Tag Archives: Privacy

Privacy between Private Parties and the Disclosure of Information

Privacy law in Canada between private parties is biased toward the protection of privacy rather than the protection of free enterprise. … In Canada, and specifically in British Columbia, an individual’s personal information may be considered forever to be bonded to that individual. Continue reading

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Research in Motion’s Opportunity to Promulgate Freedom

Several countries, none of which is a finalist in the Freedom to the People sweepstakes, are considering blackballing the BlackBerry for being too secure… The better route for BlackBerry is to work with these governments to reshape their privacy policies in favour of citizen rights. Continue reading

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Is there a Master Chef at Bell?

Bell claims that they have to throttle bandwidth or Internet access will be slow for everyone. Since it was only with the discovery that Bell was shuffling high-payload users into a slow lane that we found out that there were people moving along faster, it now recasts the entire argument as follows:

Bell originally marketed ultra-high speed access as a fast lane since everything was getting slow. Now we know that it was only slow for those upon whom slowness was being forced by Bell so that they could then justify the higher price of ultra-high speed (i.e. allegedly unthrottled) access. Bell claims this is necessary, as there is an imminent threat to everyone’s bandwidth. But unlike a concrete highway, bandwidth is not based on scarce real property. It is based on virtually limitless fibre-optic trunks and always-improving server technology. The physical space occupied by these bandwidth highways is minimal; the physical space required for expansion, if it is in fact necessary, is negligible. Continue reading

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Of Words, and Acts, and Ministers

However, this post is not about the new copyright act directly, nor is it about consumer rights or even election promises. Rather it is about the drastic impact that a single word (or the absence thereof) can make, and the difference between what is said and what is written. Or, in other words, it is example how apparently commendable goals are implemented in dysfunctional ways.

Last week, the Vancouver Sun reported on the effect that 2003 amendments to the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act have had on medical research in this province. Continue reading

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