Media releases

• Brock sociology professor receives grant for online privacy research

  Tuesday, July 26, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: R00161 – 25 July 2016

  A Brock University professor has received a grant to examine the online privacy risks facing Canadians.

  Department of Sociology adjunct professor Natasha Tusikov will research what companies do with personal information collected online.

  The controversy of Edward Snowden leaking highly classified files stirred up great public concern over government surveillance programs on the Internet. It shed light on how large Internet firms were facilitating government surveillance by providing their users’ personal data to the U.S. National Security Agency.

  Tusikov offers a different perspective in looking at privacy on the Internet by examining the regulations and policies involved with these Internet firms and the sharing of Canadians’ personal data with third parties.

  Tusikov recently received a grant from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to examine the risks on Canadians’ privacy from Internet firms and the non-legally binding policies undertaken by these companies and online payment providers.

  Her project, "Effects of Informal Online Regulatory Regimes on Privacy,” will explore what personal data from Canadians that Internet firms such as Google, Twitter, Yahoo and Microsoft share with third parties, as well as the informal regulatory agreements that govern the sharing of information.

  “Canadians may reasonably assume that many of the U.S.-based Internet firms operating in Canada are working in accordance with Canadian law. The problem, however, is that non-binding regulation occurs outside these laws,” Tusikov says.

  She warns people need to question who makes and enforces the rules on the Internet.
  “What rules guide how companies collect, store, and use our personal data online? This is especially relevant when we have non-Canadian Internet companies operating in Canada. Whose rules do these companies follow?”

  Tusikov will be carrying out interviews with Internet companies, privacy advocates (the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Future of Privacy Forum among others), and civil-society organizations in Washington, Toronto and Ottawa during September and October.

  The outcome of this project will be an in-depth public research report with the ultimate goal of raising public awareness on where Canadians’ personal information goes and what it’s used for online. She will be presenting her findings at the 2017 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Toronto.

  Her upcoming book, Chokepoints: Global Private Regulation on the Internet (University of California Press), further examines Internet regulation and online privacy concerns and will be released in November.

  Department of Sociology adjunct professor Natasha Tusikov is available for interviews.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock study finds developing evangelists as brand ambassadors key to reputation building in the wine industry

  Tuesday, July 26, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE:  R00159 – 22 July 2016

  Looking at Ontario’s quest for recognition as a world-class wine region, researchers have found that cultivating evangelism among key audience members, such as wine connoisseurs, media and restaurants plays an important role in spreading the gospel of a winery’s practice and the quality of Ontario wine.

  Maxim Voronov and Wesley Helms, professors from Brock University’s Goodman School of Business, examined how wine connoisseurs — individuals with a high degree of identification with wine culture — became passionate advocates for Ontario wine in their paper “Evangelism and the amazing spread of quality reputation of Ontario winemaking.”

  In the study forthcoming in Academy of Management Journal, they found wineries’ interactions with connoisseurs can foster a deeper connection that may turn these individuals into evangelists — passionate advocates of Ontario wine.

  “Much like going to church, the ritualized tours, wine tastings and events create social interactions that connect evangelists to winemakers and the wine itself,” said Voronov, a research fellow at Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute.

  These ritualized interactions, whether a wine tasting, tour, or winemaker’s dinner, were found to play an important role in generating not only sales among consumers, but in creating devoted advocates for the product.

  Researchers emphasized that these tours and tastings must be more than marketing and must aim to create an authentic relationship between wineries and their guests.

  “This is particularly evident in the Ontario wine industry,” said Helms. “The industry is incredibly mobilized and a passionate force of retailers and practitioners that are all going out and celebrating the achievements of the industry.”

  This discovery was driven by the data when the researchers noticed that during the rapid evolution of the Ontario industry, it wasn’t just a growing consumer base, it was connoisseurs using every tool at their disposal to advocate and promote Ontario wine.

  Helms and Voronov did find that some wineries are doing a better job at cultivating evangelists on behalf of their product, while others could benefit from developing these relationships.

  Voronov and Helms were recently featured on a Conversations with Goodman podcast here, which can be listened to and downloaded on Soundcloud.

  Download full report

  For more information or assistance arranging interviews:
  * Kaitlyn Little, Marketing and Communications Officer, Brock University, klittle@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x4471

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  Categories: Media releases