@citizenlab.ca
We are an academic research unit at the University of Toronto investigating novel threats to democracy, human rights, and global security in the digital ecosystem.
@citizenlab.ca📢 We’re hiring! Interested in law, technology, and human rights? Are you a law student or a graduate student with a law degree?
We’re looking for a research assistant to join the Citizen Lab’s spyware and digital targeted threats team.
Learn more and apply by Dec 1: citizenlab.ca/opportunity/...
@citizenlab.caSenior researcher @jsrailton.bsky.social spoke with @wired.com about comments from the CEO of spyware company Paragon Solutions revealing that it has no way to know if customers misuse its software, or of meaningfully preventing misuse.
Read here: www.wired.com/story/the-se...
@citizenlab.caCitizen Lab director @rondeibert.bsky.social tells @theglobeandmail.com how Canada’s lawful access bill “will make it impossible for a large number of invaluable privacy-preserving tools” to operate in the country.
@citizenlab.caPsiphon, a software company spun out of the Citizen Lab that helps internet users living under oppressive regimes evade censorship, says it will leave Canada if Bill C-22 passes in its current form.
@citizenlab.caCitizen Lab's @rondeibert.bsky.social is quoted in the @theguardian.com about Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s increasing influence on AI dominance.
@citizenlab.caJoin senior researcher @wchr.bsky.social at @re-publica.com in Vienna on October 2nd to discuss how government agencies are accessing behavioural data from online advertising for surveillance purposes.
Register here: tickets.infield.live/event/re-pub...
@citizenlab.ca2/ The second report from the Working Group on the use of mercenaries draws on Citizen Lab research to assess the human rights impacts of cybermercenaries.
Read it here: docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/63/31
@citizenlab.ca1/ Two UN reports citing Citizen Lab submissions have been published this month. The first, from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, describes digital risks to human rights defenders.
Read it here: docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/63/52
@emiledirks.bsky.socialReposted by @citizenlab.caIn response to a request for info from the Research Directorate at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, colleagues at @citizenlab.ca & I have written a submission examining the Chinese government's monitoring of Chinese citizens and diaspora members in Canada. citizenlab.ca/submission-t...
@citizenlab.caJoin Citizen Lab director @rondeibert.bsky.social in Toronto for his keynote speech at SecTor on October 7.
He will be speaking about the Citizen Lab’s decades of work acting as “counterintelligence for civil society.”
Register: sector.informafestivals.com/2026/
@citizenlab.ca2/ Join senior research associate @kate-ro.bsky.social on September 23 at 3:45 am EST to talk about upholding justice when law enforcement reaches across borders.
Register: www.rightscon.org/continues2026/
@citizenlab.ca1/ Citizen Lab researchers are presenting at the @rightscon.org Continues Summit, a 24-hour online event on September 22-23! Senior researcher @jsrailton.bsky.social will be discussing the commercial spyware industry on September 22 at 4:15 pm CEST.
@citizenlab.ca3/ A report from BlackCore celebrates the success of their Angola training program, demonstrating the damage the influence-for-hire industry can do to an online ecosystem.
@citizenlab.ca2/ In our brief, we examine BlackCore’s digital infrastructure, including how they construct fake profiles and amplify content, and how they market themselves and their results to clients.
@citizenlab.ca1/ 🚨 NEW RESEARCH: We identified a training program provided to government employees in Angola by the Israeli influence-for-hire company BlackCore.
Read the brief: citizenlab.ca/research/bla...
@citizenlab.caJoin @cyn-k.bsky.social tomorrow, September 15th at 7PM ET, for @civictechto.bsky.social Meetup #560.
She will present a recent joint brief by @citizenlab.ca and @cancivlib.bsky.social that analyzes the privacy and human rights implications of Bill C-22.
Register here: guild.host/events/civic...
@citizenlab.ca2/ The letter cites the Citizen Lab’s 2020 research into BellTroX’s hack-for-hire operation, which found that it conducted commercial espionage on behalf of clients. Read it here: citizenlab.ca/research/dar...
@citizenlab.ca1/ A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers have called for three Indian companies that have hacked and stolen data from Americans to be added to the economic sanctions “entity list.” Read the TechCrunch coverage here: techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/g...
@citizenlab.ca2/ Through the experiences of 25 exiled queer women activists from the Global Majority, they uncover a critical “protection gap” in mainstream digital security approaches.
Read it here: tsjournal.org/index.php/jo...
@citizenlab.ca1/ Citizen Lab researchers @noura.bsky.social, Shaila Baran, @mmichae1sen.bsky.social and @sanstis.bsky.social analyze how intersecting identities of gender and sexual orientation shape experiences of digital transnational repression in a special issue of the Journal of Online Trust and Safety.
