You Might be Interested In

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) will be hosting its first annual Pathways to Privacy Research Symposium on May 2, 2012, in Ottawa!

The theme for this year’s event is Privacy for Everyone, and we will be discussing the results of research on emerging privacy issues among communities of interest. This year’s event was organized with the assistance of Industry Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Discussions will explore topics such as the changing landscape for youth, reaching diverse populations, cultural perspectives on privacy and frontiers of identification and surveillance among different populations.

This Symposium is a great opportunity to discover privacy-related research funded by the OPC’s Contributions Program and other funders, and will serve as a forum to bring together the people who do the research and those who apply it. Ultimately, we want to enable more people to use and benefit from the excellent privacy research that is being done across Canada. This event is also sure to be a great opportunity to share knowledge, grow partnerships and expand networking among researchers.

A detailed program for the event is available on our web site. If you are interested in participating, please contact Melissa Goncalves at melissa.goncalves@priv.gc.ca or 613-947-7097. Please note that limited audience seating will be available.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner invites contributions to its blog from members of our External Advisory Committee. Their representation reflects the myriad of public policy perspectives critical to proposing a balanced view on privacy and personal information protection.  While we benefit from their experience and advice, the views they represent in articles appearing here are their own and don’t necessarily represent the views of the Office.

The following blog post is from Professor Michael A. Geist.

Last December, the government celebrated passing eight bills into law, including the long-delayed anti-spam bill. Years after a national task force recommended enacting anti-spam legislation, the Canadian bill finally established strict rules for electronic marketing and safeguards against the installation of unwanted software programs on personal computers, all backed by tough multi-million dollar penalties.

Then-Industry Minister Tony Clement promised that the law would “protect Canadian businesses and consumers from harmful and misleading online threats,” but nearly a year later, the law is in limbo, the victim of a fight over regulations that threaten to undermine important protections and delay implementation for many more months.

One of the most worrying potential changes involves the law’s mandatory disclosure requirements when Canadians install new software programs on their personal computers. With incidents such as the Sony rootkit debacle still fresh in the minds of many – the company surreptitiously installed programs on millions of computers leaving them vulnerable to security breaches – the Canadian law provides welcome protection against spyware and unwanted software.

This issue was hotly debated when the bill came before a House of Commons committee and the compromise language was designed to protect individual privacy and security, while enabling common installations (such as security updates) to proceed unimpeded.

Yet now lobby groups are using the regulatory process to re-open the legislative compromise.

For example, the Information Technology Association of Canada, which represents software and technology companies, argues that software vendors should be permitted to install programs without disclosure provided they notify the user of possible installations within the license agreement. Given the common practice of burying such terms in long agreements that few consumers ever read, few will be aware that they have consented to the secret installation of programs designed to monitor their use of the software.

The law specifically worked to avoid this outcome but it appears that the much-needed privacy and security protections may be in jeopardy.

Professor Michael A. Geist,
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law

Legal Services, Policy and Research Branch (LSPR Branch) is seeking the assistance of qualified Legal Agents to complement in-house counsel.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) is inviting Expressions of Interest (EOI) from interested lawyers or law firms with demonstrated competence and ability to comply with the criteria set out in the EOI and the related Schedule A. The complete “Expression of Interest for Legal Agents” is available on the OPC website.

Interested lawyers or law firms are invited to qualify themselves on the renewed eligibility list, even if they have already been qualified on previous eligibility lists. This current EOI process will not affect or terminate any current contracts with Legal Agents for legal services with respect to any active matter.

To acknowledge your interest in responding to this expression of interest, and to receive further consideration, your submission must be received by November 30, 2011.

For more information, please contact:

DANIEL CARON, Legal Counsel
Legal Services, Policy and Research Branch
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
112 Kent Street, 3rd Floor
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1H3
daniel.caron@priv.gc.ca
613 947 4634