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Privacy Rights, Data Protection, and Fundamental Freedoms
Ever since the Snowden leaks in 2013, I have found the topic of privacy and data protection deeply fascinating. I remember reading about the leaks for the first time while spending Christmas in Germany that year, and being unable to sleep for a night upon realizing the extent to which government surveillance practices were a pervasive yet hidden part of our realities.
Since then, I have devoted my academic and advisory work to understanding how to better protect and ensure both privacy and data protection. Privacy rights are also intimately linked with other rights, such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. When we protect privacy and data protection, we enable the protection of other (human) rights as well as our fundamental rights and freedoms.
I have been working on the topics of privacy, data protection, and human rights since 2015, the year I participated in my first digital security training for human rights activists and when I began working as a research assistant for hacker anthropologist Prof. Gabriella Coleman.
Writing
- Yuan Stevens. Model Standards, Model Law? The Path Dependence of PIPEDA's Enforceability Issues, Canadian Privacy Law Review, Forthcoming
- Yuan Stevens, Ana Qarri, Sam Andrey & Joe Masoodi. Face Recognition Technology for the Protection of Canada’s Parliamentary Precinct and Parliament Hill? Potential Risks and Considerations, The Dais, Toronto Metropolitan University, 2022
- M.J. Masoodi, Nour Abdelaal, Stephanie Tran, Yuan Stevens, Sam Andrey & Karim Bardeesy. Workplace Surveillance and Remote Work: Exploring the Impacts and Implications Amidst Covid-19 in Canada, The Dais, Toronto Metropolitan University, 2021
- Yuan Stevens & Sonja Solomun. Facing the Realities of Facial Recognition Technology: Recommendations for Canada’s Privacy Act, on behalf of The Dais, Toronto Metropolitan University 2021
Submitted to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- Yuan Stevens. Parasitic Platforms: Addressing Surveillance Capitalism Through Face Recognition Technology, Artificial Intelligence in the City: Building Civic Engagement and Public Trust, McGill University, 2022
- Yuan Stevens. To Protect our Privacy and Free Speech, Canada Needs to Overhaul its Approach to Regulating Online Harms, The Conversation, 2021
- Yuan Stevens & Sonja Solomun. Facial Recognition Technology Speeds Ahead as Canada’s Privacy Law Lags Behind, The Ottawa Citizen, 2021
Speaking
- Yuan Stevens. Privacy Threats in the Context of Intimate Relationships: Sociotechnical Vulnerabilities in Canada’s Legal System, SERENE-RISC Annual Workshop: The State of Canadian Cybersecurity, 2020
- Age Assurance: Let Me Reassure You? RightsCon, Hosted by EDRi’s Ella Jakubkowska, 2023
- Nani Jansen Reventlow, Nele Achten & Yuan Stevens. Fuchsia Privacy Salon: Law, Technology and Policy, Google, 2021
- Darlene Carreau, Simon Bonk & Yuan Stevens. The Impact and Lessons of Covid-19 on the Efficiency of Justice and Functioning of the Judiciary, Future Justice and Corrections: Building a More Accessible, Responsive, Secure and Efficient Justice System, Public Sector Network, 2021
- Katarina Germani, Jon Khan, Colin Lachance & Yuan Stevens. Privacy in a Digitized Judicial System, Ensuring Improved Security and Privacy for Court Information in Canada, Ontario Bar Association Privacy Law Summit: Privacy and Access to Information Law, 2021
- Yuan Stevens, Sonja Solomun & Sam Andrey. Facing the Realities of Facial Recognition Technology: Improved Data Protection Regulation to Protect Vulnerable Populations, Actualizing AI — EPIC Symposium on AI Regulation, 2021
In The News
- Data Privacy as a Human Right Must Be Recognized by Privacy and AI Bill, Say Advocates – The Hill Times, May 2024
- Being Watched: How Surveillance Amplifies Racist Policing and Threatens the Right to Protest – Don’t Call Me Resilient, Oct. 2021
- RCMP Wants to Use AI to Learn Passwords in Investigations, but Experts Warn of Privacy Risks – The Globe & Mail, Nov. 2021
- Scan QR Codes With a Side of Caution, Say Privacy Experts – CBC Cost of Living, Sept. 2021
- Facial Recognition Technology ‘Fundamentally Undemocratic,’ says Angus as Critics Wary of Political Use – The Hill Times, July 2021
- Could Face and Voice Recognition Become the New ’Phrenology’? – CBC Spark, June 2021
Workshops and Roundtables
- The Future of Data and AI, Policy Horizons Canada, Government of Canada, 2024
- Models for Online Platform Data Access for Researchers: Existing Efforts and Future Opportunities, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2021
- Debating the Right Balances for Privacy Law in Canada Roundtable Discussion, Public Policy Forum, 2021