Privacy commish looking for transparency compliance ‘in coming months’

OTTAWA — Companies who are not already proactively complying with the federal government’s transparency reporting rules are running out of time before the Office of the Privacy Commissioner begins looking for ways to enforce the guidelines with legislation. “Going forward, we hope companies follow the guidelines and that we begin to see more consistent reporting,” said the office’s annual report, which was tabled in the House of Commons Tuesday morning. “For companies that have yet to produce such reports, we hope they will see the value of transparency and share relevant information with public. If not, we may resume our call for legislative changes in this area.” When asked during a press conference following the tabling of the report how long he was willing to give companies for their compliance, privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien said, “not much time.” “Companies should be transparent. The guidelines that we worked with the industry department to launch are now a year old,” Therrien said. “Some companies have proactively released transparency reports but an insufficient number in my view. So this should happen in the coming months.” Earlier this summer, Therrien told a telecom audience that his office could start pushing for compliance with the transparency reporting guidelines issued in 2015. The report also noted that the office is asking for the same transparency from the public sector and recommending associated changes to the Privacy Act. “We have called on federal institutions to maintain accurate records and to report publicly on the nature, purpose and number of lawful access requests they make to telecommunications companies,” the report said. “Such an approach would give citizens and Parliament greater insight into how federal institutions are using their lawful access powers.” The overarching theme of the office’s report was that Canada needs to modernize its privacy framework. “We are left with 20th century tools to deal with 21st century problems,” the report said. “And in the meantime, 90 percent of Canadians feel they are losing control of their personal information and expect to be better protected.” According to the report, the office received 98 voluntary data breach reports for organizations covered by PIPEDA in 2015, which was more than double the 44 it had the previous year. “The increased reporting may be a sign that companies are preparing for a new reality. In the near future, the reporting—to Canadians and our Office—of breaches posing a real risk of significant harm to individuals will be mandatory,” the report said. It also added that the shift was due to the last year’s coming into force of the Digital Privacy Act. Therrien said that his office has made a total of 16 suggestions for changes to the public-sector-governing Privacy Act, but that recommendations are still pending with regards to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which guides the private sector. The report also posed the question of whether it was reasonable for the office of the privacy commissioner to have the authority to make orders and issue fines, noting that, currently, the office “plays a more reactive role.” On Tuesday, the German privacy regulator issued an order banning Facebook Inc. from collecting and storing data from its country’s WhatsApp users. Last month, the messaging service announced that it was giving its parent company access to users’ phone numbers. Existing users of WhatsApp had a month to opt-out of the information sharing. “This administrative order protects the data of about 35 million WhatsApp users in Germany. It has to be their decision, whether they want to connect their account with Facebook,” Johannes Caspar, the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, said in a press release. “Therefore Facebook has to ask for their permission in advance. This has not happened.” German data protection laws are applicable “if a company processes data in connection with a national subsidiary,” the commission said in the release, noting that that Facebook is “doing this through its subsidiary in Hamburg, which is responsible for the operation of the marketing business in German-speaking regions.” Therrien didn’t say whether he personally believed his office should have a similar power, but that they are consulting on the issue. “We’ve issued a discussion paper, we’re consulting stakeholders… and I would expect that within in a year we’ll be in a position to recommend, or not, certain changes that could require legislation and if we need to recommend changes to the private sector legislation,” Therrien said. — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Privacy commish looking for transparency compliance ‘in coming months’

News | September 27, 2016

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Privacy commish looking for transparency compliance ‘in coming months’

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