Evidence of meeting #34 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 glick.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Glick, can you tell us if, as a result of the collection of the payload data, Google has faced criminal charges, administrative penalties, or sanctions anywhere around the world?
5:10 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
I don't have a running scorecard. I don't mean to be flip, but I'm not familiar with all of the proceedings that have happened globally with respect to this.
I can tell you that globally there have been, as I said before, investigations by data privacy authorities throughout the world, and various of these have different levels of authority. Also, various governments have taken different levels of interest, and I just don't know the outcome of every single one of those cases.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
5:10 p.m.
Engineering Lead for Privacy, Google Inc.
No. As I've said, my focus has been on the internal improvements inside Google. It has been our legal and policy teams that have been handling the interactions with data protection authorities in each country.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Mr. Glick, is that something you could track down for us and provide to the committee as well?
5:15 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
Could you say that again so that I understand precisely what I'm agreeing to?
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
I want to know if Google has been subject to criminal charges or administrative penalities or some other kind of sanction anywhere as a result of the download of payload data.
5:15 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
To be clear, you're not asking for a list of the outcomes from every data privacy authority, but rather about whether we've been subject to criminal penalities in other countries of the world.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
They could be administrative penalities. I'm sure that not every privacy commissioner issues a criminal charge or goes to a criminal charge. But could you tell us if there were administrative penalties of some kind?
5:15 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
I'll do my best to try to get you an exhaustive list of those outcomes.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Thank you.
Chair, I have to add again,that I'm a big fan of Google and a user of Google. I couldn't run my daily life without Google. I have really serious questions about this, because it is such an important service to all of us. I want to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen in the future and that all of us who depend on Google in a very big way can use it in the knowledge that our privacy is protected.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Thank you very much, Mr. Siksay.
Colleagues, that concludes the questions. I'm going to ask all the witnesses if they have any closing comments or remarks to make to the committee.
I'll start with Mr. Ramsay.
5:15 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, General Counsel, Secretary and Responsible for Privacy, Yellow Pages Group Co.
Thank you for having us.
We hope we've answered your questions. If there are any further questions, we'd be happy to appear in front of the committee again.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Do you have anything, Mr. Aubut?
Mr. Glick, is there anything you want to leave with the committee?
5:15 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
I want to thank the committee again for turning its attention to this matter. It's obviously a very serious matter, one that we are taking incredibly seriously to ensure that something like this never happens again and that we continue to earn the trust--which the member just spoke about--of our users every single day. We're committed to that.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
5:15 p.m.
Engineering Lead for Privacy, Google Inc.
I would add to Mr. Glick's my thanks for the committee's questions, feedback, and interest in this matter. I feel very strongly that we share the goal of making sure that nothing damages the trust of our users and that everyone's data is safe with us.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
There's one minor matter that I want the committee to deal with.
At this point in time, I want to thank all four witnesses for appearing here today. I think the meeting was very instructive and very interesting.
I also want to especially thank the people who were involved in the House of Commons technology. We've had two witnesses here via video conference, from two continents, using two languages, and I think everything went very smoothly. Thank you for that effort.
Witnesses, you're excused.
Perhaps we'll suspend for two minutes and then come back.
5:19 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
I call the meeting back to order.
The only other matter I want to deal with is to follow up on Mr. Calandra's motion. I don't think it's necessary to read it again. When we left last meeting, there was a motion tabled with the understanding that Monsieur Ménard would be invited to attend, and then I would bring it back to this meeting.
That invitation has been extended. The information we have is that he has absolutely no problem coming before the committee, but for different reasons he would prefer to come via a motion passed by the committee. I'm just going to ask the clerk if that is a correct summation.
November 25th, 2010 / 5:20 p.m.
Jacques Maziade Clerk of the Committee, Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
Absolutely.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shawn Murphy
Okay. Such being the case, I would urge the committee to bring back the motion that was tabled. We said that we would. It's back before the committee right now. You have the motion moved by Mr. Calandra.
Is there any discussion?
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Okay. I understand that he will be appearing on Thursday, December 2, for one hour.
There being no further business, the meeting is adjourned.