Speaker Biographies - Pathways to Privacy 2014

Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project

Jay Stanley (@JayCStanley) is Senior Policy Analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, where he researches, writes and speaks about technology-related privacy and civil liberties issues and their future.  Stanley writes for and is editor of the ACLU’s Free Future blog. He has authored and co-authored numerous influential ACLU reports, white papers and blog posts. Recent pieces have covered surveillance drones, police body cameras, “big data,” and photographers’ rights. Stanley has also served as communications strategist and media spokesperson for the ACLU on technology issues. He was co-chair of the 2009 Computers, Freedom and Privacy (CFP) conference in Washington DC, and serves on the CFP board.  He is a member of the International Advisory Board of London-based Privacy International. Before joining the ACLU in 2001, Stanley was an analyst at the technology research firm Forrester, where he focused on Internet related policies, including online privacy, taxation, and antitrust issues, as well as researching political communication via the web. Stanley also served as the American politics editor of Facts on File’s World News Digest, where he covered Congress and presidential politics. Stanley is a graduate of Williams College and holds an M.A. (ABD) in American History from the University of Virginia.

Sukanya Pillay, General Counsel and Executive Director, Canadian Civil Liberties Association

Sukanya Pillay is the new Executive Director and General Counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association & Education Trust. In 2009, Sukanya joined CCLA as Director of the just-formed National Security Program, and advanced CCLA’s work in fighting for compliance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada’s counterterrorism activities.  She has appeared before domestic bodies including the Supreme Court of Canada and international venues to argue for the protection of fundamental rights as a prerequisite for the effective protection of peace and security in Canada. Sukanya’s work has won awards, including the Holmes-Cardozo award for Outstanding Conference Paper from the American Academy of Legal Studies in Business for a co-authored paper on genetic privacy.

In November 2013, Sukanya received the President’s Award from the South Asian Bar Association of Ontario.  Sukanya also brings a wealth of domestic and international legal experience having run high-profile programs for international NGOs, including Witness at Human Rights First in New York, the Law and Human Rights Program for TVE International, as a law professor at the University of Windsor, and as a documentary filmmaker. She clerked at the Ontario Court of Justice, was seconded to work with the Honourable Justice Robert Blair on the First Civil Justice Review, and worked in Toronto at one of Canada’s leading law firms. She has made dozens of missions to conflict zones worldwide in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East; appeared before UN treaty bodies and Canadian courts on human rights issues; and has represented clients or presented expert evidence before administrative and judicial bodies in the US, India, Canada, and Europe.  She has published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and made documentary films on issues regarding the rights of vulnerable groups and victims of human rights abuses.

Colin Freeze, National Security Reporter, Globe & Mail

Focusing on Canadian matters over the past decade, Colin Freeze has reported extensively on the interplay between government, police, spy services, and the judiciary. Now assigned to the Globe and Mail’s Investigative Team, in the past year he has used access to information laws to publish exclusive stories on a federal government suveillance agency – Communications Security Establishment Canada. He has broken stories regarding CSEC’s collection of “metadata.”

Moderated by Andrew Clement, University of Toronto Faculty of Information

Andrew Clement is a Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, where he coordinates the Information Policy Research Program and is a co-founder of the Identity, Privacy and Security Institute. With a PhD in Computer Science, he has had longstanding research and teaching interests in the social implications of information/communication technologies and participatory design. Among his recent privacy/surveillance research projects, are IXmaps.ca an internet mapping tool that helps make more visible NSA warrantless wiretapping activities and the routing of Canadian personal data through the U.S. even when the origin and destination are both in Canada; SurveillanceRights.ca, which documents (non)compliance of video surveillance installations with privacy regulations and helps citizens understand their related privacy rights while calling surveillant organizations to account. The SurveillanceWatch app enables users to locate surveillance cameras around them and contribute new sightings of their own; and Proportionate ID, which demonstrates through overlays for conventional ID cards and a smartphone app privacy protective alternatives to prevailing full disclosure norms. Clement is a co-investigator in The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting research collaboration. See http://www.digitallymediatedsurveillance.ca/

Patricia Kosseim, Senior General Counsel and Director General, Legal Services, Policy and Research Branch, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

In her capacity as Senior General Counsel at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), Patricia provides strategic legal and policy advice on a broad range of privacy issues, oversees research on the privacy impacts of emerging information technologies, and represents the Privacy Commissioner before courts and Parliamentary Committees. 

Previously, Patricia also worked at Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research where she developed and led national strategies to address ethical, legal and social implications of science and technology.

Called to the Barreau du Quebec in 1993, Patricia practiced in Montreal for over six years with a large national law firm.  She has published and presented extensively on matters of health law, privacy and ethics

Jacquie Burkell, University of Western Ontario. “Hidden Surveillance by Consumer Health Websites.” 

Jacquelyn Burkell is an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean, Research, in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Her research focuses on the social impact of technology, examining how technological mediation changes social interaction and information behaviour. Her recent projects include an examination of online behavioural tracking, and research on privacy expectations and practices in online social networks; these projects were funded through the Contributions Program of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. She is a Principal Investigator in Graphics, Animation, and New Media, where she does research on privacy in new media environments and leads a working group on online news production, dissemination, and interpretation.

Kieran O’Doherty, University of Guelph. “Privacy risks of direct to consumer genetic testing.” 

Kieran O’Doherty, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Guelph. Kieran undertook his undergraduate training at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, with majors in physics and chemistry. He subsequently completed his honours and PhD degrees in psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He has published broadly in the areas of health risk communication; public deliberation; media representations of asylum seekers; causal reasoning in the domain of genetic risk; and social aspects of genetics. His current research program focuses primarily on the social and ethical implications of emerging biotechnologies and the use of public deliberation to help inform policy. Recent publications include the volume “Public Engagement and Emerging Technologies” (co-edited with Edna Einsiedel). Kieran is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Genome Canada, and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Sukanya Pillay, Canadian Civil Liberties Association. “Genetic testing in the workplace.”

Sukanya Pillay is the new Executive Director and General Counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association & Education Trust. In 2009, Sukanya joined CCLA as Director of the just-formed National Security Program, and advanced CCLA’s work in fighting for compliance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada’s counterterrorism activities.  She has appeared before domestic bodies including the Supreme Court of Canada and international venues to argue for the protection of fundamental rights as a prerequisite for the effective protection of peace and security in Canada. Sukanya’s work has won awards, including the Holmes-Cardozo award for Outstanding Conference Paper from the American Academy of Legal Studies in Business for a co-authored paper on genetic privacy.

Moderator:  Joseph Ferenbok, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Joseph Ferenbok, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the division of Anatomy, department of Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and the Director of the Translational Research Program in Health Science.  His research centres on interdisciplinary design, privacy and video surveillance. He was Principal Investigator of the “Who is Watching You? And Why?” project funded by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.  Joseph’s research engages with citizen’s awareness and concerns about the changing nature of video surveillance technologies, practices, and policies. He has also done research in the development of facial recognition technology and its growing role in institutional identification practices and is currently studying the privacy implications of wearable technologies.

Andrew Clement, University of Toronto. “IXmaps: Mapping Canadian Privacy Risks in the Internet Cloud.” 

Andrew Clement is a Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, where he coordinates the Information Policy Research Program and is a co-founder of the Identity, Privacy and Security Institute. With a PhD in Computer Science, he has had longstanding research and teaching interests in the social implications of information/communication technologies and participatory design. Among his recent privacy/surveillance research projects, are IXmaps.ca an internet mapping tool that helps make more visible NSA warrantless wiretapping activities and the routing of Canadian personal data through the U.S. even when the origin and destination are both in Canada; SurveillanceRights.ca, which documents (non)compliance of video surveillance installations with privacy regulations and helps citizens understand their related privacy rights while calling surveillant organizations to account. The SurveillanceWatch app enables users to locate surveillance cameras around them and contribute new sightings of their own; and Proportionate ID, which demonstrates through overlays for conventional ID cards and a smartphone app privacy protective alternatives to prevailing full disclosure norms. Clement is a co-investigator in The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting research collaboration. See http://www.digitallymediatedsurveillance.ca/

Micheal Vonn & Kate Milberry, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. “A National ID Card by Stealth.”

Kate Milberry, Ph.D. is an instructor with the University of Alberta’s Communication and Technology graduate program. Her research considers the impact of state surveillance on social movements, and how democratization of internet technology can advance progressive social change. Recent work for the Privacy Commissioner of Canada examined the privacy implications of e-government and digital identity management schemes. Dr. Milberry completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto’s iSchool and a PhD in Communication at Simon Fraser University. She is a technology commentator for CBC radio and blogs at geeksandglobaljustice.com. She is @KateMilberry on Twitter.

Andrea Slane, University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). “Privacy and civic duty: The legitimate scope of voluntary information sharing by private enterprises in law enforcement investigations into cybercrime.”

Andrea Slane, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Director of the Legal Studies Program in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). Prior to joining UOIT in 2009, she was Executive Director of the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. She received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Toronto with honours in 2003, and was called to Ontario bar in 2004. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, San Diego. Her research interests include privacy, information law, internet law, cyber-bullying, and online sexual exploitation of children and youth.

David Lyon, Scott Thompson, Ciara Bracken-Roche. Queens University. “Privacy Implications of the Spread of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in Canada.” 

David Lyon is the Principal Investigator of The New Transparency Project and Director of the Surveillance Studies Centre. He is also Queen’s Research Chair in Surveillance Studies and Professor of Sociology and of Law. He held a Killam Research Fellowship 2008-2010 for work on the globalization of ID systems. His most recent books are Liquid Surveillance (with Zygmunt Bauman; Polity 2012), Identifying Citizens: ID Cards as Surveillance (Polity 2009), Playing the Identity Card (co-edited with Colin J. Bennett, Routledge, 2008) and Surveillance Studies: An Overview (Polity 2007). He is also co-editor of Eyes Everywhere: The Global Growth of Camera Surveillance (with Aaron Doyle and Randy Lippert, 2011) and The International Handbook of Surveillance Studies (with Kirstie Ball and Kevin Haggerty, 2012). Lyon has been working on surveillance issues since the 1980s, when he discussed surveillance as one of the key issues of information-based societies in The Information Society: Issues and Illusions (Polity 1988). Since then he has been involved in many debates over information politics and policy in Canada and around the world as a result of his research and publications including The Electronic Eye (1994), Surveillance Society (2001) and Surveillance after September 11 (Polity 2003). He is a founding editor of the e-journal Surveillance & Society and has particular research interests in national ID cards, aviation security, surveillance ethics and in promoting the cross-disciplinary and international study of surveillance. He has received a number of awards:  Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sociological Association Information and Communication Technology Section (2007), Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2008), Outstanding Contribution Award from the Canadian Sociological Association (2012), election to the Academy of the Social Sciences (UK, 2013).

Scott Thompson is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen’s University, having completed his doctoral degree in sociology at the University of Alberta. His research focuses on the relationship between classification, governance and surveillance technologies. His current work focuses on the historical adoption of UAV technology in Canada, as well as the development and application of policy governing UAV flights.

Ciara Bracken-Roche is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology, and the Surveillance Studies Centre, under the supervision of David Lyon at Queen’s University.  Ciara’s ongoing interest is in the relationship between the state, society and the individual with a strong theoretical background in international relations and critical security studies.  Her dissertation research analyzes the contribution of unmanned aerial systems to the rapid expansion of security, policing and commercial surveillance.

Moderator: Lisa Austin, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

Lisa Austin is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law, where she is affiliated with the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy. She holds a bachelor’s degree from McMaster, and a law and doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Toronto. Prior to joining the faculty, she served as law clerk to Mr. Justice Frank Iacobucci of the Supreme Court of Canada. Professor Austin was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2006. Professor Austin’s research and teaching interests include privacy law and property law.

Paul Champ, Human Rights and Labour Lawyer, Champ & Associates

Paul Champ is a human rights and labour lawyer in Ottawa. He regularly represents individuals and trade unions as well as organizations such as Amnesty International, the BC Civil Liberties Association, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, the Elizabeth Fry Society, and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. Paul and his clients have established legal precedents in Charter rights, privacy, occupational health and safety, discrimination, prisoners’ rights, corporate accountability for abuses in foreign countries, and access to information. In 2010, Paul was the recipient of the Reg Robson Civil Liberties Award and in 2013 he was honoured by the International Commission of Jurists with the Walter S. Tarnopolsky Human Rights Award for outstanding contributions to domestic and international human rights.

Christopher Parsons, University of Victoria. “The Canadian Access to Social Media Information Project.”

Christopher Parson’s research, teaching, and consulting interests involve how privacy is affected by digitally mediated surveillance, and the normative implications that such surveillance has in (and on) contemporary Western political systems. He is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Citizen Lab, at the Munk School of Global Affairs with the University of Toronto, where he is examining telecommunications companies’ data retention and data disclosure policies. He has a Ph.D in Political Science from the Department of Political Science at the University of Victoria, where he completed a dissertation that examined the political drivers of Internet service providers’ network surveillance practices. He is also a Privacy by Design Ambassador and a Principal at Block G Privacy and Security Consulting.

Christopher has written policy reports for civil advocacy organizations in Canada, submitted evidence to Parliamentary committees, and been an active member of the Canadian privacy advocacy community. He has been involved in projects examining lawful access legislation in Canada and abroad, identity management systems in Canada, automatic license plate recognition technologies in Canada and the UK, network management and surveillance practices in Western democratic states, and privacy issues linked to social media services.

Christopher has published in the Canadian Journal of Law and Society, European Journal of Law and Technology, Canadian Privacy Law Review, CTheory, and has book chapters in a series of academic and popular books and reports. His research has been funded by SSHRC, the New Transparency Project, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s contributions programs, the Munk School of Global Affairs, and by civil advocacy organizations. He regularly presents his research to government, media, the public, and at academic events.

Abby Deshman, Canadian Civil Liberties Association. “Police Background Checks and the Private Sector.”

Abby Deshman is a lawyer and the Director of the Public Safety Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Her primary areas of advocacy and research include police accountability, police oversight, the criminal justice system, privacy and corrections.  She graduated from the University of Toronto Law School with an Hons JD in 2008, and obtained an LLM from New York University in 2010. She is currently involved in all aspects of CCLA’s advocacy and educational programs, including the litigation, legislative advocacy, policy work, and civil liberties workshops.

Moderator: Tamir Israel, Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC)

Tamir Israel joined CIPPIC as staff lawyer after articling with the clinic. He conducts research and advocacy on various digital rights-related issues, with a focus on online privacy and anonymity, net neutrality, intellectual property, intermediary liability, electronic surveillance, spam, e-commerce, and Internet governance generally. His advocacy activities have taken him before the courts, various regulators, parliamentary committees, and international Internet governance fora. Prior to joining CIPPIC, Tamir received a J.D. from the University of Toronto and a B.A. from the University of British Columbia. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Privacy International and lectures on Internet regulation matters at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Graduate & Post-doctoral Studies.

Alexandre Plourde, Option Consommateurs. “New services provided by credit agencies.”

Alexandre Plourde is a lawyer. A graduate of the University of Montreal, he has been working in the field of consumer protection for several years. At Options consommateurs, Plourde is particularly interested in issues related to privacy protection and leads information sessions on identity theft. In 2013, he participated in the drafting of the report “Privacy: How can we reconcile the interests of consumers with those of businesses, licensees and professionals?” under the OPC Contributions Program.

Avner Levin, Ryerson University. “Fraud and privacy violation risks in the financial aggregation industry.”

Dr. Avner Levin is an Associate Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management, and Chair of the Law & Business Department. He heads Ryerson University’s Law Research Centre which focuses on research related to law and legal education. He is also the Director of the Privacy and Cyber Crime Institute, a centre for research related to privacy and cybercrime. During the 2012-2013 academic year Professor Levin served as Ryerson University’s Interim Vice-Provost of Faculty Affairs and as Interim Assistant Vice-President of Human Resources. He is an alumnus of Tel-Aviv University, holding a B.Sc. and LL.B. degree, and of the University of Toronto, holding an LL.M. and S.J.D.

Professor Levin’s research interests include the protection and legal regulation of personal and private information, both locally and internationally. Among his recent research areas are social media, online advertising, the workplace, mobile devices, corporate risk management, electronic health records and the smart electricity grid. He has been a recipient of funding from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Public Safety Canada and Industry Canada.

Professor Levin has published his work in journals such as the American Business Law Journal, the Canadian Journal of Law and Society, the International Journal of Information Security and the Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law. He is the co-author, with Mr. Howard Simkevitz of the “The Law of Employee Use of Technology” and is a frequent commentator on these topics in the media.

Arthur Cockfield, Queens University. “The privacy implications of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).”

Arthur Cockfield, HBA (Western), LL.B (Queen’s), JSM and JSD (Stanford), is a Professor at Queen’s University Faculty of Law where he was appointed as a Queen’s National Scholar. Prior to joining Queen’s, he worked as a lawyer in Toronto and as a law professor in San Diego. He is a senior research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and has been a Fulbright Visiting Chair in Policy Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Cockfield has authored books, articles and book chapters that focus on tax law as well as law and technology theory and privacy law. He is the recipient of a number of fellowships and external research grants for this research, including four grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, an American Tax Policy Institute grant, the Charles D. Gonthier research fellowship, and two publication grants from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Professor Cockfield has served as a legal consultant to organizations that include the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations, the Department of Justice (Canada), the Department of Finance, the Advisory Panel on Canada’s System of International Taxation, the Office of the Auditor General and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Moderator: Ali Miri, Department of Computer Science, Ryerson University

Ali Miri is a Full Professor and Associate Chair at the School of Computer Science, Ryerson University. He has also been with the School of Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of Ottawa since 2001 as an Assistant Professor, and later as an Associate Professor in 2005, a Full Professor at 2008, and an Adjunct Professor since 2009. He has held visiting positions at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, Toronto in 2006, and Universite de Cergy-Pontoise, France in 2007, and Alicante and Albecete Universities in Spain in 2008. His research interests include computer networks, digital communication, and security and privacy technologies and their applications. He has authored and co-authored more than 150 referred articles, 6 books, and 4 patents in these fields. Dr. Miri has served on more than 60 organizing and technical program committees of international conferences and workshops. He has chaired/co-chaired The 14th Workshop on Selected Areas in Cryptography (SAC), 2007, The Fields Workshop on New Directions in Cryptography, 2008, the IFIP Conference in Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks (WSAN), 2008, The Canadian Workshop in Information Theory (CWIT), 2009, The Eighth International Conference on Privacy, Security, and Trust (PST), 2010, the IEEE International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMoB), 2010, The 18th Workshop on Selected Areas in Cryptography (SAC), 2011, and  The 5th International Workshop on Foundations & Practice of Security (FPS 2012). He has served as a guest editor for the Journal of Ad Hoc and Sensor Wireless Networks, the Journal of Telecommunications Systems, Security and Communication Networks, and on the editorial board of the International Journal on Advances in Internet Technology. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Wiley’s Security and Communication Networks Journal. He will be chairing The Twelfth International Conference on Privacy, Security, and Trust  (PST) and The IEEE International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMoB) in 2014.