Privacy watchdog asks MPs for more power

OTTAWA — Canadians expect the federal privacy commissioner to be able to make orders and levy fines against companies that break privacy rules, Daniel Therrien told members of Parliament studying the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) Thursday, noting that the current inability to do so erodes trust in a digital environment. A recent poll conducted by his office found that “seven in 10 Canadians would be more likely to do business with companies if they were subject to financial penalties for misusing their information,” Therrien told members of the House standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics. “Currently, my office cannot make orders or impose fines and is, in many respects, weaker than some of our provincial and international counterparts.” In its annual report tabled in September, the office posed the question of whether it would be reasonable for the privacy commissioner to have such powers. Therrien provided a more-definitive response Thursday, saying that “in the context of our consent consultations, we have conducted a number of focus groups and when we asked them whether they think it would be a good idea for companies to be subject to orders and fines, they overwhelmingly say it’s a good idea. I think Canadians expect it.” As former interim privacy commissioner Chantal Bernier told the committee earlier in the week, the federal watchdog’s provincial and international counterparts already possess these powers. Therrien said industry concerns centre on worries there would be a less collaboration and negotiation between businesses and the commissioner’s office, but that his colleagues in other jurisdictions haven’t had that experience. “If an executive of a company has a choice between investing in consumer protection or environmental protection, where there are fines potentially imposed if there’s a violation, and privacy, where there is not, we were told quite point blank that they will put their money where there is a financial risk,” Therrien said. “Just the fact these powers exist will change the risk calculus, whether or not we find them to be in violation of the act or not.” During his appearance in front of the committee Therrien addressed the issue of crafting Canadian “right to be forgotten” rules, but said that his office had not formalized a position and that it would be forthcoming by the end of the year. However, he did say it’s something that needs to be examined. “It’s certainly consistent with privacy notions generally that information should not sit on servers or continue to be retained by organizations beyond the period where it’s necessary. And then should we look for exactly the same thing ? Probably not. We should aim to go towards a right to be forgotten — I don’t think we need to reach the same place.” There should be some sort of special right-to-be-forgotten provision for minors, the committee also heard Thursday. Valerie Steeves, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa, said “anything before 18 you should be able to get a free slate, make it all go away.” Steeves said she thinks “the right to be forgotten as it’s been articulated in Europe is really about ease of access — especially if there’s a public benefit to having that ease of access, that’s part of the balancing.” She pointed to court documents, which are public records, but aren’t necessarily always available online, depending on their content. “Google is not a library, it’s not the way we find everything. And when there’s publicly valuable information, you can still have journalists go and access that information at courthouses or other investigative means,” Steeves said, adding that tech companies shouldn’t be relied upon “to be curators, to be librarians, to be journalists.” — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Privacy watchdog asks MPs for more power

Broadcast | February 17, 2017

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