Beware of the Whistler Scam
As the sun sparkles and the sultry peaks of British Columbia’s most sought-after mountaintops, it’s pretty easy to find yourself blinded by the beauty. Each year, Whistler brings in over 2.7 million tourists to bask in the wonder—and many activities—that the resort-town provides. It boasts everything from snowboarding to bungee jumping, and has the capacity […]
Open Access Week: a Social Media Snapshot
Last week, some of the greatest minds in Open Access met in a panel to discuss the success, challenges and future of open access in the forms of scholarly publishing, textbooks and education. Take a look at the social media timeline of the event below. [View the story “Open Access Week: Social Media Snapshot” on […]
When Social Media Bites Back: Election Edition
As we gear up for the upcoming election, it’s no secret that social media has influenced this years’ campaigns more ways than one. It seems each time I scroll through my Facebook newsfeed, I deal with the collective ‘Stop Harper!’ screams of my youthful friends, while a Justin Trudeau advertisement curiously appears on my sidebar […]
Are Private Groups Really Private?
It’s that time of year again—the first week of a brand new fall semester that screams ‘fresh start.’ Whether you’re sporting a brand new laptop for the year, or flaunting a new set of kicks (is that what the kids are still calling it these days?), the new school year always offers every student the […]
Phone Security 101
Universities can be dangerous places. Exams, assignments, thieves and faculty lie in wait for the unsuspecting undergrad; of these, only theft can be (responsibly) avoided. This is important in the age of the smartphone; losing your device can lead to identity theft, bank fraud, and all sorts of scary-bad-no-fun situations. What can students do to […]
Academics Anonymous
As we’ve said many times before, privacy is essential to academic freedom and free expression. Anonymous browsing is one way for academics to ensure their privacy online (to the extent that’s possible) and can be done in a number of ways; chief among these are virtual private networks (VPNs), proxy servers and TOR – a browser purpose-built […]
Cyberattacks and you
The digitization of universities has rendered these centres of open information exchange vulnerable to new forms of espionage. While attacks are focused on research – particularly cutting-edge engineering and biomedical technologies – personal information about students and faculty is also a target. While the university has an interest in preventing or at the very least […]
Surveillance for students: a primer
What with nearly-omnipresent network surveillance and concomitant self-censorship, students (academics in general, really) face a new set of challenges to their freedom of expression and privacy.There are several areas here of particular concern for students; notable among these are copyright, academic freedom and privacy. Even educational surveillance can create an atmosphere of distrust, detracting from learning and […]
Privacy, information and civil rights: Bill C-51
I am of the opinion that the passing of Bill C-51 threatens the privacy and freedom of Canadians. It would authorize intra-governmental disclosure of information pertaining to Canadian security, limit air-travel abilities of persons suspected of posing a threat (domestically or abroad), criminalization of ‘terrorist speech’ (which seems hopelessly vague), the granting of disruptive power […]
Why should I care about privacy if I have nothing to hide?
Many defenders of mass surveillance use the argument that “only people involved in bad acts should worry about their privacy.” In some ways, this seems to make sense. After all, if you’re doing something you don’t want people to know about, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place, right? Glenn Greenwald, one […]
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