Evidence of meeting #32 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was subamendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
When you say they agreed to all of the recommendations, are you referring to all 71 recommendations of that report?
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I think there were 71 recommendations; I'm trying to remember. I think there were 24 allegations, but yes, we had numerous recommendations. At the end of the day, we resolved everything. We didn't have to go to court. Facebook has agreed to again let us back in at the end of the one-year period that it's going to take for them to rebuild their platform so that we can look under the hood and make sure it's fixed to our satisfaction.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
So there is a significant international impact of the work that the commission has done here in Canada.
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
That's right. We've heard from data protection commissioners in Europe that they're using our report as a road map to help them in their dialogue with other social networking sites. There's never been a case in which we heard from so many ordinary Canadians who picked up the phone or sent us an e-mail to say thanks for the good work of the commission.
What we had to do here is find a reasonable balance, knowing that it's a business model that operates for free on the Internet—because it really is based on serving advertising—between that and the reasonable expectation of privacy. So really, a lot of our recommendations were about knowledge, transparency, safeguards, and all of the issues we've been talking about today.
It worked, and other social networking sites.... I had a meeting with another major social networking site this week that again is using the report and consultations with our office to make changes to their service.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
The report talks about a comparative analysis of six sites, but most of the conversation has been about Facebook. What were the other sites involved? You mentioned one that you're negotiating with now, but have the others been as open to making these changes as Facebook has?
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Just as a clarification, the report on Facebook was as a result of a complaint, so it was a full-scale investigation. We also issued recently a comparative analysis of the six most popular sites with Canadians, and the report compares the privacy and security settings of those six sites. It was one of those services that came to see us, so far.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Out of that process, are there any areas for which you believe legislative changes are required, or have you been able to accomplish this within the existing legislation?
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I feel we've been able to accomplish it through our existing law, which is flexible and neutral.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
And that's through PIPEDA, not necessarily the Privacy Act. So earlier, when you were saying that we have good legislation, you were referring to PIPEDA. I know the commissioner has said that there need to be changes to the Privacy Act and probably would have different comments about the Privacy Act, as distinct from PIPEDA. Am I right about that?
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
You're absolutely right. She would have a different view on the Privacy Act. All of my comments were tied to PIPEDA.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Thank you very much.
You mentioned that there had been one or two inquiries from Canadians since the launch of Street View imaging on line. How many inquiries did you have from regular Canadians?
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We've had fewer than a dozen inquiries.
Conservative
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We have had the one complaint I referred to, earlier this spring, which was resolved. It was a complaint about an individual who felt his image had been captured.
Conservative
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I went through that. But since the launch of Facebook, we've had inquiries about how to get—
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I'm sorry; Google Street View.
Since Google Street View went live on October 7, we've had calls from individuals who've asked how to get their image off Street View.
Conservative
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We have sent them to the company, and none of them has come back to us as a full-scale complaint.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
So since the launch, which just happened this month, there have been no complaints?
Assistant Privacy Commissioner , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
That's correct.
