One of the wonderful things about Canadian laws generally is that they are usually technologically neutral. You don't focus on a technology.
Certainly, technological changes can necessitate a kind of revisiting and updating, which obviously is the case here with the Privacy Act, but I think what has driven the need to update the Privacy Act actually isn't technology. That fed into it, but in fact it was people's differing expectations and understanding of what privacy is, having more control over your personal information and more of a say in those sorts of things, and recognizing that privacy harms can take place.
In 1983, the question was much more 1984-related in terms of “we need to regulate what the government collects because you'll end up with Big Brother”. In this day and age, there's just so much information that's collected everywhere, not just in government but elsewhere, that Canadians' expectations of privacy have evolved, and the statute needs to do that.
If the committee is going to suggest wording changes in the statute, for example, I would caution you to avoid dealing with the technology. It's better, I think. PIPEDA is a real model of how you can come up with a privacy statute that's based on principles, bedrock principles that I think most Canadians can get on board with. That's the skeleton on which you put the meat, but you want to make sure that it will in fact stand the test of time. As an additional protection, the five-year reviews are imperative for a statute such as this.