Security of Self | A Human-Centric Approach to Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is often examined through the lens of national security and organizational risks, focusing on data breaches and the technical and legal measures to prevent, address, and mitigate them. However, another critical dimension is the impact on individual security and dignity. This edited collection explores the legal and technical aspects of self-security, addressing issues such as technology-facilitated abuse, social media, the sharing culture, and reputational harm. With a distinct Canadian focus, it examines how the country’s policies, laws, and practices shape cybersecurity and individual protection. By providing insights into safeguarding personal security in a rapidly evolving digital landscape, this collection serves as a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and individuals alike.

Editors:

Emily Laidlaw is a Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity Law and Associate Professor at the University of Calgary. She researches in the areas of technology regulation, cybersecurity and human rights, with a focus on platform regulation, online harms, privacy, freedom of expression and corporate social responsibility.

Florian Martin-Bariteau is Associate Professor, the University Research Chair in Technology and Society, and the Director of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa.

Contributors:

Jane Bailey is Full Professor in Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, at the University of Ottawa where she teaches Cyberfeminism, Technoprudence and Contracts. She co-leads The eQuality Project, a 7-year SSHRC funded partnership grant focused on young people's experiences in digitally-networked environments and is a working group co-leader on The Autonomy through Cyberjustice Technologies Project, a 4-year SSHRC funded partnership grant focused on use of technology to improve access to justice. Her research focuses on TFV, particularly as perpetrated through algorithmic profiling and other practices of technology corporations and governments. She co-edited The Emerald International Handbook on Technology-facilitated Violence and Abuse, an open access publication.

Jacquelyn Burkell is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Her research focuses on the social implications of technology, with particular reference to privacy and equality impacts. She is a co-investigator on two SSHRC Partnership grants focused on the implications of technology: the eQuality Project co-lead by Jane Bailey and Valerie Steeves, and the Autonomy Through Cyberjustice Project, where she co-leads a working group with Jane Bailey. Her research focuses on the social implications of technology, with particular attention to issues of privacy and autonomy.

Kristen Thomasen is an Associate Professor and the Senior Chair of Law, Robotics and Society at the University of Windsor's Faculty of Law. Her research and teaching focus on the regulation of automated technologies, privacy, and tort law. She serves as a member of the RISE Women's Legal Center Board, the LEAF Tech-Facilitated Violence Sub-Committee, and the BC Law Institute Tort Law and AI Committee. She previously served as law clerk to the Honourable Madam Justice Rosalie Abella at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Matthew Bush is a master's student at Toronto Metropolitan University studying computer science. He also has a background in business technology management that provides him with a unique perspective to bridge the gap between technology and people. His current research is focused on adjusting state-of-the-art organizational cybersecurity practices to the unique needs of consumer IoT environments. This includes creating access control schemes for smart homes that give individual users more control over their own data. His other research interests include secure and privacy preserving AI, zero trust architecture, and privacy preserving technologies.

Atefeh Mashatan is a Canada Research chair and an Associate Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management and the founder and director of the Cybersecurity Research Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). Her research is focused on the development of novel cybersecurity designs based on emerging technologies. She investigates challenges and opportunities brought forward by these new technologies and how they change the threat landscape of cybersecurity. Mashatan's expertise at the frontlines of the global cybersecurity field was recognized by SC Magazine in 2019, when she was named one of the top five Women of Influence in Security globally.

Amarnath Amarasingam is Assistant Professor in the School of Religion, and is cross-appointed to the Department of Political Studies, at Queen's University. He is also Senior Fellow with the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. His research interests are in terrorism, radicalization and extremism, online communities, diaspora politics, post-war reconstruction, and the sociology of religion.

Jordan Loewen-Colón is the AI, Ethics, and Data Justice Fellow at Queen's University. His research looks at philosophy, religion, and digital technology like virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to answer questions about what it means to be and feel like a human in the 21st century.

Sharday C. Mosurinjohn is Associate Professor of Contemporary Religious Context at Queen's University. She studies the discursive construction of spirituality and religion as well as concepts of nonreligion and secularity; specific interests include the study of "new religious movements" (NRMs), ritual, and religion and/as media. Her broad interest in the material turn touches on contexts of contemporary (especially conceptual) art; museums; everyday aesthetics; digital contexts (eg. social media; surveillance cultures), and affect.

Jonathon Penney is a legal scholar and social scientist with an expertise at the intersection of law, technology, and human rights. He is an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School; a Faculty Associate at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society; and Research Fellow at the Citizen Lab based at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. His work on privacy, security, and technology law and policy has received national and international coverage including in the CBC, Globe and Mail, Washington Post, Reuters, New York Times, WIRED, The Guardian, and Le Monde, among others.

Chris Tenove (Contributor)
Chris Tenove is the deputy director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI), and a researcher and instructor in the School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He writes on the challenges that digital media pose to democracy and human rights, focusing on topics such as electoral disinformation, social media regulation, and online harassment of politicians and health communicators. Dr. Tenove has published policy reports, book chapters, and peer-reviewed articles in journals including like Political Communication, Political Research Quarterly, and International Journal of Press/Politics.

Heidi Tworek (Contributor)
Heidi Tworek is the director of CSDI and a Canada Research Chair (Tier II) and Associate Professor of Public Policy and History at UBC. She has published the award-winning News from Germany: The Competition to Control World Communications, 1900-1945 (Harvard University Press, 2019), and co-edited several volumes. Dr. Tworek has published over 45 journal articles and book chapters as well as many policy reports on the history and policy of communications and media. She is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and a non-resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

Sébastien Gambs (Contributor)
Sébastien Gambs has held the Canada Research Chair in Privacy and Ethical Analysis of Massive Data since December 2017 and has been a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Université du Québec à Montréal since January 2016. His main research theme is privacy in the digital world. He is also interested in solving long-term scientific questions such as the existing tensions between massive data analysis and privacy as well as ethical issues such as fairness, transparency and algorithmic accountability raised by personalized systems.

Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. She is the author or co-author of several books, including Digital Commerce in Canada (LexisNexis, 2020), Canadian Trademark Law (2nd edition, LexisNexis, 2015), and Law Beyond Borders (Irwin Law, 2014). She is co-editor of Artificial Intelligence and the Law in Canada (LexisNexis, 2021) and Law and the Sharing Economy (University of Ottawa Press, 2018). She is a member of the Canadian Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence and of the Geothink research partnership. She has written widely in the areas of intellectual property law, law and technology, and privacy.

Nick Gertler is a graduate student in MA in Media Studies at Concordia University.

Alex Megelas is Manager, Research Innovation and Business Development at the Applied AI Institute at Concordia University.