Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

“Information Fiduciaries” Must Protect Your Data Privacy Legislators across the country are writing new laws to protect your data privacy. One tool in the toolbox could be “information fiduciary” rules. The basic idea is this: When you give your personal information to an online company in order to get a service, that company should have a duty to exercise loyalty and care in how it uses that information. Sounds good, right? We agree, subject to one major caveat: any such requirement should not replace other privacy protections. Why We Need Information Fiduciary Rules The law of “ fiduciaries ” is hundreds of years old. It arises from economic relationships based on asymmetrical power, such as when ordinary people entrust their personal information to skilled professionals (doctors, lawyers, and accountants particularly). In exchange for this trust, such professionals owe their customers a duty of loyalty, meaning they cannot use their customers’ information against their cust...

Corporate Speech Police Are Not the Answer to Online Hate A coalition of civil rights and public interest groups issued recommendations today on policies they believe Internet intermediaries should adopt to try to address hate online. While there’s much of value in these recommendations, EFF does not and cannot support the full document. Because we deeply respect these organizations, the work they do, and the work we often do together; and because we think the discussion over how to support online expression—including ensuring that some voices aren’t drowned out by harassment or threats—is an important one, we want to explain our position. We agree that online speech is not always pretty—sometimes it’s extremely ugly and causes real world harm. The effects of this kind of speech are often disproportionately felt by communities for whom the Internet has also provided invaluable tools to organize, educate, and connect. Systemic discrimination does not disappear and can even be ampl...

According to a recent Synergy research report , Microsoft, Google, Alibaba and AWS drive 75% of the revenue in the cloud provider space of the data center market . In the U.S., that leaves enterprises with essentially two choices. Does that mean it’s easier or harder to migrate to the cloud? Put simply, both. So said panelists David Linthicum, Chief Cloud Strategy Office, Deloitte Consulting and David McCall, VP of Innovation, QTS, during a discussion I led at this year’s Data Center Austin Conference (DCAC) . Assessing Cloud Providers for your IT Applications Linthicum and McCall are mixed on their views of simplicity and complexity. McCall believes it’s “exponentially harder for CEOS, CIOs and CTOs to walk through the minefield.” The question is bigger than which cloud provider to pick, he said. It’s a matter of what companies are specifically looking for: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, private cloud and so on. Before picking a provider, he said that companies must understand the problem they...

Proposal to Restrict Technical Assistance Demands Before Secret Surveillance Court Raises More Questions About Section 702 As we detailed yesterday, a bill introduced this week by Sens. Ron Wyden and Rand Paul would represent the most comprehensive reform so far of Section 702 , the law that authorizes the government to engage in mass warrantless surveillance of the Internet. EFF supports the bill, known as the USA Rights Act, because it closes the backdoor search loophole and addresses other glaring problems with Section 702. But the bill also makes changes to lesser-known provisions of Section 702. One of these amendments raises it own questions about how the government has been enlisting private companies to provide access to our communications, including whether it has required circumvention of encryption as in the recent fight between Apple and the FBI. It may well also call into question the response EFF received from the government in FOIA litigation seeking records to det...

Epson is Using its eBay “Trusted Status” to Make Competing Ink Sellers Vanish It’s been just over a year since HP got caught using dirty tricks to force its customers to use its official, high-priced ink, and now it’s Epson’s turn to get in on the act. Epson claims that ink-cartridges that are compatible with its printers violate a nonspecific patent or patents in nonspecific ways, and on the strength of those vague assertions, they have convinced eBay to remove many third-party ink sellers’ products, without any scrutiny by eBay. That’s because Epson is part of eBay’s VeRO program , through which trusted vendors can have listings removed without anyone checking to see whether they have a valid claim, contrary to eBay’s normal procedure. As the company has said  in another context, “eBay believes that removing listings based on allegations of infringement would be unfair to buyers and the accused sellers.” Because Epson only applies VeRO to patent claims in the EU, America...

New DOJ Policy on Gag Orders Is Good, But the Courts Could Have Done Better The Department of Justice is making significant changes to its policy for seeking gag orders under Section 2705 of the Stored Communications Act. These orders routinely accompany search warrants, subpoenas, and other requests to service providers and prevent the companies from notifying users that their information has been obtained by the government. Last year Microsoft filed a lawsuit arguing that Section 2705 violates the First Amendment, and it appears that the DOJ made the policy change rather than risking a broad ruling that the law is unconstitutional. (That lawsuit should not be confused with a different   case involving DOJ access to Microsoft user data stored in Ireland that will soon be heard by the Supreme Court .) Under the new policy, federal prosecutors must demonstrate an “appropriate factual basis” in order to apply for a gag order. Gags must also be limited to a duration of one year...

As noted in the previous post in this series , being flexible is important for panel builders, contractors, facility managers and specifiers. Having components meet medium voltage (MV) standard IEC 62271-200 ensures switch- and controlgear can handle all situations. There are, however, more steps a panel builders and others can take to add value to an installation. For instance, designing and specifying with environmental and operating conditions in mind can reduce maintenance needs. It also can extend the life of equipment. IEC 62271-1 and IEEE C37.100.1 for North America define normal, indoor service conditions as no significant pollution by dust, smoke, corrosive and/or flammable gases, vapors or salts. Relative humidity should not exceed 95%. Air temperatures should be between 40°C and -25°C for IEC or -30°C for IEEE. The average air temperature should be less than 35°C for IEC. Both standards refer to temperatures limits in accordance with the type of bus or connection. Not...