The Schwartz Reisman Institute’s annual academic conference will take place May 6–8, 2024, with select sessions taking place in the newly-completed Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus located in the heart of Toronto’s Discovery District. Speakers include: Peter Railton, Harper Reed, Huili Chen, Ray Perrault, Gillian Hadfield, and more.

Can government regulation benefit cybersecurity in the private sector? What requirements are needed to better assess threats and reduce vulnerability for Canadians? To answer these questions, SRI Research Lead David Lie led a panel discussion on the future of cybersecurity regulation.

Canadian data laws need to respect the sovereignty of Indigenous data, argue John Borrows and Lisa Austin. There are a number of provisions in which the newly-proposed Bill C-27 legislation could better align with Indigenous laws and values, and in doing so address the urgent goal of reconciliation.

Responding to Bill C-27’s proposed Consumer Privacy Protection Act, Jamie Duncan and Wendy H. Wong explain why Canadians need data and privacy legislation that protects us not just from individual dangers, but collective harms as well.

How will Bill C-27’s Consumer Privacy Protection Act change the obligations of large internet platforms and search engines, especially with respect to their ability to target advertising and recommend content? Open questions remain around the new legislation that hinge on the interpretation of platforms’ necessary and legitimate interests.

Will Canada’s newly-proposed Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA) generate incentives for best practices when it comes to data privacy? SRI Associate Director Lisa Austin, Faculty Affiliates Aleksandar Nikolov and Nicolas Papernot, and Research Lead David Lie argue the CPPA’s reliance on deidentified data ensures it will fall short in protecting privacy.

In June 2022, the Canadian federal government introduced Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, which contains newly-proposed legislation relating to consumer privacy, data protection, and the first comprehensive laws governing artificial intelligence (AI) systems in Canada. In the first of a series of posts covering the potential impact of Bill C-27, SRI Policy Researcher Maggie Arai explores the bill’s key takeaways.

The rise of the information society and the ubiquity of digital technologies brings new challenges for governance, as traditional institutions might not be sufficient to address the complex issues emerging from these new tools. In a talk at Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022, SRI Faculty Fellow Anna Su explored the phenomenon of digital constitutionalism and the importance of human rights to balance powers in the digital realm.

Can the data collected by private companies be recognized as a public resource to be leveraged for social good? What obstacles stand in the way? In a panel discussion at Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022, SRI Associate Director Lisa Austin discussed the shape of data today with Eric Horvitz (Microsoft), Aziz Z. Huq (University of Chicago), Robert Seamans (Stern School of Business, NYU), and Pamela Snively (TELUS).

Amidst the challenges of COVID-19, SRI’s inaugural cohort of Faculty Fellows (2020–2021) engaged important questions at the intersection of technology and society through research, output, and connection with the SRI community, developing new approaches towards the study of environmental justice, data privacy, democratic engagement, and learning.

Hailing from a wide variety of disciplines, our graduate fellows represent the best and brightest U of T student researchers working on topics at the intersection of technology and society. The fellows will serve a one-year term at the Schwartz Reisman Institute.

The SRI Seminar Series resumes this September, bringing together the Schwartz Reisman Institute’s research community and beyond for a robust exchange of ideas that advance scholarship at the intersection of technology and society. Seminars are held over Zoom on a weekly basis and are free and open to the public. Each session is led by a leading or emerging scholar and features extensive discussion.