Debcha sez, "There's an article in today's Globe and Mail about how Canadian universities are switching their RefWorks accounts from a US server to one at the University of Toronto in order to avoid having research information flagged by the Patriot Act. RefWorks is a reference and citation management tool, which university libraries subscribe to and users have personal accounts on. There's concern among scholars that they could be identified and flagged if they are doing research on sensitive areas (North Korea, terrorism, nuclear weapons). The Dalhousie librarian they quote points out that there is no way of knowing if your data has been searched under the Patriot Act, and 'it is still possible for the RCMP and CSIS to probe the Ontario server, but in Canada there is at least judicial oversight.'"
Mr. Maes said the Halifax-based university has been using RefWorks for two years now, but strengthened privacy legislation in Nova Scotia coupled with the Patriot Act drove Dalhousie, as well as other Atlantic institutions, to move to the Ontario server this academic year.
Universities still have access to RefWorks, but now the personal information of professors and students is stored in Ontario. The U of T server, managed on behalf of the Ontario Council of University Libraries, was created four years ago to give the province's institutions more control over how research information is managed.
(Thanks, Debcha!)
