Evidence of meeting #55 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was nexopia.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
John Carmichael Conservative Don Valley West, ON
Let me go back, then. DId you have a previous relationship with the ownership of the company?
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
John Carmichael Conservative Don Valley West, ON
So this all began on March 30.
How about you, Mr. Hayes?
4:15 p.m.
Managing Director, Heydary Hayes PC, Nexopia Inc.
No, I had never heard of them, and I still have never met any of them.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
John Carmichael Conservative Don Valley West, ON
Okay.
One of the concerns I have, particularly dealing with databases and social media aimed at children and youth, concerns the security of the data that is being maintained and managed by a company such as yours.
I look at your demographics, and I guess it's all self-declared, but 23% of your subscribers are between the ages of 13 and 18. I don't know what the balance is.
What is the actual demographic breakdown, in terms of age?
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
John Carmichael Conservative Don Valley West, ON
Looking at the site, which we have just gone on without a password, I see that it goes right up to 55 or 57 years of age. So you have quite a breadth of people communicating on this site. The issue that concerns me most is what happens to the data.
We were told early on in our study that the information divulged by people entering any type of social media site is...it's a very open and free type of release of information. Clearly, people give all kinds of information, to the point that we see situations of horrific tragedy like the one in B.C., a situation with a young woman who likely regretted the information that was on the site, but had no recourse—she couldn't pull that information back.
One concern I have is how secure the data is. Are you aware of any breaches of the database? Have there been any questions about the security of the database?
And going back to the issue of full deletion of the data—you talk about six months to two years—I would think that if I had given you my data and wanted to have the information deleted, I would like to have it deleted the day I made that decision, regardless of the business model. I come from a business background, so I understand that there are complications with that, but I am concerned about this part of it.
As to your commitment to the full deletion of that information, are you committed to this being where you are headed?
4:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Nexopia Inc.
Yes. The timeframe is the one we've discussed, six months to two years.
On the case you refer to, I have an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old and I walked them both through that case. It is indeed horrific.
Nexopia vets every picture before it goes up, sometimes to the consternation of the members who want the picture to go up right away, but our feeling is that we don't want to get anywhere near what happened in that unfortunate incident.
In terms of the data security, there have been no breaches that I'm aware of. Again, the interest of the previous owners primarily was in helping law enforcement. In every conversation I had with them, that was what they reiterated, and in fact there have been cases in which the data was used for that. So the compromise we're trying to make is this. You can't keep it forever for privacy reasons, even if the law enforcement people need it, so we're going to delete it, period, after two years. Whether or not there are any law enforcement requests, it will be gone.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
John Carmichael Conservative Don Valley West, ON
In your short time in the business, one of the things that I've seen in our study is that it appears that within the social media environment some of these companies and some of your competitors out there have been caught doing this. They tend to push the envelope. They push the envelope to the extreme, to the limits, and then they apologize once they're caught.
The question I have is this. What's your position on that? When you look at some of the majors that have been caught in this type of stretching of technologies, boundaries, as they have, how would you recommend we manage our recommendations as we complete our study?
4:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Nexopia Inc.
It's a broad question. Spending time here today doesn't make me more money. My preference would be to steer well clear of anything that even smelled like it might be an issue.
Larger companies, sometimes because they're innovative, do push the envelope and then later on get caught. Also, it's a big, wide open world out there and there are people with all kinds of different motivations. There are whole industries that, as you say, do trade on treading the line. It's never been my business practice. I find you spend way more time worrying about that edge than actually running up the middle making money. There is a lot of money to be made going straight up the middle and not getting anywhere near any violations.
So in terms of how you set regulations to encourage that behaviour, I don't know. We've talked about whether the Privacy Commissioner should have penalty enforcement or whether it works now and again. Our feeling is that it works quite well now.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
4:20 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
As we have a bit of time left, I could let you continue, if the members of the committee agree. There is currently no one on the list.
You can continue, Mr. Carmichael.
Mr. Mayes.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Mayes Conservative Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Could I just ask a question of Mr. Hayes, please?
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
I wonder if we could go to another round, because I'd like to get back in on the questioning. I know I don't get another question for another round, so if we're going to get in on this, I'd like to have another round, if possible.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
I have no problem with that, if you have any other questions, as we have some time left. So, if the members of the committee want to ask any other questions, they can.
Mr. Andrews, do you have a specific question?
Mr. Calkins.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Wetaskiwin, AB
Mr. Chair, I have a point of order. Could you, for the edification of the committee, please tell us what point during the second round of questioning we're at and at which point members would be eligible to ask a second set of questions? The point is that if Mr. Andrews has a question, which I don't have a problem with, or if there's time permitting, why can't we just all have a few questions, if that's what the case is? But if we're going to follow the rules, then we should know what the rules are and proceed that way.
If the second round has not run its course yet, then it would be inappropriate to be having just random questions coming from the floor, unless we have general consent from the committee to do so.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
We had come to a question by the New Democratic Party, and as there were no other questions, I gave the members an opportunity to ask an additional question because we had another five minutes left.
Mr. Angus.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Mr. Chair, we will take a third round if someone has a supplementary question, which I think is fair. If anyone has a supplementary question, I don't have a problem with that, but if we're going to continue with rounds, then we'll take our rounds.
My supplementary question would be the date, to confirm the date of compliance. Was it April 30, 2013?
4:20 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
There is no one left on the speakers list, unless someone has a specific question to ask. As I said, we had five minutes left, and I asked everyone this question. If someone wanted to ask a question....
We don't have anyone left on the list. This is the end.