OPC asks for more flexibility on info sharing with CRTC

OTTAWA — Canada’s federal privacy watchdog asked a Senate committee Tuesday to increase his office’s information sharing abilities with the CRTC and Competition Bureau when consumer protection and privacy issues intersect. Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien told the Senate’s standing committee on transport and communications Tuesday that exchanging more information related to investigations would arm him with a “more solid factual foundation” for privacy investigations. “Inter-agency information sharing is limited to very specific circumstances where all the regulatory agencies are governed by confidentiality provisions,” he said. “When we investigate, we independently must protect the confidentiality of the information we receive and cannot, unless specifically authorized, share what we have received and are therefore limited in our cooperation with sister regulatory agencies.” He told senators his office is mandated under Canada’s anti-spam law (CASL) to address various internet issues, such as spam and various online threats. In his annual report to Parliament this fall, Therrien noted information sharing between the agencies was “key to the success of his investigation into address-harvesting and spamming by Compu-Finder,” although he pointed out he also asked MPs for more flexibility on information sharing during the statutory review of CASL. The Senate committee is early days into a review of Canada’s communications laws, which is happening parallel to a federal government panel examining those same laws. While the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) offered a number of general privacy issues for senators to consider about telecom technology and privacy, lawmakers came up short on proposals for change when they asked questions about how they should improve privacy aspects of Canada’s communications legislation. Independent Sen. René Cormier asked if they should consider integrating parts of the Privacy Act or the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) directly into the broadcasting or telecommunications acts. Therrien told them he didn’t have an answer. “I’m not giving you an answer to that question,” he said in French. “I have no magic bullet for you.” He also didn’t have suggestions on whether to move telecom companies under one general-application statute – like a revamped PIPEDA – or to move digital companies under specific communications laws, but he said those are fundamental questions they should think about. He noted the telecommunications and broadcasting acts don’t apply to new digital companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. or Netflix Inc. and said telecoms like BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. are therefore subject to a privacy regime that is “theoretically a little more stringent” compared to what Facebook and Google face for “similar activities.” “I have no problem with the fact that certain companies are more stringently regulated – that’s good for privacy,” he said in French, talking in broad strokes. “But if I put myself in the place of companies who have competitors, for example -- telecom companies swimming in the same water as Google Facebook, who of course are extremely major players -- when it comes to competition, and the balance between the applicable legal regimes, I think there are things to look at.” He also posed the question to senators of whether communications laws should apply to Netflix, as an example. Therrien also issued familiar calls for more powers for his office – for example, being able to audit or “inspect what is happening under the hood of technology” used by companies and the ability to issue fines – currently the subject of a Liberal MP’s private member’s bill. — With reporting by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

OPC asks for more flexibility on info sharing with CRTC

News | October 16, 2018

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OPC asks for more flexibility on info sharing with CRTC

News | October 16, 2018

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