to have an opportunity to have BC Information Commissioner Michael Harvey sit down with FIPA President Mike Larsen and Executive...

Coming up in your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, March 29. 

In this week’s cast, we see Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston moving to turn the page on Bill 1 legislative changes. We also have our weekly scan of stories from the Canadian Press that intersect with access to information, privacy, and information management across Canada, the U.S., and around the world. And as Fraud Prevention Month draws to a close, we’ll t...

The Canadian federal election is underway. 

In this week's commentary, join Patrick Farnsworth along with FIPA President Mike Larsen and Executive Director Jason Woywada with this week's special guest Duff Conacher, Executive Director of Democracy Watch. They’re all here to discuss the recent Ontario election and consider various tools from the non-profit sector that can help anyone casting their ballot make a more informed decisio...