Protecting personal privacy.

There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.

--George Orwell, 1984

More so than ever before, our lives are being tracked--with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips in our driver's licences, GPS locator systems in our BlackBerries, website cookies on the Internet, and those loyalty cards in the grocery stores. What's more, Canadians are voluntarily sharing much of this personal information online. But how much is too much? And how do we deal with the privacy, civil liberties, and human rights concerns that this type of information tracking and sharing is bound to raise?

While it would be easy to succumb to the paranoia created by the fear of societal surveillance, there are organizations and resources available for citizenship education. These allow for some semblance of control (and awareness) over the personal information we share daily.

Privacy and Copyright Issues

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC): www.privcom.gc.ca

The mandate of the OPC is compliance with both the Privacy Act, which covers the personal information-handling practices of federal government departments and agencies, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)--Canada's private sector privacy law.

Its website holds a wealth of information with sections including: Legal Corner, providing guidance on the interpretation and application of the two Acts it oversees as well as offering links and references to a number of relevant legal resources; Key Issues, exploring topics like the National Identity Card, Social Networking, and Video Surveillance; and Fact Sheets, with titles like "Your Daily Data Trail", "RFID Technology", and "Protecting your Privacy on the Internet".

In the summer of 2008 the OPC announced on its blog that it would be commissioning research into how developments in public surveillance techniques and technology are affecting Canadians individually and as a society. You can watch for the results by reading the blog found at http:// blog.privcom.gc.ca.

Michael Geist: www.michaelgeist.ca/ Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law. He has written numerous academic articles and government reports on the Internet and law, and his column on technology law issues regularly appears in the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen, and on the BBC. He also serves on the Privacy Commissioner of Canada's Expert Advisory Board.

Dr. Geist may be best known for stirring up public response to the proposed changes to Canada's copyright legislation. He created the Fair Copyright for Canada group on Facebook on December 1, 2008. One month later, the group had over 35,000 members and had succeeded in gaining the government's attention as it delayed the introduction of the proposed new Copyright Act. The Facebook group has now spawned a website (www.faircopyrightforcanada.ca), and local chapters of the movement have sprung up throughout the country.

Citizenship Engagement

Canadian Interest Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC): www.cippic.ca/en/

CIPPIC seeks to ensure balance in policy and law-making processes on issues that arise as a result of new technologies. Founded in part by Michael Geist, law students work with clinic counsel on projects and cases involving the intersection of law, technology, and the public interest.

The website includes a number of pages providing FAQs and resources on various issues including Behavioural Targeting, Online Anonymity, National ID Cards, and Spyware. These FAQs are clearly written and understandable to members of the general public.

The Citizen Lab: www.citizenlab.org

The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, focusing on advanced research and development at the intersection of digital media and world civic politics. The laboratory sponsors projects that "explore the cutting-edge of hypermedia technologies and grassroots social movements, civic activism, and democratic change within an emerging planetary polity."

The Citizen Lab engages in research and development in a number of different areas like the OpenNet Initiative, which investigates and challenges state-directed Internet filtering and surveillance practices, and the CiviSec Project, which empowers organizations and individuals to take informed action when implementing privacy and security solutions online.

Public Interest Advocacy Centre: www.piac.ca/

PIAC is a non-profit organization that provides legal and research services on behalf of consumers and, in particular, vulnerable consumer interests concerning the provision of important public services such as telecom, copyright, and website privacy issues. Website sections on Privacy include information about Identity Theft and Spyware, while the section on Telecom provides information about the Do-Not-Call List and Telemarketing. PIAC also publishes special reports available for free downloads on topics like "Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Privacy: Shopping into Surveillance."

Civil Liberties

Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA): www.ccla.org/

CCLA is a non-profit, non-government law-reform organization dealing with issues of fundamental civil liberties and human rights that affect those who live all across Canada. In their Legislative Advocacy section, the Association has posted position statements about enhanced Ontario driver's licences and the cyber-speech of students.

Civil liberties associations at the provincial level also offer online resources and information of interest. Examples include the B. C. Civil Liberties Association (www. bccla.org/index.html), the Manitoba Association of Rights and Liberties (www.marl. mb.ca), and the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre (www.aclrc.com).

Take a look at the ACLRC's "Techno-tonomy: Privacy, Autonomy and Technology in a Networked World" (www.aclrc.com/technotonomy/index.html)--a guidebook that includes a discussion on the definition of privacy, the laws governing it, invasion of privacy, the effect of certain types of technology on your privacy rights, and the data that is being collected about you through technology.

The truth is out there ... as these examples point out, it can come in the form of websites about your civil liberties, FAQs about copyright, fact sheets about online anonymity, and/or online resources about protecting your privacy on the Internet.

Kirsten Wurmann is a Librarian with the Legal Resource Centre in Edmonton, Alberta.