Christopher Parsons

Christopher is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Victoria, and a fellow at the Centre for Global Studies. His research interests focus on how privacy (particularly informational privacy, expressive privacy and accessibility privacy) is affected by digitally mediated surveillance, and the normative implications that such surveillance has in (and on) contemporary Western political systems.

He is currently attending to a particular set of technologies that facilitate digitally mediated surveillance, including deep packet inspection), license plate recognition, mobile device security, and social networking environments. He tries to think though how these technologies influence citizens in their decision to openly express themselves or engage in self-censoring behavior on a regular basis. His ongoing research outputs are publicly disseminated at www.christopher-parsons.com.

Christopher has published in the Canadian Journal of Law and Society, European Journal of Law and Technology, Canadian Privacy Law Review, CTheory, and has book chapters in a series of academic and popular books and reports. His research has been funded by SSHRC, the New Transparency Project, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner's contributions programs, and by civil advocacy organizations. He regularly presents his research to government, media, the public, and at academic events, and is an active member of the Canadian privacy advocacy community