Challenge and Change

Chantal Bernier, recently appointed Assistant Privacy Commissioner responsible for monitoring whether the federal government respects the privacy of individuals, says the proliferation of technology in this post-9/11 era is presenting new challenges to a basic human right. more

OPC in Action

Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart and teams from her Office attended conferences in Victoria, Vancouver and Calgary in recent months to raise awareness about emerging threats to the privacy rights of Canadians. more

Making a Difference

As the new head of the OPC's Audit and Review Branch, Steven Morgan wants to highlight practices that enhance the privacy rights of Canadians. more

News of Note

Youth Video Contest

On February 10, 2009, the OPC announced the winners of its first annual My Privacy & Me national video competition, which encouraged youth aged 12 to 18 to produce video public service announcements that explore the importance of privacy.

Participants of Encounters with Canada, a national youth forum that brings together teens from across Canada for week-long adventures in learning and discovery, selected the winners from among seven finalists. The videos have been posted to youthprivacy.ca, the youth Web site of the OPC. They can also be viewed on the Office's YouTube channel.

T-Shirt Contest Winner

One of the ways the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada marked Data Privacy Day this year was to reach out to you: To invite you to share your thoughts about the issue nearest and dearest to our own hearts - personal information.

On January 28, Data Privacy Day, we asked you to e-mail us your ideas about personal information: How does it define you? How do you go about protecting it.

But don't worry; it's not too late to participate. In fact, we'll make it worth your while. By sending in your comments, you could win one of our hot new privacy-themed OPC T-shirts.

The T-shirt design comes courtesy of Heather Gaynor, who was the winner of our OPC T-shirt design contest launched last year. Congratulations again to Heather, whose winning design was also unveiled on Data Privacy Day.

GCWCC Wrap up

At the OPC, we care about personal privacy because we care about people. And one of the ways we demonstrated that last year was in the way we rallied behind the Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign.

In 2008, we increased our fundraising goal for community giving by $4,000 over 2007. Did we meet or exceed it? Yes; big time! We raised $32,916.60, which was 150% of our goal. We also hoped to boost our participation rate, so that 55% of all employees would contribute to this worthy cause. In fact, our participation rate soared to 65%.

As a result of our efforts, our office was selected as a finalist among a handful of federal government departments and agencies in two award categories: Team Spirit and Leaders, Friends & Stars.

It's great to get that kind of recognition but, as everyone caught up in the spirit of giving knows, the real gratification comes from doing something to help our fellow Canadians in need. And now, let the 2009 campaign begin!

The OPC is responsible for overseeing compliance with PIPEDA and the Privacy Act. These two laws protect our privacy rights and describe the obligations of organizations that seek to collect, use or disclose our personal information:

For real-life examples of how the legislation comes into play, visit our case summaries:

• Privacy Act case summary: Investigation finds no evidence that Canadian Human Rights Commission accessed individual's Internet connection
• PIPEDA Case summary #395: Commissioner initiates safeguards complaint against CIBC

• Data Privacy Day: Putting Privacy in the Spotlight
• Guidelines for Processing Personal Data Across Borders
• Collection of Driver’s Licence Numbers Under Private Sector Privacy Legislation – A Guide for Retailers
• Annual Report to Parliament 2007-2008 — Report on the Privacy Act