Gov’t needs interaction with tech specialists, conference hears

OTTAWA — For the Canadian government to be more effective at legislating on issues including social media and internet of things (IoT) technology, it needs to communicate with technology specialists to understand them, a conference on digital access issues heard. “You can’t expect every politician to understand all technology,” Suzie Dunn, a PhD student at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of law, said on Tuesday. “I think it’s important that policymakers not be expected to know all technology, but...need to be checking in with a technology specialist understand the technology...but have the skillset to explain it in a way that is understandable.” Dunn was on a panel discussing the security risks inherent in IoT devices, which can have weak security and expose Canadians to problems including surveillance, at the Digital Access Day conference in Ottawa. Dunn gave the example of politicians and court judges not understanding how Twitter Inc.’s social media platform works. Last month, the social media company updated its lobby files to educate federal officials on the platform during elections -- in time for the October federal contest. She said the education the government receives should be distilled to the average user, perhaps through an official government or non-profit body. “I think we need to have a place where experts are committed to giving that information to community leaders, who can then pass it down. “We can’t expect individuals to take that on themselves,” she added. In November 2017, at a roundtable hosted by the Institute on Governance and Amazon Web Services in Ottawa on government digital transformation and IT modernization, summary notes obtained through an access to information request outlined a strategy involving recruiting government employees who are “steeped in digital understanding.” The conference is happening as Ottawa hosts a grand committee, composed of several representatives from different governments, to discuss big data, privacy and democracy. Facebook Inc.’s top two executives, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, have refused to show up -- instead being replaced by the social media company’s global policy directors, Kevin Chan and Neil Potts.

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Gov’t needs interaction with tech specialists, conference hears

Brief | May 28, 2019

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