Privacy by design
Dr. Ann Cavoukian, the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner, recently spoke to the Computer Science Club at the University of Waterloo. (video available in several formats)
Dr. Cavoukian has argued that software developers need to build privacy concerns right into their work, and her speech is receiving favourable attention online:
“… There’s something incredibly refreshing about hearing a high-ranking government official say things like, “Privacy is integral to freedom. You cannot have a free and democratic society without privacy. When a state morphs from a democracy into a totalitarian regime, the first thread to unravel is privacy.”…” (BoingBoing)
“… Privacy is really important, and watching this talk makes me realize, I have not being doing my part as a software developer to respect users privacy. Hell I log way too much information, just to make debugging a little easier on the off chance I have to debug it in production. I’d encourage all software developers out there to watch this talk, and take its message to heart. …” (Slashdot comments)
3 Responses
1:11 pm
The Commissioner mentions that she knows Bruce Schneier, but later on discusses the potential for self-destructing data. Is the commissioner aware that, as Bruce himself has pointed out , this sort of thing is not possible?
12:51 am
[...] by design in our post-9/11 world [via Office of the Privacy Commissioner] Dr. Ann Cavoukian, the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner, recently spoke to the [...]
12:06 pm
Finally finished watching Dr. Ann Cavoukian 1+ hour speech. Ann spoke in a very down-to-earth manner and in language most people can understand and appreciate. (She only lost me at the end when talking about biometric encryption.) A highly recommended speech.
Nick, you may be right as I am no technical expert. But given the vast area of subject matters the Commissioner has to deal with, I will cut the Commissioner some slack. Of course, if the Commissioner was wrong, it is important to point that out. But may be in a nicer way. Just my 2 cents.