Surveillance techniques

Thanks to the networked nature of the internet, in which information is always flowing both ways, there's no shortage of ways for apps, devices and websites to collect information about us.

Privacy impacts of advertising and marketing

It’s as important for advertisers to reach the right people as it is to make an appealing ad, so they have developed many different ways of targeting ads effectively. Online advertising lets marketers match different ads with individual users. This section looks at how that’s done and how it affects kids’ privacy.

Techniques for literacy

"Given the opportunity, young people do care about issues relating to the harnessing and use of their information online. They want to know what information is being taken from them, and why. They want companies to be more open about how data is being used."

Intellectual Property: Key Concepts

Intellectual property - Anything that comes into being through invention or artistic creation. When an intellectual property is also real property, it is possible to own one but not the other – so that owning a painting (real property right) does not automatically give you the right to make copies of it (intellectual property right).

Intellectual Property: Overview

What is intellectual property?: A novel? A film script? A joke? A cook book? A character in a TV show? A painting? The lyrics to a song? All of these are intellectual property.

Fair Dealing for Media Education

In Canada, consumers have certain rights to use copyrighted material without permission or license from the owner of the copyright. These rights are defined in the Copyright Act as Fair Dealing exemptions and were redefined in the 2012 changes to the Act. A good knowledge of Fair Dealing can be extremely helpful in understanding what you and your students can do with media in class. It's important to note that the Copyright Act provides very little definition for many of these terms; instead, most of the specifics of Fair Dealing have come from court rulings, and the new exemptions and other changes done in 2012 will likely also be further defined in the same way.

MediaSmarts and Ontario Library Association partner to make digital literacy workshops available across the province

Ottawa, July 24, 2012 – MediaSmarts (formerly known as Media Awareness Network) is today announcing that all public library members of the Ontario Library Association (OLA) will now have access to its Web Awareness Workshop Series through a one-year licence agreement funded by a grant through Google Canada.

CIRA partners with MediaSmarts for landmark research study

Ottawa, June 25, 2012 – MediaSmarts (formerly known as Media Awareness Network) is pleased to announce it has partnered with the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) for the third phase of its landmark research study, Young Canadians in a Wired World.

MediaSmarts Mom to offer advice for families in today’s digital world

Ottawa (April 3, 2013) - Canadian parents who are worried about managing their children’s media world now have help as MediaSmarts unveils a new blog dedicated to parents.

‘MediaSmarts Mom’ blogger Andrea Tomkins will bring her thoughts, recommendations, and tips from the perspective of a mother who’s raising her kids in a constantly evolving media age.