Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour to stand in defence of the private members' bill offered by my colleague.
All of us have characteristics and facts about us which are of interest to many people. I cannot begin talking about all the information private firms would like to have about us without also thinking of that vast array of information the government has about us. We know of some of the abuses of that information, its lack of accuracy and its inaccessibility to the individual in order to check its accuracy.
There was a very interesting case about which I will not divulge all the details. As a member of Parliament, I was approached by an individual who was caught in a cross web of government databases. Before he knew what was going on, he was having some very serious problems with the government. The government thought there was money owing on a student loan account but there was not. It took a lot of work to get that straightened out. The information was wrong. He had a lot of trouble finding out what information the government had on him. Information was missing. The government said that because it did not have that information, what he was alleging was not true. It went on and on.
The same thing is true with data which is gathered by private firms in order to know more about us. To a degree, I agree with this. There is a value for organizations like financial institutions to maintain databases. It protects us. That is if the databases are properly managed and there is accountability built into the system.
For example, I do not think credit ratings are all wrong. I like the ability of applying for a loan and receiving speedy service. That is only possible because businesses can very quickly check whether I paid my last loan. If they could not do that quickly and reliably then of course it would take them longer to check it out.
Also, as a consumer I could end up paying for more people who take loans and then disappear without paying for them. With the modern database systems it is possible to find out a person's history and consequently deny that person a loan because of his unreliability in repaying. As a person who pays interest to financial institutions I could then be spared the cost of picking up the tab for both the principal and the interest which was lost.
There is some merit to this but certainly as in many other areas, whether it is government or corporations, there needs to be accountability. We ought to look very seriously at the proposed bill in terms of the accountability and accessibility it would provide to a person who wants to find out what is known about him.
The government likes to have all kinds of data on us, income tax information, where we earned our money, how much, how much we gave to charity and all the details of our personal financial lives. This data needs to be accurate. Like government, organizations like to keep census. They like to know everything about us, our religion, how many children we have. They want to know whether we own or rent our residence. They want to know whether other people live with us. On and on it goes. There definitely needs to be a limitation on business and government on how much data can be gathered.
In order to make this efficient there should be a procedure where individuals give consent at the time of giving the information or where they may refuse it. Although the private member's bill says the firm which proposes to sell a list needs to check with the individual on the list to gain permission, it would be much better if each database were flagged. If I indicate at the time I give information that my name is not to be passed on to another buyer of the list, it could simply be another field in the database. Then that information would not be given and it would not incur the cost the hon. member opposite was complaining about.
Certainly to mail consent forms to thousands of people on a list would be very costly. This could be done in advance and would protect individuals from having their data circulated all over.
I was able to find a few examples of people who use databases incorrectly. Many of us are now involved with the Internet. I remember when I first signed on with the firm I am using, at the top I was asked: "Do you give permission for your name and your Internet address to be in the database that is searched by other members?" I gave permission because I want people to be able to find me. If they look for my name in the city where I live, my name and my Internet address will come up.
There have been some serious examples of breaches of this principle. An example to which I take great offence is from New Zealand. A chocolate factory there obtained a client's list from a weight reduction clinic and used that client list to produce some personalized advertising for their chocolates. That is an unfair intrusion into a part of the population that might have a weakness in that regard. That type of thing also needs to be prohibited. Of course there have been many cases of people who have used databases for illegal purposes.
It is most important that consent be given either in advance or at some future time before the data is passed on to another firm or another business.
I had a very interesting example of my name coming up. I received a brochure that was mailed to me personally. It had my name and my correct address. When I opened it I was amazed to find out it was totally in French. Unfortunately I do not speak French, I wish I did. I could not understand it but I could figure out that it had to do with a contest. There was a picture of a new car. I thought: "This has to be my lucky day. They have written me a personal letter to tell me that I have won this car".
I wrote a letter back and apologized for not knowing the language. I also told them that clearly from what information I could gather I had won this new vehicle and I would be very willing at their convenience to show up at the specified place to collect it. I thanked them greatly for that.
That is a very dramatic way to emphasize it but I knew that I had to do something that was really spectacular in order to get their attention because of other situations where I have received information and could not get off the mailing list. I tried and I could not. I wrote a letter and the mail kept coming. It seems these data lists go from one owner to another and even though the last purchaser may purge the list of my name, the next week the parent corporation sends an update of the list and my name appears again. It is virtually impossible to find out from where the name originates because these lists are passed from one firm to another to another.
I commend my colleague for this bill. It certainly points out a need. I am not sure that in all details it totally answers the question.
I would like to see that little amendment to give a disclaimer or a refusal to pass on the information at the time of giving information. In general the principle of the bill is sound and I am glad to support it.