After Canada announced it would ban the short-form video app TikTok on government-issued mobile devices, cybersecurity experts say the move highlights pre-existing concerns for the safety of Canadians’ personal data.
While the federal government didn’t say it will be adding further restrictions on the app for the general public, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said “this may be a first step, it may be the only step we need to take, but every step of the way we’re going to be making sure that we’re keeping Canadians safe.”
Cybersecurity expert Terry Cutler told CTV News Channel that Canadians can go about using the app at their own risk of their personal data being tracked, and while removing the app completely off their phones can be an option, there are concerns of its ties to other apps that TikTok can plug into to access users’ personal data.
“There’s so many ways that you can still be tracked online even without the TikTok app. The only other concern is that there’s a lot of apps that plug into TikTok and vice versa, so they’re still able to get information on you from other sources,” Cutler said Tuesday.
WHY HAS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BANNED TIKTOK?
Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board. said on Monday the decision was a cautionary move.
“The decision to remove and block TikTok from government mobile devices is being taken as a precaution, particularly given concerns about the legal regime that governs the information collected from mobile devices, and is in line with the approach of our international partners,” she said in a statement.
Fortier also said while there is no evidence to indicate any government data has been compromised, there are still risks involved for users of the app and Canadians should be aware of this before committing to its use.
Other provinces are now looking into banning the app from their government like Quebec, who quickly followed suit banning the app on government devices on Tuesday.
In response, TikTok questioned why the federal government set the ban without providing specific concerns or contacting the social media company first, according to a company spokesperson.
“We are always available to meet with our government officials to discuss how we protect the privacy and security of Canadians, but singling out TikTok in this way does nothing to achieve that shared goal. All it does is prevent officials from reaching the public on a platform loved by millions of Canadians,” the spokesperson said.
SHOULD I DELETE TIKTOK?
According to TikTok’s privacy policy, the app can access a user’s personal data like date of birth, location, phone contact list, among other information. Aside from using this data to personalize its algorithm, it can also share it with other social networks like Google or Facebook. or to advertisers and other subsidiaries or affiliates with its corporate group.
Concerns of this data sharing, particularly with its Chinese parent company Bytedance, has been a main concern amid Canadian-Chinese tensions.
Rob Falzon, head of engineering at cybersecurity company Check Point, says TikTok has had vulnerabilities in the past, as research teams at Check Point found hackers could release private information by connecting a user’s profile to phone numbers associated with the account, reveal personal information or upload unauthorized videos.
“I think there’s a larger issue at play here that is not addressed by simply banning Tiktok,” Falzon told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Tuesday. “And that is the issue of data protection and privacy laws in Canada in general.”
Falzon says while he supports the ban on government-issued devices, there still needs to be more done to ensure Canadian’s safety online, and not just with TikTok.
“We have to start asking ourselves if there should the people who create these apps hold that responsibility or should there be a sort of threshold that the government should implement this from a rules perspective to say, ‘you need to meet these basic rules to be allowed to do business in Canada’?” he said.
Sharon Polsky, President of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada, says Canadian users should be more conscious about their online activity but it can be difficult to see it that way since so much of their daily activities have become so dependent on the use of technology, whether that’s connecting with friends or shopping online.
“This is good to raise awareness, there are issues about websites, whether it’s social media or retailers or just about any website, including medical and mental health websites that collect personal information, very, very sensitive personal information,” she told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Whether Canadians should continue to use the app should be completely up to them, she said, but that decision should include the education and tools to understand how their data is being used and how they can protect themselves.
HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF?
Falzon says Canadians need to start asking more questions about whether or not the devices they use every day require personal details in order to function.
“If it’s a device like a smart TV or smart coffee maker, do you need a smart coffee maker? Do you need the app that goes with the smart coffee maker?” he said. “Did your coffeemaker just ask you what your birthday was? Why? Why am I putting that information in there?”
Similar to how parents are recommended to keep watch of their children’s online activity, Falzon says everyone should be taking care of themselves in the same way to determine how much personal information they want to expose on apps and devices.
Polsky says it doesn`t necessarily have to be about looking through every single privacy policy, but by searching for educational tools that can show them how they can adjust what personal data they want to share, and if they aren`t happy with the device or app`s privacy setting, not being afraid to question it.
“There are legitimate reliable sources of information that are not scams that people can educate themselves to know how to look at the features in their phone, or their desktop or their tablet and lock it down. How not to just accept whatever is presented to them, to question it,” she said.
Nova Scotia RCMP say their investigation into two suspicious deaths earlier this month has concluded that one man died by homicide and the other by suicide.
The bodies of two men, aged 40 and 73, were found in a home in Windsor, N.S., on Sept. 3.
Police say the province’s medical examiner determined the 40-year-old man was killed and the 73-year-old man killed himself.
They say the two men were members of the same family.
No arrests or charges are anticipated, and the names of the deceased will not be released.
RCMP say they will not be releasing any further details out of respect for the family.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from its original location because members were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
Nemaska’s story illustrates the challenges Legault’s government faces as it looks to build new dams to meet the province’s power needs, which are anticipated to double by 2050. Legault has promised that any new projects will be developed in partnership with Indigenous people and have “social acceptability,” but experts say that’s easier said than done.
François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said the earlier era of hydro projects were developed without any consideration for the Indigenous inhabitants living nearby.
“We live in a much different world now,” he said. “Any kind of hydro development, no matter where in Quebec, will require true consent and partnership from Indigenous communities.” Those groups likely want to be treated as stakeholders, he added.
Securing wider social acceptability for projects that significantly change the landscape — as hydro dams often do — is also “a big ask,” he said. The government, Bouchard added, will likely focus on boosting capacity in its existing dams, or building installations that run off river flow and don’t require flooding large swaths of land to create reservoirs.
Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, said Legault’s visit to Nemaska represents a desire for reconciliation with Indigenous people who were traumatized by the way earlier projects were carried about.
Any new projects will need the consent of local First Nations, Beaumier said, adding that its easier to get their blessing for wind power projects compared to dams, because they’re less destructive to the environment and easier around which to structure a partnership agreement.
Beaumier added that he believes it will be nearly impossible to get the public — Indigenous or not — to agree to “the destruction of a river” for a new dam, noting that in recent decades people have come to recognize rivers as the “unique, irreplaceable riches” that they are.
Legault’s visit to northern Quebec came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
The book, published in 2022 along with Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Nemaska community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault was in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro complex in honour of former premier Bernard Landry. At the event, Legault said he would follow the example of his late predecessor, who oversaw the signing of the historic “Paix des Braves” agreement between the Quebec government and the Cree in 2002.
He said there is “significant potential” in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, both in increasing the capacity of its large dams and in developing wind power projects.
“Obviously, we will do that with the Cree,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
