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Do you know how your location information is used?  A recent survey commissioned by security company, Webroot, asked 1,645 social network users in the U.S. and UK who own location-enabled mobile devices about their use of location-based tools and services.  The survey found that 39 percent of respondents reported using geo-location on their mobile devices and more than half (55 percent) of those users are worried about their loss of privacy. 

A few notable concerns over security and privacy: 49 percent of women (versus 32 percent of men) were highly concerned about letting a would-be stalker know where they are and nearly half (45 percent) are very concerned about letting potential burglars know when they’re away from home (a very real risk outlined nicely by Pleaserobme.com)

The growing popularity of geo-location tools and services (including offerings by industry giants such as Twitter, Apple, Facebook and Google) means that location information is being collected on a colossal scale and the real and potential uses for this information are just starting to work themselves out – from iPhone photos tagged with GPS coordinates to location-based gaming platforms such as Scvngr that enable mobile users to create their own location-based games.

This increase in the collection and use of location information can also pose unique risks for users.  The survey summary notes that a surprising number of respondents engaged in behaviors such as sharing location information with people other than friends that could put them, and their private information, at risk.  A blogger recently wrote about her experience with location sharing gone wrong and Foursquare was recently blasted for unintentional data leakage via their popular location-based service. 

As we note in our recent submission to Industry Canada’s Digital Economy Consultation, good privacy practices can support innovation by reinforcing confidence in users that they have the right to control their personal information and that the technology they use is secure.  With location information, the usual privacy concerns abound and with each cool, new service that hits the market. How to communicate these risks to consumers is something that occupies a great deal of our time.  Dealing with the privacy concerns of location information during the design phase for new services would help businesses avoid expensive (both financial and reputational) after-the-fact privacy fixes and might even provide those privacy-friendly businesses with a significant competitive advantage

Two years ago, we launched our youthprivacy.ca website to engage people on the issues around young people and digital privacy.

When we launched youthprivacy.ca, Twitter had about 500,000 users, Google was rumoured to be entering the mobile phone market, and the idea of managing your digital footprint was just gaining some steam.

To say a lot has changed over the last 24 months would be an understatement.

We want to redesign the site to better present existing and new content, and highlight resources and work being done elsewhere on the topic. We also want the process of rebuilding this website to be open and transparent. We feel that there is a much larger community of public servants and private citizens with the experience, the expertise and the skill sets to make this a useful and highly collaborative exercise.

After all, why build communities of practice if we only continue to build projects within silos and concealed behind departmental garden walls?

We are inviting input from people with interest and expertise from both within government (specifically #w2p and #ux communities of practice, and those with experience reaching out to young people and engaging in public education and social marketing) and external to government (non-profit sector, educators and librarians, young people themselves).

Much of the process will be run on GCpedia to facilitate contribution among Government of Canada employees. For folks external to government without access to GCpedia, we’ll provide some updates on this page – and if you have ideas on how we can open up collaboration to the outside community, let us know.

Check out the wiki page on GCpedia or this page for additional information, and let us know if you interested in pitching in. And I’ll leave you with this thought:

“It’s always easier to tame a wild idea than to invigorate a limp one.”

A few dedicated OPC staffers spend much of their time visiting schools and talking to young people about why privacy is important.  If you believe a popular line of thinking, privacy may seem to be a lost cause in the age of online social networking and “anything goes” disclosure. We who talk to youth on a regular basis, however, are always pleasantly surprised that a generation that is growing up online shows such interest and enthusiasm about protecting their information.  It’s nice when research findings reflect our day-to-day observations that many young people are in fact proactive about protecting their online privacy.

The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project recently published a report entitled “Reputation, Management, and Social Media” in which it found that “younger users are far more active and deliberate curators of their online profiles when compared with older users.” This infographic shows other interesting report findings about how people interact and conduct themselves online.

Much of the debate around online privacy seems to revolve around binary choices: if you post information online then you can’t expect it to be private; if you join a social networking site then you must want to share your information with everyone.  But the reality is much more nuanced. As danah boyd and others have argued, people want to share information with people they themselves have chosen, via privacy settings. PEW found that 71% of social networking users ages 18-29 have changed the privacy settings on their profiles to limit what they share with others online, and 58% keep some people from seeing certain updates. Contrary to what some tech moguls might want you to believe, online privacy among young people is alive and well.

Over the course of the year, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is hosting consultations with Canadians on issues that pose a serious challenge to privacy. In an attempt to learn more about the privacy implications of new industries, the focus of the consultations has been on online tracking, profiling and targeting of consumers, and the increasing prevalence of cloud computing.

Following the first such consultation in Toronto, a second event was held in Montreal on May 19^th, 2010. The event was a resounding success, due in part to the fact that the panels had a lively audience both on and offline.

Did you miss the event? You can still watch the webcast here, and you can check out what was happening on Twitter for each panel below.

Panel 1: Frontiers of Consumer Information Datamining and Analytics

Frontiers of Consumer Information Datamining and Analytics Panel

Panel 2: Online Identity and Reputation

Online Identity and Reputation Panel

Panel 3: Online marketing methods: gaming, advertising, applications and social networks

Online marketing methods: gaming, advertising, applications and social networks panel

Louise is a central character in our upcoming Consumer Privacy Consultations – not because of her great hair, but because she’s engaged online the way many Canadians are…she buys clothing and books online, she updates her Facebook profile regularly, she’s got an iPhone.

She’s also our fictional case study for examining how our data travels as we engage with the online world – who’s got our data? What are they doing with it?

Below is just one of several scenarios we’ve developed to help ground our conversations during the consultation process. This one will be used during the Advertising panel this week in Toronto. As you read it, ask yourself:

Is Louise aware of how her information may be used when she searches for and buys materials at online bookstores?

How accurate is the advertising profile developed for Louise, given that she shares the computer with other members of her family including her nine-year-old brother?

How could Louise’s profile information be matched with publicly available information to draw inferences about her? What types of decisions are or could be made based on her profile information?  What are the risks of combining online and offline profiles? Or the risks involved in combining different online profiles, like Louise’s Facebook profile with the profile her favourite online bookstore has of her?

Louise is a stylish 21-year college student who likes to meet people and try new things. She is active online and does everything from buying trendy clothing and concert tickets to keeping up touch with friends through posting updates and photos to her Facebook page.  Now in her final year of college, Louise is starting to look for a job. She is putting herself through school by making jewellery and selling it online. She is also a collector of specialty comic books and belongs to an international network of comic book enthusiasts. Louise also has a younger brother, David, who is nine years old.

Louise bought some designer jeans at a store in her local mall with her credit card. She also had the clerk swipe her loyalty card.

When Louise arrived home, she signed into her new account at the store’s web site to learn more about the clothes she had carried into the changing room but not bought. In her excitement to see the store’s merchandise, she clicked through the site’s lengthy privacy policy.

In looking on the store’s web site for a blouse to go with her new jeans, Louise saw an advertisement for jewellery that really appealed to her, so she followed it. Louise felt comfortable at the small Canadian jewellery site because the style of the site was as though she were visiting a friend’s page.

She also liked the styles of jewellery on the site so she bought a necklace and clicked on the “Like” button to update her friends on her latest purchase. From there, she left the store site and searched for the listing of a concert and bought 2 tickets. After that, she checked the status of the online auction she was participating in to get a new specialty comic book.

After this, Louise updated her Facebook page to let her friends know about her purchases and to see who else would be attending the concert. From Facebook, she checked out her favourite online bookstore where she purchased a book that was recommended to her by another comic book expert.

We’re hoping to generate some discussion around Louise’s activities – join the discussion by commenting on our blog, or jumping into the Twitter-stream on Thursday (hashtag #priv2010). We also invite you to check out the live webcast.

The intersection of geolocational apps and social media has produced…virtual graffiti.

At several American universities, students with cellphones are tagging campus landmarks with comments and labels using location-aware apps like Foursquare. Some universities have found ways to teach through tagging:

“At North Carolina State University, meanwhile, a new library service shows smartphone users historical pictures of campus buildings based on where users are standing, including a snapshot of the first freshman class, from 1890, when the agricultural college’s hot mobile technology was horses.”

And students have found, er, innovative ways to tag spots around campus – one of the deans at the University as at Dallas discovered his office had been tagged in Foursquare with the comment “Watch out for lame jokes!”

The ability to virtually tag places, things and people isn’t new, but it does create challenges when it comes to managing our identities online – who owns that material? Foursquare? The tagger? The person tagged? Right now, the responsibility is in the hands of the tagged – for instance, look at the care university students take in reviewing, and untagging when necessary, photos of themselves that get posted to Facebook after a particularly spectacular weekend.

Is this likely to change? Probably not – online as in offline, we should all know what face we’re putting forward.

This post, by co-op student Erin Siksay, is cross-posted from our youth blog.

I searched myself online the other day and came up with a profile I had created some years ago, complete with picture and date of birth, name, and e-mail address. So many websites require at least some personal information in order to view exclusive content or enjoy the services provided by the website, it gets difficult keeping track of all the websites I’ve signed up for. Inevitably, some end up being neglected or forgotten. Then, years later, they pop up when I’m feeling bored (and perhaps narcissistic) and searching myself online.

I had the website e-mail me my username and password so I could delete the account (and all of its revealing information) from their server so it wouldn’t appear in the search engine queue. (Luckily I’ve used the same e-mail address for many years). If you find yourself in the same situation but with an unknown or expired e-mail address, you can always write to the moderators or developers of the website and request that your profile be taken down or removed.

You may be selective with what information you put into an online profile, but with lots of profiles online it can become difficult to keep track of exactly what personal information is available on the web. One website might require a postal code, another a birthdate. Pieced together, these separate profiles can reveal a lot about the user. This combined profile can then be used for targeted marketing or even more malicious purposes.

Make sure your profile doesn’t come back to haunt you.

Once again, students from the Encounters with Canada program have selected the winners of our annual student video contest! Here are the winners for our 2009 competition:

The three top video artists in the live action category were:

1^st place: Jeffery Burge, Vanessa Caicedo, Alexandra Georgaras, Gareth Imrie and Fiona Sauder of Canterbury High School in Ottawa, Ontario, with a video titled “Think Before You Click”. They win a $100 gift card and an iPod Touch.

2^nd place: David Borish and Mory Kaba of Glebe Collegiate Institute in Ottawa, Ontario, with a video titled “Friend or Foe”. They win a $250 gift card.

3^rd place: Jennifer Paul from Brampton, Ontario, with a video titled “Too Good to be True”. She wins a $150 gift card.

The three top video artists in the animation category were:

1^st place: Tyler Ford and Matthew Kerr of Osgoode Township High School in Metcalfe, Ontario, with a video titled “Privacy: Think Before You Click”. They win a $100 gift card and an iPod Touch.

2^nd place: Rebecca Kartzmart and Emily Patterson of Osgoode Township High School in Metcalfe, Ontario, with a video titled “Carol the Carrot”. They win a $250 gift card.

3^rd place: Scott Piper of Osgoode Township High School in Metcalfe, Ontario, with a video titled “Privacy Matters”. He wins a $150 gift card.

The three top video artists in the French video category were:

1^st place: Benjamin Dion-Weiss of l’École secondaire publique De La Salle in Ottawa, Ontario, with a video titled “Le réseautage social d’après le Comte Hackula”. He wins a $100 gift card and an iPod Touch.

2^nd place: Stéphanie Lemieux and Emily Vendette of l’École secondaire catholique Embrun in Embrun, Ontario, with a video titled “Le Journal de Lisa”. They win a $250 gift card.

3^rd place: Cosmo Darwin of l’École secondaire publique De La Salle in Ottawa, Ontario, with a video titled “Trouvée & Perdu”. He wins a $150 gift card.

The three top video artists in the Junior category were:

1^st place: Mackenzie Giffen, Chris Johnstone, Chris Nattrass, Curtis Sookhoo and Gabriel Zingle of F.R. Haythorne Junior High in Sherwood Park, Alberta, with a video titled “The Spanish Lottery”. They win a $100 gift card and an iPod Touch.

2^nd place: Trevor Aiello, Connor Bergersen, Chad Bullock and Lochlan Thomson of F.R. Haythorne Junior High in Sherwood Park, Alberta, with a video titled “A lesson In Privacy”. They win a $250 gift card.

3^rd place: Matthew Craner, Scott Deshane, Madison Gilchrist, Joe Matishak and Graeme Wyatt of F.R. Haythorne Junior High in Sherwood Park, Alberta, with a video titled “The Phone Number Test”. They win a $150 gift card.

We also recognized seven teachers for their enthusiastic participation in the contest. They were:

• Crystal Getschel, of F.R. Haythorne Junior High in Sherwood Park, Alberta, with 26 entries.
• Majed Mattar, of Osgoode Township High School in Metcalfe, Ontario, with 21 entries.
• Professor Kaduri, of Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, Ontario, with 15 entries.
• Grant Holmes, of École secondaire publique De La Salle, Ottawa, Ontario, with 11 entries.
• Carol Shaw, of Woodstock Collegiate Institute, Woodstock, Ontario, with 8 entries.
• Kevin Shae, of Sir Robert Borden High School, Ottawa, Ontario with 6 entries.
• Stephen Willcock, of Canterbury High School, Ottawa, Ontario, with 5 entries.

Each teacher will receive a $250 gift certificate at Indigo Books and Music to use for personal use or for the school they represent.

The videos will be posted as soon as possible to our youth site. They will also be available on our YouTube channel.

We were thrilled with the number and quality of submissions we received for our second competition. We’ll be launching the 2010 contest in May!

The combination of microblogging services like Twitter and location-aware social networking games on your mobile device like Foursquare is like the Red Bull and vodka of the internet – it’s one big party until your great-aunt’s end table is smashed.

Twitter, of course, enables its users to post short 140-character messages. Social networking games like Foursquare encourage players to post their precise location information in order to gain points – the more locations you “check in”, the more points you gain. These “check-ins” can also be automatically posted to a player’s Twitter or Facebook account.

A couple of Dutch developers have created a site called PleaseRobMe to point out the dangers of posting so much information on your whereabouts.

Don’t get us wrong, we love the whole location-aware thing. The information is very interesting and can be used to create some pretty awesome applications….  The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home.

The creators of PleaseRobMe point out that users could be putting others around them at risk as well. Foursquare players, for example might also be posting location information for places they frequent…like the homes of friends and family.

The site – which took developers four hours to build – is a witty little reminder to consider the possible repurcussions of what we post online.

On Data Privacy 2010 we’d like to take a moment to remind everyone that is the responsibility of both individuals and companies to make sure that personal information is safe.

If you own a company, or work for a big one: in the past, you may have had to ensure that your customers’ name and address information (and in some cases credit card and billing information) were safe. Now, many of you are providing technology and tools for your customers to put increasing amounts of personal information online. Does your company have the systems in place to safeguard this information? Do you give your customers the tools and options to control how their information is used?

If you are a user of new and cool technology: in the past a telephone was a telephone, a video game was a video game, a stuffed toy was simply that – a stuffed toy. Today, more and more toys and handheld tools come with the ability to go online. Do you understand how to enjoy your toys and gadgets without putting your personal information at risk?

If you are a parent or guardian, teacher, coach or caregiver: do the young people in your life understand how to use all these new toys and gadgets while keeping their personal information safe? Our office has recently made youth privacy a key priority. Today, we have posted some new resources to the Parents & Teachers section of our youth web site. The resources include information on 12 privacy issues (such as the importance of privacy settings and knowing who your friends are on social networking sites), along with ideas for generating discussion about each issue with young people. You can use these resources to start discussion about personal privacy and the importance of thinking about what you post on the Internet.

Regardless of which group you are in – if you need any information about how to keep personal information secure, visit our web sites – priv.gc.ca and youthprivacy.ca.