Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

European Law Claims to Protect Consumers… By Blocking the Web Last week the European Parliament passed a new Consumer Protection Regulation [PDF] that allows national consumer authorities to order ISPs, web hosts and domain registries to block or delete websites… all without a court order. The websites targeted are those that allegedly infringe European consumer law. But European consumer law has some perplexing provisions that have drawn ridicule, including a prohibition on children blowing up balloons unsupervised and a ban on excessively curvy bananas. Because of these, the range of websites that could be censored is both vast and uncertain. The Consumer Protection Regulation provides in Article 8(3)(e) that consumer protection authorities must have the power: where no other effective means are available to bring about the cessation or the prohibition of the infringement including by requesting a third party or other public authority to implement such measures, in order to...

NSA Internet Surveillance Under Section 702 Violates the First Amendment The First Amendment is too often overlooked in discussions of the National Security Agency’s vast surveillance authorities. But as Congress considers whether to reauthorize  Section 702 of FISA this winter, we must remember that it’s not just our Fourth Amendment rights to privacy that are in the crosshairs, but also our First Amendment rights. These rights to anonymously speak, associate, access information, and engage in political activism are the bedrock of our democracy, and they’re endangered by the NSA’s pervasive surveillance. The NSA uses Section 702 to justify ongoing programs to siphon off copies of vast amounts of our communications directly from the Internet backbone as well as require system-wide searches across the information collected by major Internet companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple.  So how does the First Amendment come to apply to mass surveillance? To understand this,...

The Safest Conversation You’ll Have This Holiday Do your friends and family rope you into providing tech support when you’re home for the holidays? Use this opportunity to be a digital security hero and rescue your family from tracking cookies, unencrypted disks, insecure chats, and recycled passwords. Check out EFF’s Security Education Companion for ideas and inspiration. And remember: People learn by doing! Encourage friends and family members to walk through new security concepts and tools with you, and avoid the pitfalls of taking over their devices and doing it yourself. Are your friends and family asking for general computer tips? Do you sense that they don’t really want to listen for beyond a minute? You can cover the most important general ideas in one minute or less . Figure out what browser(s) your family members and friends are using and install Privacy Badger. Privacy Badger is a simple browser extension that will help eliminate tracking cookies and ads that f...

Unless the power goes out, we don’t think much about the electricity coursing through the wires in its walls and ceilings. But your electrical system could be harboring problems that threaten both your property and your life. U.S. fire departments annually responded to 45, 210 home structure fires involving electrical failure or malfunction between 2010 and 2014, according the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). These fires resulted in 420 deaths, 1,370 injuries, and $1.4 billion in direct property damage each year. How electrical fires happen Your home could be at risk whether it was built last century or last year. Fortunately, electrical fires are preventable if you know what risks to look for. Here are the most common culprits: Old appliances : Appliances that don’t meet modern safety standards or that have frayed cords or damaged plugs are one of the biggest causes of home electrical fires. Older appliances draw more power than today’s outlets are built to handle, and...