Tamir
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digitalprivacy.ca
Tamir
@digitalprivacy.ca
840 followers 1.6K following 77 posts
Tech & human rights lawyer | he/him
Director, Privacy, Surveillance & Technology Program, CCLA (https://ccla.org | @CanCivLib)
Formerly: hrw.org | cippic.ca
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Tamir
cancivlib.bsky.social
The law should apply equally to everyone, regardless of their wealth, power and status.

On January 21, 2026, the CCLA joined more than 40 organizations in denouncing certain provisions in Bill C-15.

Read more here.
ccla.org/press-releas...
CCLA Joins a Broad Coalition of Civil Society Groups Objecting to Anti-Democratic Provisions in Bill C-15 - CCLA
ccla.org
January 28, 2026 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Tamir
katie-drummond.bsky.social
Palantir employees are pressing company leadership over its work for ICE in internal company Slacks obtained by @wired.com

"In my opinion ICE are the bad guys. I am not proud that the company I enjoy so much working for is part of this."

Scoop from @makenakelly.bsky.social
Palantir Defends Work With ICE to Staff Following Killing of Alex Pretti
“In my opinion ICE are the bad guys. I am not proud that the company I enjoy so much working for is part of this,” one worker wrote on Slack.
www.wired.com
January 26, 2026 at 10:16 PM
Reposted by Tamir
arstechnica.com
US cyber defense chief accidentally uploaded secret government info to ChatGPT
Congress recently grilled the acting chief on mass layoffs and a failed polygraph.
arstechnica.com
January 28, 2026 at 7:57 PM
digitalprivacy.ca
On Data Protection and Privacy Day 2026, take a moment to read about privacy challenges posed by algorithmic tools and to participate in the civil society consultation on AI.
Data Protection & Privacy Day 2026 - CCLA
On Data Protection and Privacy Day 2026, privacy threats from emerging technologies are multiplying.
ccla.org
January 28, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Tamir
sambiddle.com
Apple employees are not happy about the largely generic letter Cook sent after I published this, which doesn't name ICE, CBP, DHS, Pretti, Good, or anything else specific to the current situation.
sambiddle.com Sam Biddle @sambiddle.com · 6d
Apple employees are speaking out internally about Tim Cook's cozy relationship with the White House.

“I hope we never find out, but I seriously started wondering what our leadership would do if an Apple employee was summarily executed by our government."

theintercept.com/2026/01/27/a...
Apple Workers Are Livid That Tim Cook Saw “Melania” Movie Hours After CBP Killed Pretti
Internal Slack logs shared with The Intercept show outrage over Cook’s coziness with Trump and Apple's silence on Pretti's death.
theintercept.com
January 28, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Tamir
lawscribes.bsky.social
English translation of Hague District Court decision on #climatechange and #Netherlands obligations to #Bonaire in #Caribbean per international treaty and Dutch law. Greenpeace v Netherlands. Official website: uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=E...
January 28, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Tamir
aljazeera.com
An Israeli 'organised camp' in Rafah would use facial recognition as a 'sorting' tool to deter return, analyst warns https://aje.news/3t98ec
An Israeli 'organised camp' in Rafah would use facial recognition as a 'sorting' tool to deter return, analyst warns
January 28, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Tamir
kristenthomasen.bsky.social
I’d be very interested to see the governments evidence to support these sweeping benefits AI is going to bring. If journalists have the opportunity, I’d love to see this question put to the PM.

The NDP’s AI platform is going to be extremely important in the upcoming leadership race.
sarobertson.bsky.social Scott Robertson @sarobertson.bsky.social · 12d
Prime Minister Carney on AI and his government's upcoming 'AI for All Strategy.'
January 22, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Tamir
bhaggart.bsky.social
It's easy to give into cynicism, but I'd encourage anyone who's concerned about the government's upcoming AI policy to participate in the People's Consultation on AI (deadline: March 15). @cyn-k.bsky.social and others are doing the work to help Canadians be heard on this important issue.
January 22, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Tamir
themarkup.org
Millions of crime predictions left on an unsecured server show PredPol mostly avoided Whiter neighborhoods, targeted Black and Latino neighborhoods
Crime Prediction Software Promised to Be Free of Biases. New Data Shows It Perpetuates Them – The Markup
Millions of crime predictions left on an unsecured server show PredPol mostly avoided Whiter neighborhoods, targeted Black and Latino neighborhoods
bit.ly
January 22, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Tamir
sharonk.bsky.social
I was ordered to have members of my team run a preassessment on some anti-ICE protesters who allegedly had impeded an immigration arrest. F.B.I. policy says that an investigation can’t be opened based on First Amendment-protected activity. The investigative team who analyzed the video determined that the protesters had done nothing wrong; the officers told them to stay back, and they did. I was told they had to open an investigation anyway. I pushed back, and they said, Jill, you can either get fired today, or you can get fired in four years — meaning when another administration comes in and starts looking into constitutional violations. And I was like: Then fire me today. I’m not doing something that is fundamentally wrong. I had my squad taken away from me. I was told I was a problem. I was told that the seventh floor was aware of me — the seventh floor means the F.B.I. director’s office. My squad depended on me, and now they have absolutely no top cover anymore. When they took my squad, I was done.
January 22, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Tamir
cyn-k.bsky.social
This consultation is a fulfillment of the promise we (the ad hoc civil society working group) made to the Canadian public, in this open letter to the "AI Minister" Evan Solomon, protesting the rushed and biased 30-day "consultation" to form a "national strategy" on AI: bsky.app/profile/cyn-... #PCAI
January 22, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by Tamir
cyn-k.bsky.social
The People's Consultation on AI launched today! Whether you have in-depth expertise in AI issues, or don't consider yourself an "expert" but have firsthand experience with AI or its impacts and want to have your say, this is for you. Participate by March 15, 2026: www.peoplesaiconsultation.ca
An image in muted colours showing vague aesthetic animated illustrations of a light-brown-skinned man with curly hair, Black woman with a short afro, and red-headed white woman sitting in various poses on, respectively, a reclined chair, a bench, and a stool, in front of and facing an abstract geometrical image, as if considering it and mid-discussion about it.
January 22, 2026 at 12:38 AM
Reposted by Tamir
cyn-k.bsky.social
Many contributed to making the #PCAI a reality, and it's supported by a broad range of orgs across Canada representing different issues & communities, seen in the site endorsements and press release statements here (& here: ccla.org/press-releas...) via @bccla.bsky.social @cancivlib.bsky.social
Civil Society Launches People’s Consultation on AI Today; Government Regulation of AI Needed - BC Civil Liberties Association
(Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, BC) – The People’s Consultation on AI launches today, a collaborative civil society initiative created in r...
bccla.org
January 22, 2026 at 12:44 AM
Reposted by Tamir
hypervisible.blacksky.app
“Safety experts and tech critics have long condemned the Ring devices for security risks and privacy violations, not to mention their role in building the largest civilian surveillance network in US history.”
Fury as Amazon Ring Cameras Are Hooked Up to ICE System
Online activists are telling owners of Ring Doorbell cameras that it's time to get rid of their devices, which can be used by ICE.
futurism.com
January 21, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Tamir
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!

ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.
The Gravamen of the Disclosure 4. The gravamen of the disclosure is as follows: a. By memorandum dated May 12, 2025 (“the May 12 Memo”), Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons authorizes ICE agents to forcibly enter into certain people’s homes without a judicial warrant, consent, or an emergency. b. Specifically, in the May 12 Memo, the Acting ICE Director authorized ICE Agents to rely on Form I-205 (which is not a judicial warrant) to enter the residence of an alien subject to a final order of deportation, without consent, including by “a necessary and reasonable amount of force.”2c. While addressed to “All ICE Personnel,” in practice the May 12 Memo has not been formally distributed to all personnel. Instead, the May 12 Memo has been provided to select DHS officials who are then directed to verbally brief the new policy for action. Those supervisors then show the Memo to some employees, like our clients, and direct them to read the Memo and return it to the supervisor.
January 21, 2026 at 10:00 PM
digitalprivacy.ca
Today, @cancivlib joined a broad civil society initiative in launching a public consultation on AI.

Experts and the general public can provide inout on how AI is reshaping their lives and what we should be doing about it.

Participate now!

www.peoplesaiconsultation.ca
Civil Society Innitiative Announces Public Consultation on AI - CCLA
CCLA joins civil society groups and experts in announcing the People's Consultation on AI, a public consultation to inform Canada's approach to AI.
ccla.org
January 21, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Tamir
simonwillison.net
This is great - it's about time someone updated the discourse on LLM energy usage to reflect that coding agents use massively more prompts than occasional questions to ChatGPT

Simon estimates that a day of coding agent usage comes out close to the energy needed to run a dishwasher
simonpcouch.com Simon P. Couch @simonpcouch.com · 14d
Whenever I read discourse on AI energy/water use that focuses on the "median query," I can't help but feel misled. Coding agents like Claude Code send hundreds of longer-than-median queries every session, and I run dozens of sessions a day.

On my blog: www.simonpcouch.com/blog/2026-01...
A bar chart showing the electricity use of several daily activities with the subtitle "The 'typical query' is not a useful way to think about coding agents' energy use." The bar for a 'typical ChatGPT query' is not even visible. My median Claude Code session is somewhere between the average US household per minute and toasting bread for three minutes. My median day with Claude Code is something like running a dishwasher.
January 20, 2026 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by Tamir
dianachanmcnally.bsky.social
I cannot stress enough that homelessness is caused by policy levers primarily at the provincial level.

And AMO's new report shows it: homelessness in Ontario rose 8% last year, with 85,000 people becoming homeless. 20,000 were youth and children.

Horrifying.

globalnews.ca/news/1161124...
Nearly 85K people homeless in Ontario, up 8% in 1 year: report | Globalnews.ca
Homelessness is getting worse across Ontario with an estimated 85,000 people who were without a home in 2025, a new report from Ontario's municipalities shows.
globalnews.ca
January 14, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Tamir
emmettmacfarlane.com
Another humiliation. It's hard to believe anyone could be this out in the moral wilderness. Carney has all the principle of televangelist.
January 17, 2026 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by Tamir
eff.org
What creepy nonsense are companies up to when they have to guess your age or take your ID for AV? www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
So, You’ve Hit an Age Gate. What Now?
This blog also appears in our Age Verification Resource Hub: our one-stop shop for users seeking to understand what age-gating laws actually do, what’s at stake, how to protect yourself, and why EFF
www.eff.org
January 15, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Tamir
wendyndavis.bsky.social
SCOTUS to rule on constitutionality of geofence warrants.
My prior article:

www.abajournal.com/magazine/art...
Law enforcement is using location tracking on mobile devices to identify suspects, but is it unconstitutional?
The ABA Journal is read by half of the nation's 1 million lawyers every month. It covers the trends, people and finances of the legal profession from Wall Street to Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue.
www.abajournal.com
January 16, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Tamir
cancivlib.bsky.social
Watch CCLA’s press conference on the Emergencies Act decision live on CPAC using the link below.
www.cpac.ca/headline-pol...
Canadian Civil Liberties Association Holds a News Conference
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association holds a virtual news conference to comment on the Federal Court of Appeal decision on the federal government invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to t...
www.cpac.ca
January 16, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Tamir
cancivlib.bsky.social
The Federal Court of Appeal has delivered a historic victory for the rule of law by ruling in favour of CCLA in the landmark Emergencies Act case. The Court confirmed today that the Act's stringent legal thresholds were not met in February 2022.

Read more here.
ccla.org/press-releas...
Emergencies Act Case: CCLA Claims Historic Victory at the Federal Court of Appeal - CCLA
ccla.org
January 16, 2026 at 8:02 PM
digitalprivacy.ca
BC Privacy Commissioner finds that Richmond city has no lawful basis to use high resolution cameras for law enforcement purposes:

www.oipc.bc.ca/documents/ne...
Investigation Report 26-01, Investigation of City of Richmond's Public Safety Camera System Field Test
January 15, 2026 at 1:34 AM