Canadians are, by and large, private people. In our Canadian way, we do not make a big deal about this, but we have comprehensive privacy legislation at both the provincial and federal levels, and have had it for years. We are concerned about being watched and value our freedoms. Many regard violent events, including the recent attacks in Quebec and Ottawa, as rationales for surveillance, and we must be careful not to react in the moment, with inappropriate and ineffective solutions.
Video surveillance is not nearly as widespread in Canada as it is in some other countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, possibly reflecting a sense that things are safer here. And yet we should be concerned. We should be concerned about the obvious things—the growing presence of cameras on our streets and our shops, the ever-deepening linkages between our online and our offline lives...
Richard Smith is a professor and the director the Centre for Digital Media, a joint initiative of the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the Emily Carr University of Art + Design and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. His research and teaching focus on technology and social impacts.
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