Information & Ethics committee  If you look at the European Union's new general data protection regulations, you will find fines that are astronomical, something like 4% of the annual turnover of a business. People are quaking in their boots, and even people in Calgary are thinking about it because they do business in Europe.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm a professor, so you know that I'll say fund more research. The Privacy Commissioner does some already, but could a lot more. I want to give you another concept. I did a sabbatical once with a company called Northern Telecom. My project was to find new features for their phones.

Information & Ethics committee  It's true.

Information & Ethics committee  No, I just think that people have—

Information & Ethics committee  Sure.

Information & Ethics committee  I actually counted 14 just in a very short trip over here. I met my wife counting surveillance cameras in San Francisco and it took us an hour to find 100. Then we went out on our first date. It was a wonderful date.

Information & Ethics committee  Today I didn't really need to count them, because every one of you is carrying one in your pocket in your cellphone. There are cameras that are so small that you wouldn't know.... I was just looking around this room wondering how hard it would be for someone to hide a camera in here.

Information & Ethics committee  Sure. For example, take the Boston Marathon bombing. The best footage of that was from a department store camera pointing out on Massachusetts Avenue, and the police were darn glad that was there. Take the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots. There were citizens' videos. It came to an interesting privacy question actually, which the provincial commissioner had to rule on.

Information & Ethics committee  There are actually recommendations on the OPC website that say there should be a sign, that the sign should say what the purpose of the camera is, that it's there under the authority of a certain act, and tell you who to call. Guess what? Toronto has a phone number for the Toronto police.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, the evidence certainly in the U.K. was something like one crime per 10,000 cameras in one particular study.... I mean, they may. Obviously, if people know they're under surveillance, their behaviour may change, but good old police work actually solves most crimes.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for the invitation to participate in your meeting. I'm going to share some thoughts about technologies that are just around the corner and that I believe will have a profound impact on how we think about privacy. My goal is to help us understand them so that, as much as possible, our laws can be ready for what's coming next.