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Happy (?) Data Privacy Day / Week / Month / Millenium

Privacy

 

Oh hai! Still a couple of hours left to celebrate #DataPrivacyDay, #DataPrivacyCentury, or whatever. Meh, privacy. Who needs it.

I keed. YOU need privacy of course! Keep the man off your data. To celebrate, go ahead and watch me in the video above, giving a talk about, I dunno, privacy or something. It’s been a whirlwind #DataPrivacyWeek for me, being an expert and so forth I am in demand! Above was the talk I gave at McGill. Besides the terrible “uh’s” and “um’s”, it’s not too bad! And a good summary of what’s coming in Quebec’s new privacy law, and how it helps you. Enjoy! Slides here to download if you really can’t get enough of me. Now go be private.

Let’s end this damn year already

Site meta

Look, if I have to be honest, my year was fine. I don’t know if you heard how important the internet was this year, but it was. And that tends to work in favour of people in the internet business, like me! Besides a lot of inconvenience like everyone else, my close family and I were not really affected by COVID. So I can’t complain.

I hope all four of my readers (Steve, Massimo, Commissioner Miner and Mom) are safe and healthy, and are having a wonderful holiday season. I know every year I say “this internet thing could really take off next year” but given I was right last year (finally!) I’ll just say “to a much better 2021”. I’ll take having a worse year business-wise if it means we can all get back to more normal times.

See you in 2021.

Happy new year!

Site meta

And belated Happy Holidays I guess? I was so busy writing actual posts over the holidays I forgot to post my annual holiday card. Though the theme this year is about the new year so it kind of makes sense to post it in the new year, right? Let’s go with that.

I just don’t like to end a year (or start one I guess) without thanking my readers (Steve and mom) and predicting, like I do every year, that I am sure this internet thingy will take off in 2020.

To 2020! To the internet!

Can I interest you in listening to my voice for 9 minutes? What if I told you it was about weed?

Privacy, Regulatory regime in Canada

So in the spirit of catching up on things from last year, here is an interview I did on CBC Homerun last, oh I dunno, October or something? I was reminded of it because today I am sitting on a panel discussing cannabis, hosted by McGill’s Centre for Intellectual Property Policy. There’s just no ending the pot discussions around here. Duuuude. With so many products like ice wreck on sale in Canada, there’s just so much to talk about. As expected, the use of cannabis for recreational purposes became legal across the country on 17 October 2018, under the Cannabis Act which “creates a legal and regulatory framework for controlling the production, distribution, sale and possession of cannabis in Canada”. This meant that Canada became the second nation (after Uruguay) to legalize the drug and it is now possible to purchase from sites like https://getkush.io/ and similar.

As expected, the use of cannabis for recreational purposes became legal across the country on 17 October 2018, under the Cannabis Act which “creates a legal and regulatory framework for controlling the production, distribution, sale and possession of cannabis in Canada”, according to a Government of Canada web site

So click below and have a listen! It’s actually a pretty interesting topic, about buying weed online and if your data is going to the U.S. and if you maybe should not do that as a result.

Please join me for a holiday beverage!

Site meta

Hopefully you are not stuck at your desk this Christmas Day and you are enjoying the delicious beverage of your choice. Or at least if you are at your desk, you have the type of office where you can still enjoy a beverage.

From all of us here at AM.com – me, Editor Mom, Comment Mainstay Steve, and, uh, all the rest – a very very very very Happy Holidays, and all the best for 2019. As I say every year, I predict this internet dealie will really take off next year! It’s bound to be true sooner or later…

You hate your internet in Canada? Try these other countries

Uncategorized

For the third year in a row, I was honoured to write the country report for Canada for Freedom House‘s incredibly important annual report, Freedom on the Net. Writing the Canada Report is easy; look at the green (“free”) up there on that map. Sure we may have some expensive data on our phones and some issues getting high-speed internet up North, but we’ve got it lucky. We can still get internet from a reliable internet service provider like HTTPS://WWW.EATEL.COM/RESIDENTIAL/INTERNET, to use whenever we want. Some countries don’t have internet access at all! Let’s take a look at some of those purple (“totally not free jesus f***ing christ this place is a nightmare”) countries up there and see what we can learn about internet freedom around the world. If you are constantly left unsatisfied by your internet connection in Canada, it may be time to look at a canadian vpn or two to try and improve the state of your internet connection.

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Happy holidays AM.com readers! Let’s get the F away from this year already

Site meta

Look, I personally had a decent year in 2017. I taught Cybersecurity and Privacy at McGill’s Faculty of Law for the first time, I had plenty of work, I had a few good whiskeys, and all in all I can’t complain. But holy fuck those poor kids down below the 49th stuck in Trump hell. And SO MUCH sexual harassment. Not to mention some very sad passings, like Gord Downie, Tom Petty, Berry, Benson, a Batman and a Bond.

But fuck it. We’re still here, life goes on, and it can’t get much worse than this. As I predict every year, I am sure this internet thingy will take off in 2018. With net neutrality FFS.

Anyway, thanks for reading Steve. Thanks mom for editing. Thanks to the rest of you for popping in from time to time.

Happy holidays!

Happy Holidays and Goodbye 2016

Site meta

OK I’ll say it, 2016 sucked. Well it was fine for me personally and professionally, but that was one ugly US election and we lost a lot of good people. Thank goodness it’s almost over.

You readers were great though! On behalf of the whole AM.com team, thanks so much for sticking with us and making this law blogging thingy all sorts of fun! As I predict every year, I am sure this internet thingamajig will take off in 2017. Sooner or later that will come true.

Happy holidays!

Hear the dulcet tones of my voice talking Notice and Notice

Copyright

 

 

Do you enjoy a lawyer repeatedly saying “you know”? Do you enjoy the line “the Barreau du Quebec would have my butt”? Well then do I have audio for you!

Last week I was on CBC Daybreak with the always excellent Mike Finnerty. We had a really good interview about the 2-year old news story of copyright notices for illegal downloading. It was in the context of a story of a woman who received a notice and paid up. Big mistake! Anyway, I managed to sneak into the Rad-Can building late at night to get my hands on the audio which you can hear above (j/k, they were actually quite nice about it, hat tip to them).

Here’s a true story. I went into the studio at 6:30 AM for the interview, no shower, no shave, my hair was a mess and I was wearing a hoodie. Because it was CBC Radio. Well, as it turns out the 6-7 hour of Daybreak is on CBC TV! A fact i did not know as I am not normally awake at that hour. As a result, I have destroyed all copies of the video in existence. As far as you know.

Enjoy the audio.