Information & Ethics Committee on Nov. 4th, 2010

[Jacob Glick]

The way Google operates, because we don't operate on a traditional subsidiary model in which there is a president of Google Canada and a chief of finance at Google Canada, and all that, the answer to your question is that there are and there will be even more people who are responsible and accountable for privacy within Google, starting with Dr. Whitten, but not ending with Dr. Whitten. There will be people in Canada who are part of that team, but that will be a global team.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Okay. One of the other recommendations of the commissioner from the middle of October was that Google delete the Canadian payload data it collected. Has that been done, or what's the plan there?

[Jacob Glick]

My understanding of the commissioner's report is that she was asking us to delete the payload data after the resolution of the complaint. The finding that she issued was a preliminary letter of finding. In the way the administrative process works within her office, ultimately there is a final finding that comes out.

Presumably, that will come out in February, after we've responded to her, so I took her report to mean that we should be deleting the information after February. If I'm wrong about that, I'd be happy to go back to the commissioner and discuss this issue. We don't want to have this data.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

It strikes me that the commissioner is saying it should be deleted immediately, unless there's some reason.... Has Google determined that there's some reason for not deleting it immediately? You're saying you're waiting until after February. That's months away--

[Jacob Glick]

The answer is, we haven't undertaken that analysis, but we will. If we're permitted to delete it, we'll delete it.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

When is that analysis going to happen? We're a few weeks into having received this report. I suspect you had similar reports from other places, and you say you've secured the data, you've segregated it, so what's stopping you from deleting it right now? Why wait until February?

[Jacob Glick]

I promise, the moment I leave this committee, to make a phone call and ask that that analysis begin.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Okay.

[Jacob Glick]

I should add that in other countries around the world we have deleted the data at the request of the privacy commissioner in that jurisdiction where we've been permitted to by law, and in this case, when I called the Privacy Commissioner about this issue in May, I asked her specifically what she wanted done with the Canadian data, whether we ought to preserve it or delete it then. She advised me that we ought to delete it then, and that's what we did for Canada.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

You deleted the data?

[Jacob Glick]

Sorry if I misspoke.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Yes. I'm confused.

[Jacob Glick]

She advised us at that time to preserve the data, and we preserved it.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

All right.

You mentioned other countries where the data has already been deleted. Is that because that data was held in those countries and not transferred to a third country, as it has been in Canada's case?

[Jacob Glick]

No.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

So in some countries you've already proceeded to delete the data on recommendations of privacy commissioners, but the Canadian data hasn't been deleted yet--I'm not understanding why--even though we have a recommendation from our Privacy Commissioner that it be deleted immediately.

[Jacob Glick]

I understood the “immediately” in that report to mean at the issuance of her final report.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Are you the one doing the analysis of her report, Mr. Glick, or is Dr. Whitten doing the analysis of that?

[Jacob Glick]

There are a number of people who are doing that analysis, and I'm certainly going to be involved in providing that analysis.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

It seems to me that “immediately” means immediately, not February immediately, so it would be good to know the answer from Google on that specific question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Mr. Siksay, your time is up.

Go ahead, sir, and answer the question.

[Jacob Glick]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just to be clear on the member's question, as I said in my opening statement, we don't want to have this data. If I have misunderstood the commissioner, then I apologize, and we're going to get on that.

That's the answer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Thank you, Mr. Siksay.

Mr. Poilievre, for seven minutes.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Glick, for being with us today.

Just so we can retrace the steps in a Coles Notes fashion, you discovered through an audit that Google had inadvertently acquired payload data it had not intended to acquire.

[Jacob Glick]

That's correct.