Regulation of Nanotechnology and nano particles

The ISSP (Institute for Science Society and Policy) in Ottawa has released a paper that outlines a timeline for regulating Nanotechnology in OECD countries.

Over here and here there is some useful information on joint Canadian - U.S. and OECD activities to regulate nano related materials etc.

The important take away from the Canada-U.S policy work was the following.

The Canada-U.S. Regulatory Cooperation Council Nanotechnology Initiative is now complete. Canada and the U.S. are implementing the new approaches and lessons learned in risk assessments of nanomaterials. An important outcome of the initiative is the development of consistent policy principles on the regulatory oversight of nanomaterials, which have now been endorsed by the Government of Canada. Watch for the publication of the final reports from the Canada-U.S. Regulatory Cooperation Council Nanotechnology Initiative this summer. The reports will include recommendations about ways in which Canada and the U.S. can align their nanomaterial regulatory work, including the application of consistent risk assessment approaches and methodologies and identifying categories of nanomaterials.

Ref http://www.frogheart.ca/?m=201407

'Emergency' legislation is the UK.

The BBC reports.

In the UK...Emergency powers to ensure police and security services can continue to access phone and internet records are being rushed through Parliament.

Prime Minister David Cameron has secured the backing of all three main parties for the highly unusual move.He said urgent action was needed to protect the public from "criminals and terrorists" after the European Court of Justice struck down existing powers. But civil liberties campaigners have warned it will invade people's privacy. Mr Cameron defended the move in a joint news conference with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, saying it was about maintaining existing capabilities - not introducing new snooping laws. But it will make legally clear the requirements include companies based abroad, whose phone and internet services are used in the UK. A former senior diplomat will also be appointed to work with other nations to speed up the "lawful and justified" transfer of data across borders. ...

ref for more information http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-28237111

Digital Identity

One of the really big issues for the digital era is identity. There seems no end of problems but one country may be on the right track.

The Economist Reports (28 June 2014)

Private providers are offering their own schemes; miiCard, for example, uses bank accounts as a way of issuing a verified online identity. But these fall short of the reliability of a state-backed identity, issued by a government official, checked against other databases, using biometric data (such as fingerprints and retinal scans) and backed by law—in effect an electronic passport.There is one place where this cyberdream is already reality. Secure, authenticated identity is the birthright of every Estonian: before a newborn even arrives home, the hospital will have issued a digital birth certificate and his health insurance will have been started automatically. All residents of the small Baltic state aged 15 or over have electronic ID cards, which are used in health care, electronic banking and shopping, to sign contracts and encrypt e-mail, as tram tickets, and much more besides—even to vote.Estonia’s approach makes life efficient: taxes take less than an hour to file, and refunds are paid within 48 hours. By law, the state may not ask for any piece of information more than once, people have the right to know what data are held on them and all government databases must be compatible, a system known as the X-road. In all, the Estonian state offers 600 e-services to its citizens and 2,400 to businesses.Estonia’s system uses suitably hefty encryption. Only a minimum of private data are kept on the ID card itself. Lost cards can simply be cancelled. And in over a decade, no security breaches have been reported. Also issued are two PIN codes, one for authentication (proving who the holder is) and one for authorisation (signing documents or making payments). Asked to authenticate a user, the service concerned queries a central database to check that the card and relevant code match. It also asks for only the minimum information needed: to check a customer’s age, for example, it does not ask, “How old is this person?” but merely, “Is this person over 18?”

 I remember, a long time ago, that is Before the Internet  Era (BIE) the Australian government wanted to issue an identity card - in effect a social security card which other countries have. There was the usual controversy and at the time it became to hot too touch. The problem is the world has changed radically and now the identity crisis needs an answer - perhaps Estonia is on the right track. We look forward to more serious experiments. It seems contradictory but perhaps to protect privacy and individuality we need a step like this - digital birth certificate.

Facebook a digital landlord

The BBC reports that Facebook has been described by a court as a digital landlord.

Facebook is fighting a US court order in which it was forced to hand over data belonging to almost 400 people involved in a benefit fraud trial. The social media site said the request was "by far the largest" it had ever received from a government body. Photographs, private messages and other information were supplied to a New York court last year, but the process was only made public by a judge this week. The ruling defined Facebook as a "digital landlord". A judge said this definition meant the company must comply with search warrants. The original case investigated fraudulent claimants of US federal disability benefits, whose Facebook accounts apparently showed that they were in fact healthy. The web giant was ordered to hand over information from the 381 accounts, which the court said contained "evidence of criminality".

The courts continue to define the digital policy in the absence of legislation. The web of court orders relating to data companies such as google and facebook continues to evolve fast.

This is really smart practice for the digital age

The Government of Canada - at least in the justice Depart tests its employees with fake emails. 

The CBC reports

An internal survey shows almost 2,000 staff were conned into clicking on a phoney "phishing" link in their email, raising questions about the security of sensitive information. The department launched the mock scam in December as a security exercise, sending emails to 5,000 employees to test their ability to recognize cyber fraud. The emails looked like genuine communications from government or financial institutions, and contained a link to a fake website that was also made to look like the real thing.

... A February briefing note on the exercise was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. The document indicates there are more such exercises planned — in June, August and October — and that the simulations will be "graduating in levels of sophistication." Those caught by the simulation are notified by a pop-up window, giving them tips on spotting malicious messages.

 I think this is very smart practice and shouldn't it be government wide, not just the Justice Department? That is a great place to start though! Actually, this seems like like a great thing to do for the population. As we move toward a digital society we need a head shift about how we protect people and educate them. Some of us who have grown up more digital than others can get pretty smug; oh we don't fall for those emails! But I joke with my wife that as we get older and new strategies emerge then what will we fall for later in life? Government phishing with education behind it could be a great tool for keeping society up to speed on the latest tricks.

I like it I like it alot!

Oh to be forgotten - courts and policy

From the Economist

Now the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s highest court, has boosted this cause in a landmark case (see article (http://www.economist.com/news/business/21602239-europeancourt-justice-forces-google-remove-links-some-personal-information-cut) ). A Spanish lawyer, Mario Costeja González, sued Google because its search results linked his name to a newspaper article from 1998 about a now-resolved lawsuit. The court ruled that Google was a “data controller” under the 19-year-old European law on data protection, which gives individuals strong rights over data that others hold on them. It said Google could be required not to display links to information that is “inadequate, irrelevant...or excessive”, given the purpose for which they are processed, and the time elapsed. Individuals will be able to appeal to their national data watchdogs if they are turned down.

And now from British Columbia, Canada comes this case. From the Vancouver Sun 17 June 2014.

In the case of Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack, the court granted an interim injunction ordering Google to block websites associated with a company selling products in contravention of court orders. Google is appealing the decision, which was released Friday. The verdict comes not long after a European Court of Justice ruling compelling Google and other search engines to comply with requests by people to remove links to unflattering or objectionable personal data. But the B.C. ruling is even more precedent-setting because it covers the blocking of entire websites, not just links to particular posts. And unlike the European ruling, which includes only Europe, the B.C. decision covers all of Google’s search engine activity around the world. “I don’t know if the court took into account the full potential impact of this when it issued its decision,” said Tamir Israel, a lawyer with the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. For example, he said the ruling opens the door to the possibility of a country blocking websites from search engine results to quash political dissent online.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Google+court+ruling+reaching+implications+experts/9948340/story.html#ixzz3568c2Sqo

This week - drones, Uber and more on the sharing economy.

First, drones.

The City of Vancouver (yes municipal policy) is reviewing Drone policy.

A drone crash in downtown Vancouver last month has triggered a review by the city on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the film industry.  The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was being used to shoot a commercial near the intersection of Hastings and Hornby streets when it hit a building and crashed to the ground. ... 

No one was injured and Transport Canada says no one will be charged. The City of Vancouver confirmed that immediately after the incident, staff imposed a moratorium on UAV filming while Transport Canada conducted a review. That moratorium has been lifted and City of Vancouver staff plan to meet next week to review the city's policies to see if they need to be updated. City engineer Peter Judd says the main objective is to ensure no one gets injured by a drone. "We want to make sure it's safe for the public. Obviously we want to facilitate filming as well. It's an important industry in this city."

 The number of drone permits issued in B.C. annually has risen from just six in 2007 to 178 last year.

Uber.

Taxi strikes in Europe 10 June 2014

Commuters faced a day of traffic chaos in London, Berlin, Paris and Madrid on Wednesday as taxi drivers mounted one of the biggest protests against Uber, a U.S. car service which allows people to summon rides at the touch of a button.Paris commuters faced gridlock getting into the city on Wednesday morning when taxis slowed traffic on major arteries into the centre. In London, up to 12,000 taxi drivers plan to tie up the streets around Trafalgar Square, just a stone's throw from Prime Minister David Cameron's official residence, from 2 p.m. (1300 GMT).Taxi drivers across Europe say applications of companies like San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc. are breaking local taxi rules across the European Union and threatening their livelihoods....

Regulatory headaches..."What you are seeing today is an industry that has not faced competition for decades. Now finally we are seeing competition from companies such as Uber which is bringing choice to customers,"

 Uber's Regional General Manager for Western Europe, Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, told Reuters.

...Ordinances keep it out of cities such as Las Vegas and Miami while in Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., Uber and similar companies have faced lawsuits from taxi companies hoping to keep the new competition out....Taxis were also striking in Madrid and Barcelona. The two biggest taxi unions in Madrid, who represent around 90 percent of cabs in the capital, have called for a 24-hour strike from 6 in the morning. The Ministry of Public Works has warned that companies or individuals offering Uber-type services faced fines of up to 6,000 euros, while users could be fined up to 600 euros. The ministry has not specifically named Uber, which is operating in Barcelona but not Madrid.

Sharing Economy

Whether you think the so called 'sharing economy' is great or have doubts in the back of your mind then you should read this. The sharing economy does have justice and welfare implications its not all a free 'good' for society. Anyway, I recommend reading it.  If the link breaks its called 'The Case Against Sharing' on medium.com