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Dr. Ian Kerr holds the Canada Research Chair in Ethics, Law & Technology at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. He also holds cross-appointments to the Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Philosophy.
Email: iankerr@uottawa.ca
Phone: 613-562-5800 ext. 3281
Fax: 613-562-5124
University of Ottawa
Faculty of Law
57 Louis Pasteur St.
Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5 -
On the Identity Trail: understanding the importance and impact of anonymity and authentication in a networked society.
Lessons from the Identity Trail: Anonymity, Privacy and Idenity in a
Networked Society.Click here to learn more about the book.
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Special thanks and much gratitude are owed to one of my favorite artists, Eric Joyner, for his permission to display a number of inspirational and thought–provoking works in the banner.
Things tagged with: privacy
Cross Country Checkup on Lawful Access
Surveillance is, and always has been, a topic that makes people uneasy. The explosion over the past decade of public and private activity online has meant that many people have had to re-think their attitude towards privacy, and define exactly what should be public and what should be private. What do you think? Is the internet a wide open place that should be free from authority and surveillance? Or must there be an update of police powers to keep up with the evolution of crime and criminals in an Internet age? What about the proposed law …do Canadians need to … Read more
Privacy, Identity and Anonymity
'Privacy, Identity and Anonymity' in International Handbook of Surveillance Studies, eds. Kristie Ball, Kevin Haggerty and David Lyon (London: Routledge) forthcoming 2011 [co-authored in equal proportion with Jennifer Barrigar].
'This chapter was written in collaboration with one of my favourite readers and writers, Jennifer Barrigar. Together, we consider the complex interrelationship between privacy, identity and anonymity in an increasingly networked society through an exploration of the evolution of network technologies and its consequent shifts in social and technological architectures. The rise of ubiquitous computing from CCTV cameras and handheld devices to digital rights management systems (DRM) and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags has precipitated a shift in the network architecture from one in which anonymity was the default to one in which nearly every online transaction is subject to monitoring and the possibility of identity authentication. We argue that this invariably affects the relationship between privacy, identity and anonymity.
Read more →The devil is in the defaults
A couple of weeks ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg celebrated his 26th birthday. Well, sort of. While he did indeed turn 26, it is reported that he was forced to cancel his Caribbean celebration to lead a series of emergency meetings on one of his least favourite topics: privacy.
These meetings resulted in significant alterations to the website's platform and user interface and a major media event that took place on Wednesday. Although numerous trusted media outlets, privacy advocates and politicians around the globe reported this event as "a privacy U-turn" (The Sun in Britain), an "about face" change (Economist), "a major step forward for privacy" (American Civil Liberties Association) and a "significant first step that Facebook deserves credit for," (Senator Charles Schumer), I am not so sure.
Read more →New Privacy World
Ever since I moved to ottawa, I have been a huge fan of CBC Radio. So I was thrilled yesterday to be invited for the 3rd time to appear on The Current to talk about our new book, Lessons from the Identity Trail. Below is the text of Nancy Wilson’s introduction followed by a link to the podcast of our interview… To some people the Internet is the world’s biggest commons … a global public square. For others, it’s a realm of shadowy, anonymous figures hiding behind online aliases. But anonymity is becoming less and less a feature of life online. … Read more
