Citizen Lab

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Connaught Fund

Political Science

President Meric Gertler

Research and Innovation

U of T Scarborough

The dangers of international digital espionage. The earliest moments of the universe. How scientists can also be activists and changemakers.

These were some of the topics University of Toronto researchers delved into at a recent event celebrating the impact of the Connaught Fund, which has supported research excellence and innovation across the university for 50 years.

Members of the community gathered at Convocation Hall to hear Ronald Deibert, Renée Hložek and Maydianne Andrade discuss the impact of their research and the role of university researchers in society. A professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Deibert is also director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Hložek is a cosmologist and associate professor at the Dunlap Institute and the David A. Dunlap Department for Astronomy and Astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science. Andrade, a University Professor in the department of biological sciences at U of T Scarborough and an expert on the black widow spider, is a leading advocate for equity and inclusion.

Over the years, the Connaught Fund has supported the pathbreaking work of all three researchers – part of what President Meric Gertler called the fund’s “extraordinary legacy” in his opening remarks.

“Not only does the Connaught Fund support research excellence from diverse disciplines and across different career stages it also supports inclusive excellence,” he said.

President Gertler said the Connaught Indigenous Funding Stream, which supports Indigenous community-driven research at U of T, and the Connaught Major Research Challenge for Black Researchers, which will strengthen the research capacity of U of T’s Black academics, are two initiatives that deepen the university’s commitment to education and discovery.

Created in 1972 from the sale of the Connaught Laboratories, the Connaught Fund has since given out more than $179 million to researchers across myriad disciplines – and is Canada’s largest internal university research funding program.

“The program supports global challenges, community partnerships and offers dedicated funding streams to help increase the research impact of PhD students, Black and Indigenous researchers and U of T-led startup companies,” said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

Andrade, renowned for her research on sexual selection, mating behaviour and the biology and ecology of black widow spiders, focused her presentation on activism in science and how she has leveraged her platform to create change.

“Scientists should stay in their lane – I’ve heard this a lot,” she said. “Our job is to create solutions and knowledge that other people who understand policy will then apply. But of course, advising solutions is not the same as solving a problem.”

As the co-founder and president of the Canadian Black Scientists Network and founder and co-chair of the Toronto Initiative for Diversity and Excellence, Andrade has worked to increase inclusion within institutions across Canada through education and advocacy.

Deibert, meanwhile, has contributed to the publication of more than 120 reports covering research on cyber espionage, commercial spyware, internet censorship and human rights. His talk explored Citizen Lab’s research into targeted digital espionage against civil society, outlining major cases that have received international attention and have prompted scandals in countries such as Greece, Spain and Mexico.

In her work, Hložek uses statistical methods and precise observations to answer cosmic questions.

“I’m interested in what the universe is made of, how it’s changing over time and then eventually how it’s going to end,” she said.

Hložek presented some of the observations used to put together the puzzle pieces of the universe and emphasized the importance of telescopes in her research.

The presentations were followed by a roundtable discussion hosted by broadcast journalist Mary Ito. Audience members had a chance to ask questions and the researchers discussed the importance of university research and the next big ideas to influence our society.

“I’m really encouraged by the growth of the field which I’m a part of,” said Deibert. “We are seeing a healthy community worldwide of people who are involved in this type of digital accountability work. The hope I have is that the field continues to grow.”

“I think it’s a responsibility of the universities to do this type of public accountability research.”

What now? Acclaimed novelist Randy Boyagoda explores a post-lockdown world in new U of T podcast

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:28:45 +0000

What now? Acclaimed novelist Randy Boyagoda explores a post-lockdown world in new U of T podcast

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 07/27/2022 - 09:28

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As host of the What Now? podcast, Randy Boyagoda, a professor of English, explores how society might rebuild as it moves beyond the pandemic (photo courtesy of Randy Boyagoda)

Topic

Cities

English

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

History

St. Michael's College

U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

Toward the beginning of the first episode of the What Now? podcast, host Randy Boyagoda asks Maydianne Andrade, “What feels normal to you right now?”

She doesn’t hesitate in her response.

“Almost nothing,” says Andrade, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto Scarborough who hosted her own podcast series through the bitter first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I do feel like things have been shaken to their core.”

It’s a perfect thematic setup to What Now? – a podcast created by U of T Communications (UTC) – since the series considers how global society might rebuild after the pandemic unraveled so much of how we used to live.

“When I was approached to do this, what came to mind was how hard it had been over the intense part of the pandemic to talk about anything other than the pandemic,” says Boyagoda, a noted novelist and essayist, and a professor of English in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science who also teaches at St. Michael’s College.

“I think many people hit a point of total exhaustion with pandemic conversation. And so, what would it mean to have a conversation about life once the pandemic ends? Not that we’re pretending that everything’s over, but what have we learned? What have we gained? What have we lost? Those are the kinds of conversations we have in this podcast.”

The first season of the series comprises seven episodes. In each one, Boyagoda – who has also served as principal of St Michael’s College and vice-dean, undergraduate in the Faculty of Arts & Science – sits down with experts to discuss subjects ranging from equity and class division to statistics and cyberespionage.

Clémentine Van Effenterre, an assistant professor of economics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, spoke to Boyagoda about how COVID-19 made existing inequities that much worse.

“We know that the distribution of household work was far from equal,” Van Effenterre says. “Before the pandemic, women did two more hours of household activities daily than men. During the pandemic, women were twice as likely as men to reduce their (professional) working hours to take care of children.”

Guests also discuss how COVID-19 has led to a rethink of how children should be educated.

“Schools as we know them … are an invention of the 19^th century and unfortunately they haven’t changed that much,” says Ruben Gaztambide-Fernandez, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. “We want schools as we imagined them in the 19^th century to address 20^th- and 21^st-century problems that they weren’t meant to address.”

Clémentine Van Effenterre, an assistant professor of economics, says women were twice as likely as men to reduce their professional working hours during the pandemic (photo by Lisa Lightbourn)

Boyagoda, who will serve as acting vice-provost, faculty and academic life in the upcoming academic year, often introduces episodes with commentary as he walks to the interview locations on U of T’s St. George campus – an audio cue to remind listeners of the show’s post-lockdown focus.

“The approach to the podcast in having it be on location rather than in studio was intentional,” says Lisa Lightbourn, creative producer at UTC who worked with Boyagoda to develop and produce the podcast. “I wanted to give people the sense that we are back together, and these are the sounds and experiences of the campus as it comes back to life – in a brand new way.”

Lightbourn adds that Boyagoda is an ideal host – a person of many passions and achievements.

“He’s well known as a personable and entertaining professor. So, I thought he’d be perfect for this new series.”

The author of four novels, Boyagoda’s fiction has been nominated for numerous awards. Original Prin, his breakout hit, was called “an unputdownable book” by none other than Salman Rushdie. His latest novel, Dante’s Indiana, is about an English professor who consults on a Dante-themed amusement park in middle America.

He also regularly contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the Guardian in addition to appearing frequently on CBC Radio and podcasting for the Toronto Public Library.

Yet, despite his public profile, Boyagoda says he sees his role behind the microphone for What Now? as curious student, not expert commentator.

“I’m the listener and learner here,” he says. “What was interesting for me was just getting to chat with people who are from different disciplines and who come with these questions in different ways than I would. If, as a writer, I am fundamentally a curious person, then something like this series gives me a chance to cultivate and develop that curiosity and to become more enlightened.

“What I love about podcasts and live radio is when you move from the predictable questions into a genuine conversation that feels alive because you have two people responding to each other.

“And that moment happened with every, single person I spoke with.”

Randy Boyagoda walks down the street with OISE Professor Rubén Gaztambide-Fernandez (photo by Lisa Lightbourn)

Boyagoda’s podcast follows in the footsteps of two other successful U of T podcasts created by Lightbourn. Andrade’s The New Normal examined how the pandemic was changing daily life and exacerbating inequity, touching on subjects ranging from connecting with family and friends to the scourge of anti-Black and anti-Asian racism. Another podcast – What’s Next? – tapped public health leader Vivek Goel, at the time U of T’s vice president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives (he’s now president of the University of Waterloo), to explain health and scientific aspects of what was initially dubbed the “novel coronavirus.”

Both series found a ready audience – “What’s Next?” nabbed more than two million views and three million impressions – and won Transformative Awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

What does Boyagoda hope listeners take away from What Now?

“My goal is for them to say, ‘Just when I thought there was nothing new to learn about pandemic-era living, here are people are exploring it in a way that expands my understanding and challenges some of my preconceptions – leaving me better informed and curious for more.”

The series debuts on Aug. 3, with new episodes streamed weekly. What Now? is available on Apple, Spotify and other popular podcast services.

Here’s the What Now? episode guide:

Episode 1: “The Real New Normal”: Andrade talks about her experience of hosting her podcast and offers her thoughts on what the “new, new normal” should be. And she brings listeners up to speed on her other specialty: the sex lives of spiders.

Episode 2: “The Evolution of Education” Rubén Gaztambide-Fernandez, professor of curriculum and pedagogy and editor-in-chief of the journal Curriculum Inquiry at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, discusses how schools have changed for better – and worse.

Episode 3: “What is the Cost?” Clémentine Van Effenterre, assistant professor of economics and host of the podcast InequaliTalks, talks about austerity measures and protests, privilege and class divisions and the new shape of work.

Episode 4 – “Machines and Slow Disasters”: Edward Jones-Imhotep, an associate professor and historian specializing in the social and cultural life of machines, who is director of U of T’s Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, explores a wide range of related topics, including Black androids, slow disasters and social order.

Episode 5 – “Smarter Cities”: Beth Coleman, an associate professor of Data and Cities at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information where she directs the City as Platform Lab, discusses what a smarter, more human-centred city might look like.

Episode 6: “What Are the Chances?” Jeffrey Rosenthal, professor of statistics and bestselling author of Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities and Knock on Wood: Luck, Chance, and the Meaning of Everything, discusses luck, the pandemic and what it means to be born on Friday the 13^th.

Episode 7 – “Citizen Reset”: Ron Deibert, political science professor, director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and authority on cyber espionage, commercial spyware, internet censorship and human rights, talks about privacy and propaganda.

Citizen Lab unearths spyware attacks against Catalan politicians, U.K. government: The New Yorker

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 18:58:35 +0000

Citizen Lab unearths spyware attacks against Catalan politicians, U.K. government: The New Yorker

rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 04/21/2022 - 14:58

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(Photo by time99lek/iStockPhoto/Getty Images)

Topic

The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, is highlighted in a New Yorker feature by journalist and author Ronan Farrow that explored the use of Pegasus spyware, built by Israeli firm NSO Group, by governments and global actors – as well as efforts by big tech companies like Facebook and Apple to counter it.

The New Yorker piece, titled “How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens,” reports that just last month, Catalan politician Jordi Sole approached Citizen Lab researcher and fellow Elies Campo to ask for help analyzing his iPhone, which had been receiving suspicious text messages – breaches traced to 2020. “In those days, your device was infected—they took control of it and were on it probably for some hours. Downloading, listening, recording,” Campo told Sole, the New Yorker reported.

More recently, in February 2021, the Citizen Lab uncovered an infection on the laptop of the Catalan activist Joan Matamala – though this attack was traced to another Israeli spyware firm, Candiru. The New Yorker reports that Campo instructed Matamala to wrap the laptop in aluminum foil to prevent the spyware from communicating with Candiru’s servers. In a recent post on its website, the Citizen Lab outlined detailed findings from its investigations on the use of Pegasus and other spyware programs to target Catalan pro-independence figures.

The New Yorker also notes the Citizen Lab found at least five instances of hacking of U.K. Foreign Office phones between July 2020 and June 2021, as well as infection of a device connected to the network at 10 Downing Street, office and residence of the prime minister. “When we found the No. 10 case, my jaw dropped,” John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab, told the magazine. On Monday, the Citizen Lab confirmed that it “observed and notified the government of the United Kingdom of multiple suspected instances of Pegasus spyware infections within official U.K. networks.”

Read the New Yorker feature

Read the Citizen Lab report on spyware operations targeting Catalans

Read the Citizen Lab post about spyware operations targeting the U.K. government

Spyware investigations involving U of T’s Citizen Lab reveal targets in El Salvador, Poland: Reports

mattimar — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 19:33:43 +0000

Spyware investigations involving U of T’s Citizen Lab reveal targets in El Salvador, Poland: Reports

mattimar Mon, 01/17/2022 - 14:33

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(Photo by Marco Piunti/Getty Images)

Topic

Our Community

Cyber Espionage

Cyber Security

A joint investigation by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab and Access Now reveals that dozens of journalists and activists in El Salvador had their cellphones allegedly hacked by Israeli firm NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware.

John Scott-Railton

The investigation, which identified 35 individuals whose phones were successfully infected with the sophisticated spyware normally used to target criminals, was reported on by the Associated Press, Reuters, the Guardian and other media outlets.

A sample of cases in the report were reviewed by Amnesty International’s Security Lab, which investigates cyberattacks against civil society.

The alleged hacks took place between July 2020 and November 2021, a time of ongoing censorship of journalists who investigated the government of President Nayib Bukele.

“The aggressiveness and persistence of the hacking was jaw-dropping,” John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at the Citizen Lab and an author of the report, told the Associated Press.

“I’ve seen a lot of Pegasus cases but what was especially disturbing in this case was its juxtaposition with the physical threats and violent language against the media in El Salvador.”

In a statement to Reuters, Bukele’s office said it is not a client of NGO Group and that some of the government’s top officials might have also had their phones hacked.

The Citizen Lab, part of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science, has been tracking victims of Pegasus spyware since 2016, helping to identify dozens of cases of inappropriate use. The technology has been used to eavesdrop on journalists, diplomats, lawyers, activists and politicians from the Middle East to Mexico.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that Polish senator Krzysztof Brejza and two other Polish government critics were allegedly hacked by with the Pegasus spyware. The Citizen Lab and Amnesty International say the senator was allegedly hacked multiple times during the 2019 parliamentary elections.

There are also concerns closer to home.

Noura Aljizawi and Siena Anstis, researchers at the Citizen Lab, have interviewed 18 Canadian human rights activists about being the target of cyber attacks and misinformation campaigns, the Toronto Star reports. Some worry that authorities aren’t doing enough to protect them.

“The silence of Canada is giving the attackers more space to launch an attack,” Aljizawi told the Toronto Star.

The researchers say finding ways to stop the export of Canadian-developed technology to countries using it for cyber attacks and providing mental health resources for refugees are just a few of the ways to deal with this complex issue. To bring increased exposure to the dangers faced by newcomers and activists, the Citizen Lab is set to release a report investigating digital transnational repression in the coming months.

Read about the Citizen Lab investigation in El Salvador in the Associated Press

Read the Toronto Star’s article about cyber attacks

Citizen Lab, Microsoft collaborate to investigate spyware sold by foreign firm: CBC, the Guardian

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 17:28:27 +0000

Citizen Lab, Microsoft collaborate to investigate spyware sold by foreign firm: CBC, the Guardian

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 07/16/2021 - 13:28

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(Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Microsoft and the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy collaborated to investigate a secretive technology company that sold hacking tools to government agencies, according to CBC News and the Guardian.

The malware sold by Tel Aviv-based Candiru – apparently designed to infiltrate popular products like Microsoft Windows and Google’s Chrome web browser – was used against a range of targets including Saudi dissidents and a left-leaning Indonesian media outlet, CBC News reported, citing Citizen’s Lab report Hooking Candiru: Another Mercenary Spyware Vendor Comes into Focus.

Among the company's spyware methods was the use of fake websites purporting to represent NGOs, activist groups and news organizations – such as Black Lives Matter, Amnesty International and CNN, the Guardian reported, citing Citizen’s Lab report.

Microsoft, which discovered vulnerabilities in its software, said in a blog post Thursday that it had published an update blocking the spyware tools.

Read the report at CBC News

Read the report in the Guardian

How a researcher at U of T's Citizen Lab helped ID Capitol Hill rioters: Toronto Star

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 19:59:38 +0000

How a researcher at U of T's Citizen Lab helped ID Capitol Hill rioters: Toronto Star

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 01/11/2021 - 14:59

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Members of a violent mob enter in the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 as Congress held a joint session to ratify the results of the 2020 election (photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Topic

Global Lens

Donald Trump

United States

After a mob stunned the world last week by laying siege to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., the University of Toronto’s John Scott-Railton sought to identify the masked men and women behind the violence.

Scott-Railton, who works for Citizen Lab at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in the Faculty of Arts & Science, has been using photo enhancement techniques, open source search techniques and public tips gathered from social media to identify members of the violent throng that sought to overturn the results of the U.S. presidential election, according to a profile of Scott-Railton in the Toronto Star.

In collaboration with the New Yorker magazine, Scott-Railton determined that one individual was a U.S. Air Force combat veteran. Scott-Railton notified the FBI of his suspicions after piecing together the man’s identity through the insignias adorning his helmet and body armor, the New Yorker piece said.

Scott-Railton's Capitol Hill project – which has drawn interest from media outlets in the U.S. and around the world, including CNN, USA Today, the Independent and Germany’s Bild online – is part of his broader Citizen Lab work, which focuses on malware, phishing, online disinformation and other digital threats to civil society.

Scott-Railton told the Star that he has been overwhelmed by input from the general public.

“The volume of tips and information now is unlike anything I have ever seen,” he said.

Six lessons U of T experts hope we learn from the pandemic

lanthierj — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 14:41:16 +0000

Six lessons U of T experts hope we learn from the pandemic

lanthierj Tue, 08/11/2020 - 10:41

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(photo by Richard Lautens/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Chris Sasaki

Topic

Our Community

School of Cities

Centre for Ethics

Department of Earth Sciences

Earth Sciences

Faculty of Medicine

Geography and Planning

Political Science

Sociology

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. However, it’s been with us long enough to clearly expose fault lines, inequities and deficiencies in virtually every sector of society. As a result, many have concluded there is a need for a “new normal” rather than a return to the status quo.

But what should that new normal look like? What lessons have we learned – or should we have learned – from the pandemic?

Writer Chris Sasaki, of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Arts & Science, recently put those questions to a range of experts at the university.

Sylvia Bashevkin, professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science

In mid-March, I wrote an op-ed for the Toronto Star about the challenges facing social cohesion in Canada. Four months later, our circumstances seem promising and, at the same time, threatening.

People have come together in remarkable ways to help each other. Some public officials have demonstrated insightful, principled leadership. Yet, inequalities along the lines of gender, race, Indigeneity and social class continue to drive citizens apart, making us distrust the core institutions that need to operate effectively at times of crises. We see protesters gather to deny the concept of a public good. They oppose mandatory mask rules and defend supposedly inalienable rights to haircuts and shopping.

These elements reflect profound tensions that threaten the foundations of liberal democracy in Canada. We must remember that collective thinking and action are crucial to protecting human health and the concept of a public good.

Sunit Das, associate professor in the department of surgery in the Faculty of Medicine, faculty associate at the Centre for Ethics

This moment – of the COVID-19 pandemic, of the #MeToo movement, of Black Lives Matter – has required all of us to consider what we as a society mean by fairness and equity, to consider the possibility that our society is fundamentally built on a foundation that capriciously compromises both for many of its constituents.

In medicine, fairness and equity are comprised by the principle of justice. Unique among the four pillars of medical ethics – along with beneficence, non-malfeasance and autonomy – justice looks beyond the individual patient before us and requires us to consider our duty as physicians as a duty to society.

The disproportionate cost of COVID-19 to Black, Latinx, Indigenous, elderly and disabled patients is a matter of justice. It is our duty as physicians to address the forces that allowed and continue to foster the unfairness and inequity made manifest by the pandemic in society and medicine.

As physicians, we have often proved ourselves to be upright stewards of beneficence, non-malfeasance and autonomy. We must remember that we are as bound by our duty as stewards of justice.

Miriam Diamond, professor in the department of Earth sciences in the Faculty of Arts & Science

Returning to pre-pandemic conditions – without learning from it – will condemn us and future generations to conditions beyond those we now face due to climate change, including uncertain and precarious health, social inequities and insecurity.

Like the pandemic, climate change is estimated to cause deaths, illness and displacement, accompanied by a very large economic price tag for both Canadians and 99 per cent of global citizens.

The good news is that we as a society can adapt our behaviour and practices according to advice given by experts, as we have done during the pandemic. To do this, we need to acknowledge the dire threat posed by climate change and plow government and private sector funding into decarbonized technologies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase our global competitive advantage.

We need to exploit the lessons learned from COVID-19 to create a sustainable and equitable new normal for all Canadians and be a beacon to the international community.

Ito Peng, professor in the department of sociology in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

The most important lessons we’ve learned from the pandemic are the importance of having a good long-term care (LTC) system, the value of care and the consequences of the precarious status of care workers.

Canada’s LTC homes have done a spectacularly bad job in caring for our older citizens. We top the chart in COVID-related deaths in LTC homes, accounting for over 80 per cent of total deaths compared to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country average of 42 per cent.

Years of neglect and chronic underfunding have resulted in inadequate and low-quality services for the residents and terrible working conditions for care workers. The shift towards a private, for-profit-dominated LTC market have been incentivized by bad policies and weak regulations and created low-wage and poor working conditions for care workers.

After COVID-19, we must build a better regulated universal public LTC system that will provide better quality care and better training and pay for care workers.

Irene Poetranto, senior researcher at the Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Although the coronavirus does not discriminate, its consequences do. Marginalized groups that are vulnerable to prejudice have suffered disproportionately from COVID-19.

Singapore and Thailand saw a jump in COVID-19 cases among low-wage migrant workers. Online attacks and offline harassment against LGBTQ2S+ persons increased following coronavirus infections from Seoul’s Itaewon district, a popular spot for LGBTQ2S+ people in South Korea. Remote mining sites in Indonesia and the Philippines have become COVID-19 transmission vectors, endangering local communities and Indigenous Peoples.

In responding to COVID-19, governments have relied on the military and police to enforce physical distancing and used surveillance mechanisms and pervasive data collection for contact tracing – all of which heighten the risk of human rights violations.

As the pandemic continues to turn public health into a security issue, we must ensure that the post-COVID-19 new normal is not one where a crisis of human rights and rule of law is normalized.

Matti Siemiatycki, associate professor in the department of geography and planning in the Faculty of Arts & Science, interim director of the School of Cities

The pandemic has disproportionally affected lower income, racialized and crowded communities – for example, in the inner suburbs in the northern part of the GTA. It has revealed more clearly our affordable housing crisis, as well as the damaging impacts of precarious employment. We’ve seen transit routes in the inner suburbs that are overcrowded despite the fact transit ridership declined drastically during the pandemic.

The pandemic has revealed – and in some cases accelerated – the shortcomings and cracks in society in terms of inequality of opportunity, public services and infrastructure that existed before.

So, we really need to respond to those challenges and change how we’re doing things. The new normal has to be different. We need to build back better, do things differently, respond to the health challenges that have arisen from the pandemic. The housing crisis must be addressed and conditions improved for low wage workers. And we need to do things like improve bus service in the inner suburbs, invest in dedicated bike lanes and make the city more walkable and not so dominated by cars.

In short, we need to rebuild a society that's more equitable, sustainable and just.

Citizen Lab research outlines how WeChat uses high-tech algorithms to censor images: South China Morning Post

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 16:33:47 +0000

Citizen Lab research outlines how WeChat uses high-tech algorithms to censor images: South China Morning Post

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 07/16/2019 - 12:33

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(photo by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Topic

Global Lens

China

Research & Innovation

Technology

Research from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab outlines how Chinese social media app WeChat is using cutting-edge technology to censor images shared by its over 1.1 billion users.

An analysis by Citizen Lab says that WeChat uses special data signatures to detect and delete banned images in real time, the South China Morning Post reported. Images that aren't instantly censored are analyzed retroactively and compared to previously censored images, with the system then flagging content that may be deemed harmful by Chinese authorities.

That means WeChat – unbeknownst to its users – is effectively using image-sharing activity on its platform to strengthen its censorship technology, the researchers said.

"Users using the platform are building the [blacklist's] database by sending images," Jeffrey Knockel, a co-author of the study and post-doctoral researcher at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, told the South China Morning Post.

The most censored images were found to be those pertaining to Chinese government matters and major news events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and 2018 U.S. midterm elections, according to business news website Quartz.

Citizen Lab reports explore nefarious use of spyware apps: CBC, Toronto Star

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 14:42:14 +0000

Citizen Lab reports explore nefarious use of spyware apps: CBC, Toronto Star

rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 06/13/2019 - 10:42

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Citizen Lab’s offices at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy (Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

Our Community

Research and Innovation

A pair of reports released by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy have detailed how abusers are using “stalkerware” apps to harass others with near-impunity, according to the CBC and Toronto Star.

Some of the spyware apps are promoted as child-tracking programs for parents or employee-tracking tools for employers. But others brazenly market their utility as a way to catch cheating spouses and clandestinely collect data from the phones of non-consenting domestic partners, the CBC reported, citing Citizen Lab’s report A Predator In Your Pocket: A Multidisciplinary Assessment of the Stalkerware Application Industry.

Several aspects surrounding the marketing, sale and use of these stalkerware apps violate Canadian laws, but victims are rarely afforded legal remedies due to a lack of knowledge on the part of judges, lawyers and police, the Toronto Star reported, citing Citizen Lab’s second report, Installing Fear: A Canadian Legal and Policy Analysis of Using, Developing, and Selling Smartphone Spyware and Stalkerware Applications.

‘You cannot defeat me': U of T grad Noura Al-Jizawi, a leader of the Syrian uprising, takes on a new challenge

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 17:34:07 +0000

‘You cannot defeat me': U of T grad Noura Al-Jizawi, a leader of the Syrian uprising, takes on a new challenge

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/07/2019 - 13:34

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Noura Al-Jizawi, who organized pro-democracy protests in Syria and was detained and tortured, graduated with a Master of Global Affairs from the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy (photo by Lisa Lightbourn)

Topic