More Than 200K Small Businesses Could Close Permanently Amid Pandemic: CFIB | Global News

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More than 200,000 Canadian small businesses could shut their doors permanently due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, jeopardizing close to three million private-sector jobs in the worst-case scenario, according to a recent survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). The organization estimates 181,000 small entrepreneurs are seriously considering closing down their businesses after a spike in case counts prompted a new wave of government lockdowns and restrictions. Read full story here: More Than 200K Small Businesses Could Close Permanently Amid Pandemic: CFIB | Global News

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How Law Enforcement Gets Around Your Smartphone’s Encryption | Ars Technica

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Lawmakers and law enforcement agencies around the world, including in the United States, have increasingly called for backdoors in the encryption schemes that protect your data, arguing that national security is at stake. But new research indicates governments already have methods and tools that, for better or worse, let them access locked smartphones thanks to weaknesses in the security schemes of Android and iOS. Read full story here: How Law Enforcement Gets Around Your Smartphone’s Encryption | Ars Technica

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Stressed Out? Blame Bad Technology, New Study Suggests | CTV News

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NEW YORK — There is no question that we are all more dependent on technology than ever. So what happens when that tech does not work? In the past, Emily Dreyfuss used an old-school strategy: She yelled. When Amazon’s Alexa spat out wrong answers or misunderstood questions, Dreyfuss let the virtual assistant have it. “I used her as a scapegoat for my feelings,” said Dreyfuss, a writer and editor for Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. “When you have a non-sentient and annoying device in your home, who isn’t doing what you want,…

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Canada Lags Far Behind Pioneering Norway In Phasing-out Gasoline Vehicles | Global News

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More often than not, Norway finds itself at, or near, the top of all the good lists — perhaps most notably as number 1 on the United Nations Human Development Index. It has now secured its place at the top of another list: the 21st century race to make zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) the norm. In 2020, Norway became the first country where the majority of passenger vehicle sales were ZEVs, specifically battery electric vehicles (BEV). Data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) shows that 54.3 per cent of all new…

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Are VPNs Legal In Canada? | Tom’s Guide

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Virtual private networks, better known as VPNs, are one of the easiest ways for people to protect their data and identity, and keep their online activity hidden from the prying eyes of government agencies, internet service providers (ISPs), and hackers. That’s not all—because VPNs enable users to connect to servers around the world, they can also be used to unblock geo-specific content on streaming providers such as Netflix. So if you’re using a Canada VPN, you should be able to access content from US Netflix. Read full story here: Are…

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Civil Rights Groups Demand CBP Stops Facial Recognition Expansion At Airports | Engadget

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The American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and more than a dozen other civil rights groups have objected to Customs and Border Protection’s plan to expand use of facial recognition at border entry and exit points.  The Department of Homeland Security proposed a rule change last month that would authorize CBP to photograph foreign nationals at any point of departure, including airports and seaports. Those captured images can be used to create faceprints. Read full story here: Civil Rights Groups Demand CBP Stops Facial Recognition Expansion At Airports | Engadget

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Consumers Won’t Need Receipts To Benefit From One Of Canada’s Largest Class-action Settlements | CBC News

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Social Sharing One of the largest class-action settlements in Canada could be worth money in your pocket. And depending on the size of your claim, you may not need to provide proof of purchase. Unlike some other class-action lawsuits that require reams of paperwork, the application process is easy. “We did our best to make it really simple,” said Naomi Kovak, a Vancouver lawyer with Camp Fiorante Matthews Morgerman LLP, one of the firms administering the settlement stemming from a lawsuit alleging anti-competitive behaviour against Microsoft. The settlement, which is capped at…

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CSIS Use Of Geolocation Data Could be Unlawful, Says Watchdog | CBC News

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The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service’s use of publicly available geolocation data without a warrant may have broken the law, according to the country’s intelligence watchdog. The finding was included in the first annual report from the new National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, tabled in the House of Commons today. Geolocation data is digital information that can be used to determine the physical location of an electronic device. The review found that there’s a risk that CSIS breached Section 8 of the Charter — which protects against unreasonable search…

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Google And Apple Are Banning Technology For Sharing Users’ Location Data | The Verge

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You may have never heard of the company X-Mode Social, but its code may be in some of the apps on your phone, tracking and selling your location data. Now, Google and Apple are trying to put a stop to it. According to a Wall Street Journal article, the tech companies have told developers to remove X-Mode’s code from their apps, or risk getting them pulled from their respective app stores. X-Mode works by giving developers code to put into their apps, known as an SDK, which tracks users’ location and then…

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Do You Have The COVID Alert App On Your iPhone? It Might Not Be Working | CBC News

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A bug affecting Canada’s COVID Alert app has not been entirely fixed as federal officials first announced, leaving an unknown number of iPhone users still without exposure notifications. Last week, CBC News reported a glitch prevented the app from functioning properly on some smartphones for much of November. The federal agency developing the app initially said an update released on Nov. 23 fixed the problem. A Health Canada representative has now acknowledged the fix only solved the problem on Android devices, and “there are some instances of something similar happening” on iPhones.…

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