Information & Ethics committee  We're waiting for two. One was an audit of Staples, which showed that Staples had persistent problems in deleting personal information from recycled equipment. That is due this summer. We have one from our last investigation of Google Wi-Fi, which was due in May. They're going to be late with it, to my disappointment.

Information & Ethics committee  No, I don't think there was a clear reason.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. Unlike most other major jurisdictions now, Canada has no major sanctions for those who don't follow its commercial privacy law. I hope that when the second five-year review of PIPEDA will be undertaken by Parliament this issue could be discussed. I believe companies take notice—and I'm talking about very large international companies that operate on a very large scale—when they are subject to major fines or some kind of enforcement action.

Information & Ethics committee  They are.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, I believe you're absolutely right, honourable member. We're dealing with human nature. We're dealing in an individualistic society, with everyone's different opinions of privacy depending on the context in which they find themselves. What I may say in one forum, like here, is not what I might say to my best friend over dinner.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for that question. In fact there may be no limits as to how long many companies keep information, and that is one of the challenges. We are presently investigating a company—we finished the investigation—that had no plan to delete the information. It had information from users, and these were quite young users, from five or six years ago.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't think they would, but could I ask Ms. Bucknell, who has worked on a lot of these investigations?

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, honourable member. I think the changes that Bill C-12 would bring are very welcome, but I don't think they go far enough. We're now halfway through 2012, and as I mentioned in my presentation, Canadian privacy legislation has lagged behind the reforms in other major countries, and so there isn't much incentive for corporations to invest in the kind of software or personnel training that makes Canadians' data safer.

Information & Ethics committee  I would welcome this committee looking into privacy policies. Over the years, we've said they have to be clearer, they have to be readable, so that people really understand. Again, unless we're in an investigation and we say you modify this policy so that it's a lot clearer to a user or we will have to take further steps, which involves going to federal court, in my experience, as we go online, once again, we see unreadable privacy policies.

Information & Ethics committee  Very simply, honourable member, I agree with your suggestion. Exactly. You have to talk to people clearly. That's not what's being done.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for the question, honourable member, on a very important topic—namely, the growing threats to data security throughout the world but including, too, the information held by Canadian companies or of Canadians elsewhere. In this area, once again Canada has lagged significantly behind.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. In fact, we've been almost continually investigating Facebook since about 2009. There are clear rules. We have intervened time and time again to check as to whether or not Facebook was following these rules. The first time they weren't. In subsequent investigations, it seems they had a higher level of compliance.

Information & Ethics committee  Merci. Thank you very much, Chair and honourable members, for the invitation to appear before your committee today as you begin your very important study on social media companies and the steps they are taking to protect the personal information of Canadians. I'm joined here by two social media experts from my office, Daniel Caron, legal counsel, and Barbara Bucknell, policy analyst, on this issue.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, and I commend you on that initiative. I might recommend, however, that you wait until the next agreement on joint privacy protection principles is released so there is more content to study and discuss. As it stands, only the intention has been announced; you may want to wait until things are further along.

Information & Ethics committee  I believe so, yes.