PRIVACY MATTERS with Meaghan McCluskey


PRIVACY THE FUTURE OF


The Commissioner’s annual report indicates the focus moving forward will be on information technology gathering and online consumer tracking


ecently, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner released its annual report, highlighting achievements over the past year and flagging priorities of the Office in light of the constantly changing privacy landscape.


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One of the strategic priorities identified by the Commissioner is information tech- nology and the rapid developments in devices and applications that could have an impact on privacy. In 2009, the Commissioner en- gaged in information gath- ering activities, holding briefing sessions and work- shops with industry on topics such as security concerns (e.g., botnets and social engineering), geospatial technologies and mobile marketing. Thus far in 2010, the Commis- sioner is furthering her in- terest in information technology by holding consultations on cloud computing and online consumer tracking for the purposes of the next PIPEDA parliamentary review. An overar- ching privacy risk that the Commissioner has wanted addressed is the risk of re-identifying individ- uals from anonymous or de-identified data sets. A second strategic priority the Commissioner identified relates to online consumer tracking and the concept of “identity in- tegrity.” As Canadians face greater demands to share their per- sonal information with a wider group of friends, family and organizations, the Commissioner is concerned with their struggle to define their identity in a digital world. As the Commissioner noted, individuals want an element of control in how they are identified and portrayed in public and private settings, but may not realize that information is being collected as they browse web sites or understand how it is used.


Consultation responses from the Canadian Marketing 12 SECURITY MATTERS • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010


Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau regarding on- line consumer tracking indicate that the concerns for consumer privacy are already well met by PIPEDA principles (e.g., identifying purpose, consent, limiting use, retention and disclo- sure, safeguards and openness), which could be augmented by industry self-regulation requirements for transparency around marketing practices. This can be viewed as a choice mechanism for consumers who do not wish to be tracked. The Commis- sioner has yet to release a report on the findings from the consultation process, however, with regards to her report against Face- book, the Office has recognized the need for advertising to fund free online content.


Also on the Commis- sioner’s radar screen are na- tional security and genetic information. New legislation was introduced last year that would give the authorities more powers to access information about subscribers, their mobile devices and details of subscriber communications. Furthermore, the national DNA database may be expanded to take DNA from a greater number of offenders and allow familial searches.


Combined, all of these developments indicate an expanded sur- veillance regime that has serious repercussions for privacy rights, causing the Commissioner to call on Parliament to ensure there is a clear and demonstrable need to expand the in- vestigative powers available for law enforcement.


Meaghan McCluskey is a privacy research lawyer with Nymity Inc. (www.nymity.com), a provider of PrivaWorks, a privacy support tool.


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