As part of the Cybersecurity and International Affairs Workshops by the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute and the Balsillie School of International Affairs
Richard Fadden, Macdonald-Laurier Institute
As people’s lives are increasingly intermediated by digital platforms, their actions become more recordable, legible, and attributable from the perspective of states, potentially permitting unprecedented powers of control. This session will discuss how technologies such as searchable video feeds and facial recognition software could empower law enforcement, as well as bolster autocratic regimes. A possible harbinger of this phenomenon is China’s planned Social Credit System, linking an individual’s observed behaviour to rewards and punishments in terms of access to finance and travel privileges. The discussion will aim to elucidate what such a surveillance regime may ultimately be capable of, what its limitations may be, and under what political, social, and technological conditions it could arise and thrive. Advances in data collection and analysis will likely result in ever more fine-grained predictive power; this discussion will explore the potential of artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics to enable personally tailored persuasion. The discussion will seek to address how various actors (including governments, corporations, and informal social groups), may seek to use various novel technologies to induce desirable behaviour in individuals.
Biography
Richard B. Fadden was the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister from January 19, 2015 to March 31, 2016. Previously he was the Deputy Minister of National Defence starting in May 2013, he served as the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service from 2009 until 2013. He has also served as the Deputy Minister for Citizenship and Immigration Canada from 2006 to 2009, the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Canada from 2005 to 2006, President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency from 2002 to 2005, and Deputy Clerk and Counsel in the Privy Council Office from 2000 to 2002, during which he assumed the additional duties of Security and Intelligence Coordinator in February 2001. Over the course of his career, Mr. Fadden worked in a variety of different positions across the Government of Canada including in the Department of External Affairs, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Natural Resources Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat.
Mr. Fadden holds a Graduate Diploma in Law from the University of Ottawa, a Bachelor of Laws from the Université de Montréal, and a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) from McGill University.