Raising awareness about youth privacy

As children and youth spend more time online, parents and teachers have become increasingly concerned about the people they associate with, the pictures they post and the messages they write. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is working to educate Canadians about this and many other youth privacy issues.

One notable activity is the Office’s school presentation program, which helps young audiences better understand how to safeguard their privacy online.

The Office’s Public Education Team launched the program, called “Think Before you Click”, in November 2009 and it has grown rapidly in popularity, mostly through word of mouth. In 2010, the team delivered 134 presentations to more than 21,000 students from Grades 4 to 12 in the Ottawa area. They also addressed parents, teachers and police officers assigned to work with schools.

Most presentations focus on social networking issues, Facebook in particular. One key message to students is the importance of managing their online reputations with care. For example, a picture posted online will be there forever, whether or not that was the youth’s intention.

Word about the presentations has spread across Canada, with schools and other community groups calling for more information about youth privacy. The Public Education Team will attend the Canadian Library Association’s 2011 conference in May to deliver a train-the-trainer session and to distribute copies of their presentation resources and speaking notes. The goal is for libraries to host information sessions in their communities. The team will also distribute educational resources to schools across Canada.

Other important undertakings on youth privacy include the Office’s third student video contest, which received more than 100 entries from across Canada.

As well, the Public Education Team plans a major upgrade of the Office’s youth privacy website, youthprivacy.ca. The website is a source of information for youth, parents and teachers about the importance of preserving privacy on the Internet. To better understand the perspectives of young people when it comes to protecting their privacy, we convened an advisory panel of teens from across the country. We want to hear what information they’d find helpful, and how that information should be presented. more

Does Canada have the privacy legislation it needs?

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner recently published a study that it commissioned on the law and public policies underlying the protection of personal information by private-sector organizations.

The research, by Lorne Sossin, dean of the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, and law professor France Houle, of the Université de Montréal, examined the structure, mandate and powers assigned to the Office under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

In particular, the noted scholars were asked to examine the effectiveness of the ombudsman model in protecting personal information in the private sector. more

New guidance document on biometrics and privacy

Your face, your fingertips, your irises, the way you walk: All of these so-called ‘biometric characteristics’ can be used by machines in a variety of ways to automatically recognize individuals and confirm or authenticate their identities.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has noted growing interest among governments and companies to adopt biometric systems. It has therefore prepared a detailed primer that explains the technologies and their impact on privacy.

The primer, called Data at Your Fingertips: Biometrics and the Challenges to Privacy, explores the benefits and drawbacks of biometrics. On one hand, the technology can contribute to highly reliable and robust identification systems—more reliable, for instance, than paper-based systems. On the other hand, there can also be significant privacy challenges, such as the  covert collection of biometric characteristics, cross-matching, and the unwanted disclosure of secondary information embedded in an individual’s biometric information.  more

OPC News

Privacy Impact Assessment Workshop

On March 15, our Office hosted our second annual workshop on the preparation of Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs).

The government requires its departments and agencies to document the potential impact on privacy of a new or significantly modified program or service, along with measures that would mitigate privacy risks. Treasury Board, which recently published a new directive on PIAs, does not dictate a particular format for PIAs, so institutions are free to tailor their processes to their unique circumstances.

The goal of the workshop, therefore, was to offer helpful guidance to public servants who are required to prepare PIAs. Staff from our Office who review PIAs described the type and depth of information that would be included in what we consider to be an “ideal” PIA.

We also used the occasion to launch our new guidance document, entitled Expectations: A Guide for Submitting Privacy Impact Assessments to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.  

More than 100 representatives of some 40 federal government institutions took part in the workshop, slightly more than last year. The very successful event, which we plan to repeat in future years, also allowed us to better understand the perspectives of people whose job it is to prepare PIAs. Our Office looks forward to more opportunities to reach out to PIA practitioners.

Sharing Government Privacy Practices

Also on March 15, our Office hosted our inaugural Privacy Practices Forum. This afternoon session gave federal public servants an opportunity to share their experience and knowledge about ways to advance privacy in their respective departments.

Representatives from four government institutions described tools and processes that they have implemented in their respective workplaces. This was followed by small-group discussions among forum participants interested in further exploring specific topics or approaches.

The forum covered important matters such as privacy governance structures, breach management protocols, web-based tools for preparing better Privacy Impact Assessments, and developing an internal policy for the use of social media.

The presentations were videotaped so that they could be posted for later viewing on GCPEDIA, the online collaborative work tool for federal public servants.

Data Privacy Day a ‘smashing’ success

On January 28, Canada joined countries from around the world in celebrating Data Privacy Day. The event encourages greater awareness of privacy issues. A key focus for our Office this year was the importance of protecting personal information in the face of dramatic technological change.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner staged a publicity campaign to raise awareness in advance of Data Privacy Day. The campaign included a range of privacy-related products, such as fact sheets, posters, stickers, mugs and screen wipes for mobile devices—most of which the Office shared with its provincial and territorial counterparts.

One event, which took place over Twitter, involved a prize draw for people willing to tweet about how they protect their privacy online. The Office received some interesting entries and staff were pleased to see an expanded privacy dialogue in the social media space.

In a moment of drama, the Office staged a data-destruction demonstration for employees just outside the building. Over mugs of hot chocolate, staff were taught how to use drills and hammers to smash their hard drives, rendering them—and the information on them—no longer accessible or usable. more

Contributing to privacy research

On February 14, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner launched its eighth annual call for proposals under its Contributions Program. The program awards up to $50,000 to successful privacy-related research and public education projects in Canada.

With a deadline of March 14, 2011, the Office was particularly interested in proposals that focus on the link between private-sector privacy and four priority areas: identity integrity and protection, information technology, genetic privacy, and public safety.

Proposals for research that will be completed in 2011-2012 are preferred, but the Office will consider funding more lengthy research.

Created in 2004, the Contributions Program is regarded internationally as the foremost privacy research funding program in the world.  To date, the program has allocated over $2 million to more than 60 initiatives in Canada.  The annual budget for the program is $500,000. more

Get your free privacy calendar!

For the second consecutive year, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner has produced a ‘privacy’ calendar, featuring amusing editorial cartoons and useful tips on how to understand your privacy rights and protect your personal information.

Did you know, for instance, that when you want to ditch an old computer, you may have to physically destroy the hard drive, so that the data cannot be accessed by somebody else later? And did you know that you are not obliged to walk through the full-body scanning machines at airports, because you can opt for a manual pat-down instead?

Learn more about privacy and the protection of your personal information by ordering your free calendar today. more