Essay Topics
Students entering the 2008-2009 Think Privacy! Essay Competition may choose to approach the essay in various ways, all of which are relevant to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s (OPC) mandate. Students may choose to take a philosophical approach to (re)examining fundamental questions of law and evolving societal values; they may approach an issue from a legislative or regulatory standpoint describing what the law is and what the law ought to be in a given area; or, they may choose to write a compelling think-piece aimed at raising awareness and calling for reflection on how emerging privacy issues may affect the lives of Canadians and of future generations.
Students should also feel free to craft a privacy-related research question in accordance with their own interests, so long as those fit within one of the four general themes set out below, which relate to OPC’s privacy priorities. The paragraphs below each theme are offered merely as general descriptions and are not meant to limit the creativity of potential submissions.
Information Technology and Privacy
Nearly two decades ago, Canada’s first federal Privacy Commissioner, Bruce Phillips, recognized “the massive erosion of individual privacy rights brought about by the application of computer and communications technology in the commercial world.” Of course, emerging information technologies have the potential not only to threaten privacy rights, but also, to enhance privacy protection. Either of these ends can be achieved by various technical means through which information about an identifiable individual can be collected, used and disclosed. Information technology implicates privacy in other ways as well, including its ability to re-define our understanding of public and private spaces, and to fundamentally change our reasonable expectation of privacy in different circumstances. Information technologies which are having a profound impact on privacy protection include: the explosion of surveillance systems, including video-surveillance and geo-spatial technologies; sensor systems, such as biometric technologies; wireless systems, including the exploitation of smaller, more powerful and inter-connected portable devices; identity systems, including on-line systems and radio frequency identification detectors; and the proliferation of data-mining in both the private and public sectors.
National Security and Privacy
Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada, has noted that Canada’s approach to national security “has set the tone for creating a broader net for surveillance of organizations and individuals. Much of the personal information gathered is highly sensitive and part of integrated information systems that process information on a wide range of aspects of the lives of individuals, families and communities. If this information were to be misused, distorted or misinterpreted it could have serious consequences on the lives of Canadians.” Despite such warnings from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in 2005, government surveillance in the name of national security is increasingly pervasive. The potential erosion of privacy rights in a post-9/11 national security environment raises important concerns. This is particularly the case in view of the recruitment of private sector actors as “new” agents of the state, unwittingly involved in national security and law enforcement efforts, and given the lack of oversight, transparency and accountability mechanisms in place to guard against potential abuse of personal information and violation of privacy rights.
Identity Integrity and Protection
Who we are in the world and how we are identified is, at best, a concession. Some aspects of our identities may be chosen; others compelled. For example, we may choose how we wish to portray ourselves on social networking sites, yet others, including our friends, behavioural marketers and potential employers, may define or interpret our identities differently. We may elect to apply for enhanced drivers’ licenses, but others, including national and foreign governments, may retain or use our identities and related personal information for other purposes. As we move deeper and deeper into electronic environments, the means by which our identities are constructed and protected will gain increasing significance. Existing data protection laws afford us some degree of protection. So do a number of identity management software tools. However, new surveillance technologies as well as a number of emerging social policies and practices threaten our ability to control the means by which we are identified and the extent to which third parties can misuse, and indeed steal, our identity information.
Genetic Privacy
Ever since the science of heredity and variation in living organisms discovered that specific sequences of nucleotides relate to specific inheritable traits, our individual genetic codes have become better understood as a powerful and valuable form of personal information in need of protection. The need for privacy protection is exacerbated by the growing number of repositories for human genetic material and associated databases, often used to create archives of genetic information. While there is good reason to hope that biobanks and other information archives will enable the fulfillment of important societal objectives, the increasing ability to collect, use and disclose genetic information generates a number of privacy risks. Increased access to genetic information for commercial purposes and by law enforcement authorities, as well as unauthorized secondary uses of genetic information, are just some of the concerning trends that threaten individual privacy.
Please see Competition Rules for details about how to participate. |
