COMM 226

Information Privacy:A personal and societal perspective

Chitu OkoliAssociate Professor in Business Technology ManagementJohn Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montréal

1

About Edward Snowden and theUnited States National Security Agency (NSA)

http://youtu.be/EQNSCjbW_00

• Comprehensive overview of what it’s all about:– Everything you need to know about PRISM:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/17/4517480/nsa-spying-prism-surveillance-cheat-sheet

• All the leaked documents:– Snowden Archive: https://cjfe.org/snowden

How does the surveillance actually work?

http://youtu.be/GoM4jIZbTtQ

Canada’s “NSA”:Communication Security Establishment

http://youtu.be/_VPf_Pvcs0M

What do the implicated governments say?

• Intelligence expert: “NSA leak puts U.S. at risk”

• UK’s GCHQ explains what they do with this kind of information:

https://youtu.be/SnvQzE7xGc4

http://www.gchq.gov.uk/what_we_do/how_does_an_analyst_catch_a_terrorist/

In support of government surveillance:“We need protection from terrorists!”• We Need an Invasive NSA

– http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115002/invasive-nsa-will-protect-us-cyber-attacks

• We Need NSA Surveillance– http://

www.nationalreview.com/article/355959/we-need-nsa-surveillance-gerald-walpin

• Why we need government surveillance– http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/opinion/sulmasy-nsa

-snowden/

• NSA intelligence-gathering programs keep us safe– http://

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nsa-intelligence-gathering-programs-keep-us-safe/2014/01/02/0fd51b22-7173-11e3-8b3f-b1666705ca3b_story.html

Which is more important?

Source: http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html

Why we should care about our government spying on us

CRITICAL THINKING ALERT: Unabashedly one-sided opinion

http://youtu.be/4J2vL3GNM1U

What can you do about it?

• Stay informed and make your voice heard– OpenMedia is the leading Canadian non-

profit organization that campaigns for citizen’s Internet privacy: https://openmedia.ca/ourprivacy • OpenMedia International: https://openmedia.org

• How to use the Internet privately– Use https (secure versions of websites)

when possible– Use VPN (virtual private networks)– Use the Tor browser for almost complete

anonymity