Data Privacy Day: Upcoming U of T webinar examines technology’s impact on privacy

Protecting your data privacy is not only a good idea, but also a responsibility shared among all members of the UTM community, says César A. Mejía, associate registrar of systems, scheduling and examinations in the Office of the Registrar.

“We should all protect personal information from unauthorized access or loss while using it for university purposes,” says Mejía. “All information stored in university servers, desktops, laptops, tablets, etc., is subject to Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and Personal Health Information Protection Act requirements and should only be accessed on a need-to-know basis.”

Data Privacy Day, held annually on Jan. 28, is an opportunity to share best practices for safeguarding personal information.

University of Toronto has participated in the international awareness-raising campaign since 2015, offering events for students, faculty and staff.  For this year’s activities, follow the UTM service desk on twitter and visit the data privacy page.

You can also test your knowledge with U of T’s Data Privacy Day Jeopardy board. Solo or in teams, find out what you really know about protecting your personal information online.

The highlight of the university’s 2021 Data Privacy Day agenda is a tri-campus webinar examining technology’s growing impact on our privacy.

The panel — which runs from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Jan. 28 — features U of T experts including Ron Deibert, founder and director of Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy; Associate Professor Andrew Petersen of the Department of Mathematical and Computational Sciences (UTM) and Information Privacy Analyst Ashley Langille. The session will be moderated by Rafael Eskenazi, the University’s director of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Office.

To register, visit https://its.eve.utoronto.ca/home/events/1187 (UTORid required). Participants are asked to RSVP by Jan. 27.