Evidence of meeting #10 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was year.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I know, Commissioner, that you've done a lot of work on Google and Facebook--good work. But I have a concern. I use Facebook. A lot of us do around here. There certainly is, as you've indicated, legitimate concern about the material on there, which might not cause individuals a problem today but might 10 years down the road. How do you get the message out there on the potential dangers of using Facebook in a certain way?
I'm a member of Parliament, and to be quite brutally honest with you, until I was appointed to this committee, I was not aware of the work that you've done in this area. We are all involved in our own committees and are running hell west and crooked, and sometimes things pass us by.
I think increasingly with younger folks, who are huge users of the system, how do you get the message out? What can governments do to basically assist you to get information out there on what people have to be careful of?
12:45 p.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Thank you for that question. I think it would be wonderful if all the government departments and agencies could reinforce our message. I know that on most government websites now you can see the privacy policy; it's a Treasury Board requirement and so on.
Assistant Commissioner Denham, who's in charge of the Facebook file, may have other things to say, but we try to do two things.
First of all, specifically to reach out to young people, young and younger adults, who are intensive users of these new social media, we've started a youth privacy website that is reachable from our main site. We have a youth blog.
We've worked with an educational association to develop materials for teachers. The teachers can then apply to that association and use that. We have an annual video competition for young people. They make videos on privacy. We just announced last year's winners.
We have a huge emphasis on youth in our materials.
More generally, I think we're being forced to go to the non-traditional world, the traditional world being the annual report to Parliament, the learned reports, and so on. Those are still extremely important, but to get to the population, particularly to a certain demographic, we go through online media. That's not even radio--I understand that some people don't listen to radio anymore. It's television. They will listen to television, because then the clips can be downloaded and played. We use YouTube. Tom Pulcine mentioned what we're doing on YouTube. We're on Twitter. We're working through the media where young people are.
12:45 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Freeman Bloc Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC
I want to take my colleague's question a step further.
In U.S. airports, they are already using fingerprints to scan people. They are also talking about using iris recognition as a means of identification. What is your position on that?
12:45 p.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
In Canada, I think we are already using iris recognition as a means of identification under the NEXUS program, for example. We believe the utmost care and caution needs to be exercised when using these technologies. I believe we have done a few audits on such programs. We are not adamantly opposed to them, in that a large number of Canadian passports are falsified and there is a large market for stolen Canadian passports. When used properly, this technology enhances identity protection. However, those using the technology have to be extremely conscientious. Safety measures are necessary, especially to prevent digital images from being stolen.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
12:50 p.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I was talking generally about both.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Freeman Bloc Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC
In all honestly, I find that troubling and unacceptable. In my view, it is an intolerable intrusion. There are advertisements for Montreal airport boasting that this method of identification is modern, but I feel that I am in a...I cannot conceive how we got to the point of making methods like that so commonplace.
12:50 p.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We are—
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Freeman Bloc Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC
You are still using it and saying that it is to increase security. That is always how our privacy is trampled on: by pretending that it increases security. In a way, I can take care of my own security. It astonishes me that you find iris recognition normal.
12:50 p.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I am not saying that it is normal. I do not believe that I used that word.
There are two types of security: physical, national and military security and the security of one's identity. Identity theft has been on the increase for 10 years and it is common now. We get to that stage not only because of security issues. Waves upon waves of people are walking around the world using false identities. In that sense, it is a major problem. It is a problem in cybercrime, for example. People wanting to come to Canada pretend to be other people. These new technologies—
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Freeman Bloc Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC
I think I understand where your thinking is headed. Would you go as far as to say that taking people's fingerprints would become something as normal in Canada as it is in the United States?
12:50 p.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I never said that it is something normal.
12:50 p.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I think that Canadian passports are eventually going to go in that direction. Is there going to be optical scanning?
12:50 p.m.
Assistant Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
We have looked at the privacy assessment of the smart Canadian passport as currently proposed. It will contain a chip that has no more information than page 2 of the passport currently does.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
12:50 p.m.
Assistant Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
No. There is no iris scan in the smart passport.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
12:50 p.m.
Assistant Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
In the assessments that we are doing at the moment, that is not what departments are proposing. They have not proposed using iris recognition as a means of identification.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
12:50 p.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
That is a special program called NEXUS, and it is completely voluntary.
