“Surveillance Society”

Professor asks top court to review ‘revolutionary’ law curbing spy watchdog members

OTTAWA – A law professor is urging the Supreme Court of Canada to weigh the constitutionality of “revolutionary and unprecedented legislation” that limits members of a prominent spy watchdog from using their parliamentary immunity to speak out.

In an application to the top court, Lakehead University Prof. Ryan Alford says the case raises issues of public importance about the protections afforded to MPs and senators exercising their freedom of speech and debate.

Federal lawyers say in an opposing submission there’s no need for the Supreme Court to wade into the matter.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Deep State", "Surveillance Society"

National Security Agencies Should Detail How They’re Using AI: Federal Advisory Body

A federal advisory body is calling on Canada’s security agencies to publish detailed descriptions of their current and intended uses of artificial intelligence systems and software applications.

In a new report, the National Security Transparency Advisory Group also urges the government to look at amending legislation being considered by Parliament to ensure oversight of how federal agencies use AI.

Your social media is being scraped by who knows who that’s a given.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"AI - Artificial Intelligence", "Surveillance Society"

Australia’s ‘eSafety’ chief wants to censor the whole world

‘Is it time to cut “Big Tech” down to size?’, asked the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship-current affairs programme, Q&A, earlier this week. The focus, as you probably will have guessed, was Elon Musk’s X, known for its more laissez-faire attitude to content moderation than the other tech giants. The answer, from the predictably unbalanced panel, was a clear and resounding ‘yes’.

I believe BCF remains banned in Oz to this day.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Censorship

HANNAFORD: Canadians should take note, English rioters may have a point

“The Government of Canada will — wrongly — take British riots as validation of their vicious suite of legislation to control how we use the internet here.”

The recent spate of rioting in Great Britain appears to have subsided. However as the smoke clears, two things are left to talk about.

First, could this kind of rioting happen in Canada? Answer, probably not and if it did, it wouldn’t be for quite the same reasons. But the kind of free-speech crackdown employed by Westminster is exactly what Canadians can expect the next time we want to talk about government overreach in — let’s say a pandemic response.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", "Societally Destructive Immigration Policy", "Surveillance Society"

CBSA to Use Facial Recognition App for People Facing Deportation … Which would be great if they could actually locate any of them

OTTAWA—The Canada Border Services Agency plans to implement an app that uses facial recognition technology to keep track of people who have been ordered to be deported from the country.

The mobile reporting app would use biometrics to confirm a person’s identity and record their location data when they use the app to check in. Documents obtained through access-to-information indicate that the CBSA has proposed such an app as far back as 2021.

Not a fab track record … CBSA did not know whereabouts of 34,000 foreign nationals slated for removal: AG report

It will end up being used to assist in the criminalization of citizens by the government.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Societally Destructive Immigration Policy", "Surveillance Society"

Secretive Covid-era ‘spy’ agency brought in to monitor social media during riots

A secretive government agency used to “spy on” anti-lockdown campaigners during the Covid pandemic has been deployed to monitor social media amid the riots, The Telegraph has learnt.

The Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU), now rebranded as the National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT), has been given the task just months after MPs called for an independent review of its activities.

Campaigners have expressed concern that NSOIT is playing a central role in the riots response despite outstanding questions over whether it is fit for purpose.

Live Feed at The Telegraph

Live Feed at The Times

Live Feed at The BBC

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", "Societally Destructive Immigration Policy", "Surveillance Society"

Ford Seeks Patent for Cars That Monitor Other Drivers’ Speeds, Reports Them to Police

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has published a patent for Ford Motor Company that would allow the manufacturer to build cars that are capable of tracking other drivers’ speeds and send the information to local law enforcement.

The patent for the “speeding violation responder system” was posted on July 18 after Ford filed for the certification in 2023.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"AI - Artificial Intelligence", "Surveillance Society"

European Intelligence Agencies Prepare To Surveil Car Metadata

A powerful network of policing agencies, regulators, and industrialists is deciding on the ethics and regulatory framework by which authorities can use the data gathered from motor vehicles. German intelligence agencies in particular are demanding that Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen insert the required interfaces to enable the surveillance.

According to German press reports, meetings between car manufacturers and law enforcement have been ongoing since spring. Intelligence agencies are demanding real-time data on a car’s location, driver history, and even the number of people sitting in the vehicle at any one time.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society"

AI speed cameras which can ‘spy inside’ cars to be rolled out

AI speed cameras which can “spy inside” cars are set to be rolled out nationwide to catch motorists using mobile phones at the wheel or failing to wear seatbelts.

New AI technology is enabling police not only to catch speeding drivers but also clampdown on motorists “distracted” by their phones even if they have them on their lap while at the wheel.

The move has raised privacy concerns while the AA has warned that AI cameras must not become a substitute for traffic officers stopping suspect motorists who might also be drink driving – an offence which would not be caught by simply snapping images.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society"

Creating Online harms regulators expected to cost Canada $200 million: PBO

OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer estimates that staffing up the new regulators in the Liberals’ Online Harms Act will cost around $200 million over five years.

The federal government wants to establish a Digital Safety Commission to regulate social-media companies and force them to limit harmful content online.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", "Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Freedom of speech

As police increasingly use facial recognition technology, calls grow for regulations

MONTREAL – Some police services in Canada are using facial recognition technology to help solve crimes, while other police forces say human rights and privacy concerns are holding them back from employing the powerful digital tools.

It’s this uneven application of the technology — and the loose rules governing its use — that has legal and AI experts calling on the federal government to set national standards.

“Until there’s a better handle on the risks involved with the use of this technology, there ought to be a moratorium or a range of prohibitions on how and where it can be used,” says Kristen Thomasen, law professor at the University of British Columbia.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society"

Canada ‘sleepwalking’ into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

A consumer group is urgently calling on the federal government to follow other jurisdictions in the U.S and Europe and bring in legislation to stem the slide toward a cashless society.

Only 10 per cent of transactions in Canada today are done using cash, according to Carlos Castiblanco, an economist with the group Option Consommateurs.

“There is a need to protect cash right now before more merchants start refusing [it],” Castiblanco recently told CBC Radio’s Ontario Today.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Digital Currency", "Surveillance Society", Canada

Majority of millennials, Gen Z don’t support Trudeau’s internet regulation plans: poll

A new Postmedia-Leger poll contains a stark warning for any political party gunning for Gen Z and millennial voters in the next federal election: be wary of a heavy hand in trying to regulate the internet.

The poll, released Monday, finds that less than half of Canadians aged 18 to 39 say they “support the government’s new rules to regulate the web, podcasts, streaming and social media to restrict offensive speech and online harms.” Only 44 per cent say they support the initiatives. The majority either disagree with the policies (39 per cent) or don’t know (16 per cent).

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Law enforcement is spying on thousands of Americans’ mail, records show

The Postal Service approves thousands of requests every year from police officers and federal agents seeking information from Americans’ letters and packages.

The U.S. Postal Service has shared information from thousands of Americans’ letters and packages with law enforcement every year for the past decade, conveying the names, addresses and other details from the outside of boxes and envelopes without requiring a court order.

Postal inspectors say they fulfill such requests only when mail monitoring can help find a fugitive or investigate a crime. But a decade’s worth of records, provided exclusively to The Washington Post in response to a congressional probe, show Postal Service officials have received more than 60,000 requests from federal agents and police officers since 2015, and that they rarely say no.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", USA

Report: DHS Group Called Being ‘Religious’ An ‘Indicator’ Of Domestic Terrorism

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) brainstormed about infiltrating local communities to spy on Americans, and suggested being “religious” or “in the military” was an “indicator of extremists and terrorism,” excerpts of documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL) purportedly show.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", "Surveillance Society", Christian Persecution, USA