Canvas Exposed: The little problem with UBC’s big, expensive new tool
The little problem with UBC’s big, expensive new tool Last year, UBC introduced a new learning management system. Canvas by Instructure was rolled out to replace the aging and underperforming Blackboard Connect. When classes begin this September, UBC’s more than 60,000 students will only be using the new Canvas system. Learning management systems are useful […]
#DeleteFacebook? An Investigation into the Cambridge Analytica Scandal Part 2
As we learned in Part 1 of this series, Global Science Research (GSR), Facebook, and Cambridge Analytica have each been the subjects of recent controversy for their respective roles in mining data from over 50 million Facebook profiles. While we can investigate how each company contributed to this event, we must also examine our […]
#DeleteFacebook? An Investigation into the Cambridge Analytica Scandal Part 1
On March 17, 2018, Cambridge Analytica came under fire and amassed international attention as news broke of the company’s role in harvesting data from over 50 million Facebook profiles [1]. While the unfolding story has outraged many, it has also presented numerous questions: how did this happen? How much trust are we putting in our […]
Towards Student Privacy
I have some good news: Tomorrow, I’ll be meeting with the UBC ombudsperson for students to discuss the creation of a student privacy bill of rights. With the support of the AMS and GSS, the Digital Tattoo project is launching an initiative to create a document that will help protect student data on UBC systems. […]
30.1: The Politics of Privacy
This is the third post in a blog series that questions the risks that we’re willing to assume and examines the hazards that are present in the current information technology landscape. Although it’s never a one-size-fits-all situation, British Columbia’s current legal framework has a specific provision that affects everyone in the province. You can read the first post, here, and the second, here. […]
When Seeing Isn’t Believing
Textual literacy skills in the North American public have been on the rise since the dawn of the 20th century. More people than ever before are able to understand, and critically interpret written statements; however, fewer people are taught visual literacy skills. It is easy to believe the things that we see. The human mind […]
30.1: The Argument for Change
This is the second post in a blog series that questions the risks that we’re willing to assume and examines the hazards that are present in the current information technology landscape. Although it’s never a one-size-fits-all situation, British Columbia’s current legal framework has a specific provision that affects everyone in the province. You can read the first post, here. In this blog post, […]
30.1: The Fight for Data Sovereignty
This blog series questions the risks that we’re willing to assume and examines the hazards that are present in the current information technology landscape. Although it’s never a one-size-fits-all situation, British Columbia’s current legal framework has a specific provision that affects everyone in the province. Why it matters This year, there have been a few anecdotal reports of travellers from Canada being […]
iPhone records location data – even when you tell it not to
An article appearing in the Wall Street Journal this morning says that an iPhone user’s location data – their coordinates and some timestamps – is automatically collected by the phones, regardless of whether the location-sharing feature on the phone is turned on or off. The revelation comes after two developers released an iPhone app that […]
People said…