Welcome to TfD Weekly

TfD Weekly is the newsletter of Technologists for Democracy (TfD), a Toronto-based civic tech organisation working at the intersection of technology, privacy, and democratic accountability. Each week we recap what's happening at Civic Tech Toronto, share updates on our campaigns, and keep an eye on legislation that affects Canadians' digital rights.

Our active campaigns:

• Stop Cineplex from Facial Detection
• People's Consultation on AI

===

This Week at Civic Tech Toronto

This week Eugene Chen walked us through the volunteer-built doorknocking app he developed for successful municipal campaigns in Edmonton. His presentation covered the journey from early prototyping through to live use across 500K+ addresses using open data. He also shared how the app is being adapted for Toronto, and showed off some of his open data visualisation work including a look at 100 years of Edmonton's urban growth.

Civic Tech Toronto meets every Tuesday. Subscribe for future events

===

Flock Surveillance Coming to Rosedale

Flock is a US company that uses AI to comb through security camera footage. They have a track record of sharing data with law enforcement and ICE without adhering to due process. Now they are expanding into Canada, with Rosedale among the first areas where they are looking to set up.

If you live in the Rosedale area and share our concerns about what this means for your neighbourhood, we want to hear from you. Read the Guardian's coverage, reply to this email to get in touch, or forward it to a neighbour who might be interested.

===

Waymo Coming to Ontario?

TfD's Adam was quoted in the Toronto Star this week on Waymo's reported plans to test robo-taxis in Ontario. The article is behind a paywall, but the conversation it's part of is one we think every Canadian should be having.

Some of the key concerns we're tracking:

• Robo-taxis mean more disruption to public transit, and real consequences for the workers who depend on those jobs
• Adapting infrastructure to accommodate autonomous vehicles would come at significant public cost
• When a US company like Waymo is behind the wheel, we have to ask: where does the data they collect on Canadian streets and Canadian passengers actually end up?

This discussion is ongoing and we want to hear from people with skin in the game. If you work in public infrastructure, taxi unions, or the rideshare industry, we'd love to connect.

More on this campaign to come.

===

Find Us Online

Follow TfD on Mastodon:

Technologists for Democracy (@techfordemocracy@thecanadian.social) - TheCanadian.Social

7 Posts, 24 Following, 72 Followers · We are Canadians keeping tech accountable. Canadians using technology towards better democracy for all

Note: we recently migrated our Mastodon account to a new instance. Please update your follow if you were following us at our old address.

Follow TfD on LinkedIn: Technologists for Democracy

Follow TfD on Instagram: techfordemocracy

Follow TfD on Bluesky: techfordemocracy.bsky.social

===

Until next time,

The TfD Team