University of Ottawa's new anonymity research project [priv][fs]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: "Milana Homsi" <milana.homsi () utoronto ca>
To: "'Declan McCullagh'" <declan () well com>
Subject: Politech - new anonymity project at the university of ottawa
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 10:42:41 -0500
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Declan,

In light of the Politech anonymity debate that was going on earlier this
week, I thought Politech readers would be interested in knowing about a
new anonymity research project just funded in Canada, which was
highlighted in today's Ottawa Citizen.  Led by Professor Ian Kerr,
Canada Research Chair in Ethics, Law & Technology at the University of
Ottawa, the article details a new $4 million (Cdn!) grant that Kerr
received to study the impact and importance of anonymity - called "On
The Identity Trail: Understanding the Importance and Impact of Anonymity
and Authentication in a Networked Society".

Very interesting people are involved in this research project including
Ann Cavoukian, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario; Marc
Rotenberg, director of EPIC; Steve Mann, the cyborg and wearable
computers guru, David Chaum and Stephanie Perrin amongst others.

See the article below for details.

Regards,

Milana

-----------
Milana Homsi
University of Ottawa, Year 3

e: m () milana ca
w: www.milana.ca

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The $4-million man
Ian Kerr's mission: Probe the legal, ethical and political implications
as anonymity erodes in a networked world

The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=b8d6d0a8-b170-4cc3-b270-c7af8cdf7c97

Thursday, December 11, 2003

You would think that with a $4-million grant in his pocket, Ian Kerr
might buy himself a Shift key.

Kerr, the University of Ottawa's recently hired expert in the emerging
field of technology, law and ethics, sends exclusively lower-case
e-missives to students, colleagues, and journalists. OK, his keyboard
may not be faulty, but his cap-less messages gives the impression of a
low-key, informal correspondent -- when Kerr is, in fact, a
super-achiever.

Just 38 years old, he has received the second largest grant awarded by
the the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for
legal research. The grant, announced this week, more than justifies U of
O's enthusiasm when it hired him in 2000 to hold the Canada Research
Chair in Ethics, Law and Technology. Kerr's star is also rising
internationally. He sends his e-mails these days from Barcelona, where
he is a distinguished visiting scholar at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra,
on leave from U of O until next fall. He is to take a short sojourn from
Spain to the Caribbean early next year, slated to head to Puerto Rico to
teach a course in cyborg law, focusing on the line between humans and
machines, and how law and ethics can keep pace with the blurring of that
line.

...


The Canadian government and several industry partners are combining to
give Kerr $1 million a year for four years to head an international team
-- including some "name" thinkers with arguably bigger reputations than
Kerr's -- that will study the effect the information economy has on the
concept and practice of anonymity.

His project, really a gathering of mini-projects under his supervision,
this time lacks a rock 'n' roll reference. It's called "On The Identity
Trail: Understanding the Importance and Impact of Anonymity and
Authentication in a Networked Society." The project will look into the
legal, ethical, and political angles to the steady decline in anonymity
brought on by technology.

"It's not only about raising awareness about what the problems might be,
but also about developing the skills to solve some of the problems
around privacy and technology," he says.

...

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