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Results: 1 - 15 of 1124
View Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Profile
BQ (QC)
With respect to Bill C‑11, my understanding is that we cannot be against motherhood and apple pie, because steps need to be taken. Clearly, we, as legislators, should quickly put forward the reform. We see reports from other countries that have moved forward, and we are a little behind. What I understand is that, regardless of current events or partisanship, if we are concerned about fundamental rights, we should make this a priority.
There is also the issue of facial recognition, the data and images that are used. I am very concerned as an individual, but also as a legislator. When I'm asked about what we have done to properly protect people, I'm a little embarrassed.
Do you agree?
Daniel Therrien
View Daniel Therrien Profile
Daniel Therrien
2021-06-21 11:51
I certainly agree that it is urgent to better regulate the issue, both in terms of human rights and in terms of having a solid framework regulating the use of data in order to protect privacy. It is urgent.
View Han Dong Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much, Chair.
I too would like to congratulate the commissioner for the extension of his appointment.
It's good to see you again here at the committee.
I've been listening carefully, especially when my opposition colleagues brought up the concerns around the vaccine passport being announced. The fact is, it's a measure to better protect Canadians at the border itself.
Naturally I would think that it has a time limit that is sensitive to the pandemic. In fact, the emergency response, if I'm not mistaken, has a timeline on it. As this is part of the emergency measures, I think there's a time limit to it.
However, I take your advice to heart and I'll bring this up with my colleagues. I encourage all members to survey their constituents on their feedback on this measure, as I will do in my constituency.
One of the things that I've been hearing in my constituency are that people are really frustrated by the increase of online and phone scams, especially during the pandemic. People are really worried that these continued attempts on their privacy will result in someday an intrusion into their private information, or even their identity.
Does your office do any work with the Canada Anti-Fraud Centre in an effort to address these concerns? They're actually looking at parliamentarians and federal offices to help in this situation.
Daniel Therrien
View Daniel Therrien Profile
Daniel Therrien
2021-06-21 12:08
We do some, perhaps less than we should or could.
Certainly our role with respect to attempts by ill-intentioned people to access personal information of Canadians mostly has to do with ensuring that government and the private sector have the right security measures in place to protect against these attempts. However, when the level of the attempt reaches a criminal law level, we certainly refer individuals to the authorities, including the fraud centre.
View Han Dong Profile
Lib. (ON)
The fact that they've been around for a long time and there's been an increase in the number of attempts tells me that they are having reasonable success at it, which is a really terrible thing for the public. We've resourced broader and wider public education in terms of prevention, but do you have any advice on what additional measures we collectively should recommend that the government do to combat this phenomenon?
Daniel Therrien
View Daniel Therrien Profile
Daniel Therrien
2021-06-21 12:10
It's a multi-faceted issue. It requires action by a number of actors. Not that long ago, there was an important impetus for advice to individual consumers: Be careful; do not put too much information on the Internet; use strong passwords.
That's all very true. People should be prudent. They should use rigorous passwords. However, I think it would be wrong to put too much responsibility on individual consumers in protecting their data.
Daniel Therrien
View Daniel Therrien Profile
Daniel Therrien
2021-06-21 12:11
An important part of the solution, I think, clearly lies in ensuring that government departments and private sector entities have the right security safeguards to protect their consumers or citizens from these attempts. We have seen many, many privacy breaches in the past years in Canada and elsewhere. I can think of Desjardins being a recent case in point, and other companies, which suggests that although companies, particularly large companies, take measures to protect information, it is not the priority that it should be.
My final point is that in order for companies to pay sufficient attention to this, having a law that provides for significant penalties, so that companies that profit from personal information protect it as they should, is part of the solution too.
View Han Dong Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you. I hope to hear from from you beyond the public education aspect to solve this problem.
View Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Profile
BQ (QC)
Good afternoon again, Commissioner.
It is good to hear about reform and the intention to reframe offences that are difficult to tolerate.
Even before I was elected, there had been many reports looking specifically at the models found in European countries.
I have already heard you say that people have little confidence in what is being done to protect their identity. I am concerned about that. I have given myself the challenge and the mandate to come up with legislation to prevent this, and I hope that we will all work on it. It is not right that private companies have protection models with biometrics, voice recognition, and so on, while the government is faced with so much ongoing fraud.
People keep calling my office, and that worries me. So I'm really glad to see that your concern and your recommendations are actually going to move forward.
With another year in your role, do you plan to do a knowledge transfer in the next Parliament?
I know you have a great team. However, the question must be asked. Do you have a window of opportunity to ensure that your successor has everything they need so that we don't waste any time and can do our job properly?
Daniel Therrien
View Daniel Therrien Profile
Daniel Therrien
2021-06-21 12:14
As you say, my team is extremely talented and knowledgeable about privacy issues.
I inherited a group that was already excellent when I took office. I hope to leave my successor with a group that is just as good. As for a transfer of knowledge to a successor, plenty of people in Canada already very knowledgeable about privacy issues. I'm not sure it's a matter of transferring knowledge from one person to another as such.
I think my role over the next year will be to continue to make comments that I hope will be helpful not only in terms of the principles—remember that privacy is a human right—but also in terms of how to articulate those concepts in a way that protects citizens and allows the use of data for public purposes or even private, but still legitimate, purposes. I think that's what my role will be in the coming year.
It will then be up to the government and Parliament to find—
View Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Profile
BQ (QC)
However, you agree that, when we receive hundreds of calls from victims of fraud, our position and the decisions we have made are not appropriate to ensure that these people are protected from identity theft.
Daniel Therrien
View Daniel Therrien Profile
Daniel Therrien
2021-06-21 12:21
At the beginning of my mandate, there was a lot of emphasis on public and national security issues, and on measures that followed the events of September 11.
The Snowden phenomenon highlighted certain government practices. It's not all perfect, but we have made progress on those issues. Legislation has been passed to raise the bar on which departments [Technical difficulty—Editor] for national security purposes. Most importantly, independent oversight bodies have been established and are now in place within the public service and within Parliament. As I mentioned, not everything is perfect, but significant progress has been made.
In recent years, with Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and all the rest, there has been a lot of focus on what some call surveillance capitalism, where companies collect, process and disclose a lot of information about their consumers to provide services, but also to make money, of course. That is where we are at now, which is why it is extremely important that these issues be properly regulated through Bill C‑11 or its successor.
I have to say that recently we are seeing more and more public‑private partnerships. Clearview AI and the RCMP are just one example among many. This leads me to suggest that you think seriously about the relationship between the public sector and the private sector in terms of sharing personal information, and the idea of the same legislation governing both sectors, which we think would be extremely desirable. If two laws are used, it would be best if they had very similar principles, because data has no geographic borders and no boundaries between the public and private sectors. It is important that similar rules govern both sectors.
I would add that, to maintain the confidence of the public and consumers, it is essential that [Technical difficulty—Editor] result in penalties that are proportionate to the magnitude of the impact of the privacy breach on privacy. Order powers and consequent fines are therefore crucial. The reason for recommending substantial fines is not to be punitive. Rather, it is to ensure that the consequences for people whose privacy has been breached are proportionate to the consequences for the companies involved, so that, over time, imposing such a regime will result in governments, departments and companies properly protecting the personal information of the public and consumers.
Daniel Therrien
View Daniel Therrien Profile
Daniel Therrien
2021-06-21 12:25
I'll be brief. It's about the concept of privacy as a human right.
The issues we are talking about are extremely complex from a technical point of view, as everyone agrees. Despite the complexity of the technology and the privacy rules, it is clear to me that the goal should be for our Canadian values to be reflected in our laws. One of those values is to treat privacy as a fundamental right, and that is an important principle no matter how complex the technology is. If our goal is to ensure that our values in privacy or other areas are reflected in our laws on digital, I think we can't go wrong.
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