Jason Cheung
Digital Mindfulness – Preventing Screen Addiction
By Jason Cheung on August 31, 2018 | Tagged with detox, Mental Health, screen time, smartphone addiction
Have you ever been guilty of texting at the dinner table, checking your notifications when hanging out with friends, or having trouble falling asleep without your phone in your hands? You may be an unknowing victim of screen addiction. What is Screen Addiction? Screen Addiction is described by Balhara, Verma, and Bhargava (2018) as “the […]
In the News: Many Instagram Users Report Unauthorized Entry into Account
By Jason Cheung on August 28, 2018 | Tagged with cybertheft, hacked, In the News, password, ransomware, security, Social media, web security
In August 2018, Instagram users reported that their accounts had been compromised by hackers that changed their account password, disabled two-factor authentication, and edited personal information. Karissa Bell [1] reported that Instagram users were reaching out on other social media platforms [2] to report unauthorized entry into their accounts. Several commonalities were reported among the accounts affected: a […]
The Relationship Between You and Institutional Software
By Jason Cheung on August 21, 2018 | Tagged with Canvas, Codes of Conduct, Enterprise Software Licensing, FIPPA, Institutional Software, Instructure, Licensing, LMS, policy, privacy policy, Software Licensing, Student Rights, University of Toronto
Introduction Recently, the University of Toronto decided to switch its Learning Management System (LMS), Blackboard Learn [1] by Blackboard Inc., to Canvas [2] by Instructure. The newly installed LMS is named Quercus, a branded instance of Canvas built for the University of Toronto. This change in software sparked questions for the Digital Tattoo team to find out: […]
In the News: Censored Version of Google ‘Project Dragonfly’ Coming to China
By Jason Cheung on August 14, 2018 | Tagged with access to information, censorship, google, Government Control, In the News, information control, political economy
Google, the company with the motto, “Don’t Be Evil”, is planning to re-enter the Chinese web with a censored search engine code-named “Dragonfly”. The Intercept [1] revealed that exposed, confidential documents state that: “Google’s Chinese search app will automatically identify and filter websites blocked by the Great Firewall. When a person carries out a search, banned […]
In the News: HTTP Only Sites to be Marked as Not Secure by Google Chrome
By Jason Cheung on August 7, 2018 | Tagged with browser, encryption, https, In the News, security, web security
Following Google’s announcement in Feburary [1], Google Chrome has implemented a decision to mark all non-HTTPS websites as ‘Not Secure’. In its update to Version 68.0 on July 2018, the address bar will show an indication of the security level of every website a user visits: This change helps to alert users to websites that […]
In the News: Facebook and Instagram to Launch Screen Time Tracking Feature
By Jason Cheung on August 7, 2018 | Tagged with Addiction, In the News, Mindfulness, screen time, smartphone, smartphone addiction
Facebook and Instagram have announced plans to launch a feature that will allow its users to view how long they use each application. This feature is set to be launched on only the smartphone versions of the Facebook and Instagram apps, and not on the desktop versions. Within this feature, users will be able to […]
Ownership of Content in Your Digital Life – World Wide Web (Part 2)
By Jason Cheung on July 16, 2018 | Tagged with content ownership, copyleft, Data Ownership, GPL, intellectual property, joint intellectual work, shareware, web hosting
What Do You Own on Your Website? In our previous article, we took a look at the content ownership agreements that exist between social media users and the companies behind Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In short, we learned that as part of the agreement to use their services, users agree to give these companies a […]
Ownership of Content in Your Digital Life – Social Media (Part 1)
By Jason Cheung on July 9, 2018 | Tagged with Content Licensing, Data Capitalism, Data Colonialism, Data for Services, Data Imperialism, Data Merchanting, Data Ownership, Data Payment, Social media, Terms of Service, Third Wave Capitalism, toffler, Value of Data
Snap, Click, Post, Like: the normal rhythm of a social media user, who uses popular social media/sharing sites to broadcast stories from their day-to-day lives to the world. Most users are content with their relationship with social sharing platforms, so long as the service is uninterrupted. Social sharing platforms allow users to share their lives, […]
How to Access Information Collected From Your Digital Accounts
By Jason Cheung on June 11, 2018 | Tagged with Access My Info, Citizen Lab, Data, freedom of information, Munk School of Global Affairs, Office of the privacy commissioner, PIPEDA, privacy, Privacy Act, terms and conditions, transparency
Terms and Conditions – TL;DR: Take My Data Terms and conditions of use often bind users to agreements in unsuspecting ways about the use, storage, sale, transfer, and deletion of their account, data, or identity. Examples include popular software such as Twitter, which stipulates that they can profit from selling your pictures without prior […]
Digital Piracy – Who Decides What is Considered Pirated Material? The Changing Face of Copyright Judgement in Canada (Part 3)
By Jason Cheung on June 7, 2018 | Tagged with Copyright, CRTC, fair dealing, fair play canada, fair use, Government Control, IPRA, Kramer, net neutrality, piracy, Power, Weinhardt, Wiewiorra
What is the IPRA? The Internet Piracy Review Agency (IPRA) is a proposed non-profit corporation by a coalition of companies including Bell Canada, Rogers, Cineplex, CBC, Corus, Toronto International Film Festival, and Cinémas Guzzo (collectively known as Fair Play Canada) to maintain a list of websites that have hosted or distributed pirated material and force […]
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