Wendy Kraglund-Gauthier and David Young, who design online courses at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., presented their report about online security to the 2010 Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences at Montreal's Concordia University.
They said many schools, other institutions, and individuals have taken to cloud computing, storing data online in a so-called cloud, instead of saving it to a specific computer or hard drive.
Cloud computing is popular because data are cheaper to store and accessible anywhere.
But Kraglund-Gauthier and Young warn that a lot of Canadian data are stored on servers located in other countries.
"When you think about security, you have to look at what laws are in effect when you cross global borders," said Kraglund-Gauthier.
Even if the country does have privacy laws, they can be difficult to enforce online, the researchers said.
"All these laws try to safeguard privacy," said Young. "But the laws lack specificity. They are so broad, they don't police the online environment."
When it comes to universities, the academics see two major privacy concerns: data stored online is difficult to delete, and even password protected info can be accessible to outsiders.
So, for example, if you're taking an online class, what you write can be stored forever and is not necessarily restricted to your classmates.
"In the online world, it's stored in perpetuity," said Young.
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