Rise of the Canadian Network Society

Abstract

Current protection acts and legislations set in place for Canadian residents regarding their privacy and securities online are not adequate and must be reviewed. It was investigated whether Canadian residents are aware of how much data is being collected about them while operating in online spheres. Moreover, the lack of protection for Canadian residents regarding data collection and information sharing in the marketing and advertising sphere. The scope of research highlighted this gap and shed light on the importance of consumers' privacy and security. Through mixed methods of both quantitative and qualitative research, a survey was administrated to Canadian residents to examine their knowledge on current legislation regarding data privacy and their overall knowledge of how organizations surveil, collect, and distribute their personal data. It was discovered that Canadian residents are informed of the scope in which their data is being collected, however, are not informed on the full implications of this collection. More importantly, a majority of Canadian resident respondents are ill informed on the current legislations and regulations set in place to protect them. Canadian residents showed immense interest in requesting more information on how they can stop this invasion of privacy in collection practices and voiced that more stringent protocols should be put in place to better regulate this industry. Current laws and regulations regarding the collection of personal data in online sphere are outdated. Furthermore, call the need to be reexamined, updated, changed, and quantified. Although Canadian residents are aware of the data collection being conducted, Canadian residents feel organizations are being misleading and therefore do not feel implicit consent is valid in such cases.