Critical Conversations: Surveillance in a Digital Age

Ronald Deibert, Ann Cavoukian, PhD, Brenda McPhail and Evan Greer

7:30pm

Monday, October 26

60 mins

Authors in candid, live conversation reflect on the topics that matter most during this unprecedented time. In this presentation, experts will examine our growing use of digital platforms, in a time when many in-person activities are moved online, and their disturbing influence and impact on our private everyday lives. From corruption allegations to privacy concerns, you’ll gain an understanding of the potential digital threats from companies and tools that we often take for granted. Dr. Ann Cavoukian (Privacy Payoff: How Successful Businesses Build Customer Trust), one of the world’s leading privacy experts and former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario; renowned technology and security expert Ronald Deibert (Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society); and Evan Greer, Campaign Director of Fight for the Future will join this discussion moderated by Brenda McPhail, Director of Privacy, Technology & Surveillance Project at Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Tune in each day of the Festival to hear new speakers in critical conversation about the topics shaping today’s new world.

English captioning is available for this video. Please click the ‘CC’ button in the video toolbar to turn it on.

Authors in candid, live conversation reflect on the topics that matter most during this unprecedented time. In this presentation, experts will examine our growing use of digital platforms, in a time when many in-person activities are moved online, and their disturbing influence and impact on our private everyday lives. From corruption allegations to privacy concerns, you’ll gain an understanding of the potential digital threats from companies and tools that we often take for granted. Dr. Ann Cavoukian (Privacy Payoff: How Successful Businesses Build Customer Trust), one of the world’s leading privacy experts and former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario; renowned technology and security expert Ronald Deibert (Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society); and Evan Greer, Campaign Director of Fight for the Future will join this discussion moderated by Brenda McPhail, Director of Privacy, Technology & Surveillance Project at Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Tune in each day of the Festival to hear new speakers in critical conversation about the topics shaping today’s new world.

English captioning is available for this video. Please click the ‘CC’ button in the video toolbar to turn it on.

Featured Authors

Ronald J. Deibert is professor of Political Science and director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab undertakes interdisciplinary research at the intersection of global security, information and communications technologies, and human rights. The research outputs of the Citizen Lab are routinely covered in global media, including more than two dozen reports that received exclusive front-page coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other global media over the last decade. Deibert is the author of Black Code: Surveillance, Privacy, and the Dark Side of the Internet, as well as numerous books, chapters, articles, and reports on internet censorship, surveillance, and cybersecurity.

Read more about Ronald Deibert

Ann Cavoukian, PhD

Ann Cavoukian, PhD, is recognized as one of the world’s leading privacy experts. She served an unprecedented three terms as the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, where she created Privacy by Design, a framework that has now become an International Standard. Along with being an author of two books, The Privacy Payoff: How Successful Businesses Build Customer Trust with Tyler Hamilton and Who Knows: Safeguarding Your Privacy in a Networked World with Don Tapscott, she has received numerous awards recognizing her leadership in privacy, including the Meritorious Service Medal by the Governor General of Canada and the 2020 Canadian Women in Cybersecurity Lifetime Achievement Award.

Read more about Ann Cavoukian, PhD

Brenda McPhail is the Director of the Privacy, Technology and Surveillance Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. As a researcher at a national, non-profit legal advocacy organization, her work supports litigation, advocacy and public education relating to the ways in which privacy rights are at risk in contemporary society. She has appeared as an expert witness before Parliamentary and Senate committees regarding privacy law reform, national security, and biometric data, and leads CCLA’s litigation in key court cases that raise privacy issues.

Read more about Brenda McPhail

Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello calls Evan Greer “a heck of a guitar player,” but she’s better known as an activist and writer. As the spokesperson for viral digital rights group Fight for the Future, she’s been on the frontlines of some of the most notable grassroots victories of the last decade, from defending net neutrality to keeping facial recognition surveillance out of music festivals. Evan is a frequent guest on TV and radio and writes regularly for outlets like the Guardian, Washington Post, NBC News and Buzzfeed. Follow her on Twitter @evan_greer.

Read more about Evan Greer