Latest news with #internetPrivacy
National Post
3 days ago
- General
- National Post
Chris Selley: Liberals wrap much-needed refugee reform in a terrible privacy-invading package
Once upon a time, not so long ago, the Liberals auditioned for government in Ottawa with a promise to do away with obnoxiously enormous omnibus bills, in which dozens of separate issues are crammed into the same legislation. Article content The usual result, often by design, is that contentious issues don't get the scrutiny they deserve. The Liberals long ago having discovered that they only dislike omnibus bills when Conservatives draft them, the party's 2025 platform wisely did not promise any change on that front. Article content Article content Article content And they're right out of the gate with a doozie of an omnibus bill: Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act, which seems likely to keep many lawyers gainfully employed for years fighting and defending it in court. Article content Article content There are two main objections to the bill: New restrictions on who can apply for asylum status in Canada; and making it easier for police to obtain your internet-user information. It's certainly conceivable that the latter might help police make the border safer. It could disrupt smuggling operations, be they fentanyl, drugs or human beings. But if you go look at the bill, you'll see these new measures aren't about the border. They're about everything. Article content Section 487.0121 would allow police, without a warrant, to ask an internet service provider (ISP) if someone is a subscriber; whether the ISP 'possesses … any information … in relation to that subscriber' (though it wouldn't grant access to specific data); the city in which the ISP's services were provided; and when the services were provided. Article content Article content Police must only demonstrate they had 'reasonable grounds to suspect (that) an offence has been or will be committed under this Act or any other Act of Parliament ' (my italics). Article content Article content Producing additional data attached to IP addresses would require a warrant, but not in 'exigent circumstances.' Do you trust police and courts to assure exigency? I don't. Article content You don't often hear Canadian police forces argue they have all the tools they need to fight crime. And there's a long history of Canadian governments, Conservative and Liberal alike, leveraging hot-button issues to try to broaden police or intelligence-service powers. Then public safety minister Vic Toews immortalized himself in 2012 defending internet-monitoring legislation by suggesting Canadians can either 'stand with us or with the child pornographers,' but other governments have used terrorism, 'revenge porn' and other justifications in the past.
CNET
13-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
VPNSecure Customers Discover Their Lifetime Subscriptions Were Canceled
Lifetime means lifetime. Except when it doesn't. That has been the dilemma of some VPNSecure customers, whose lifetime subscriptions were canceled by the new owners of the VPN provider -- without the customers being told in advance that the subscriptions would end. A Reddit user posted a copy of a message they said they received from VPNSecure's new owners. In that message, the company tells customers that they did not know about the lifetime deals when they purchased the company in May 2023. A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, encrypts your internet traffic and masks your IP address, which can make your physical location detectable. A VPN enables the user to keep their online activity private and trick apps and websites into thinking you're in a different state or even country. For an in-depth look at VPNs, check out CNET's article "Everything You Need to Know About VPNs and How They Work." In its email to customers, VPNSecure outlined the situation regarding the lifetime deals. The email said that the owners bought "the technology, domain, and customer database-but not the liabilities. Unfortunately, the previous owner did not disclose that thousands of Lifetime Deals (LTDs) had been sold through platforms like StackSocial." According to the email, the company deactivated accounts that had been dormant for six months or more, then later canceled all the lifetime deals as of April 28. In the email, VPNSecure said that its "resources were strained by these LTD accounts" that "provide no sustaining income to help us improve and maintain the service." A representative for VPNSecure did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Customers are not happy Several miffed customers weighed in with angry comments on Trustpilot. "I had bought a 'lifetime' subscription a few years ago," one person wrote. "Horrible new owners come in and cancel everything claiming ignorance. Either they're idiots or they're scammers — not sure which is worse." In response to customer reactions, VPNSecure is offering discounted new subscriptions to users whose lifetime deals were canceled. They can pay $1.87 for a month (instead of $9.95), $19 for one year (instead of $79.92), or $55 for three years (instead of $107.64). The deals are available until May 31, according to the email that was posted on Reddit.
