Information & Ethics committee  Again, in terms of meaningful consent, Bill C-27 would make it stronger in terms of explicitly saying that this has to be provided in information that the person can understand. That's what we look at. This is very complex information. How are you giving those notices? Are you giving a notice that only an expert will understand?

Information & Ethics committee  Right. Well, the law will still apply if Canadians are affected. A number of factors will give us jurisdiction, even if the information itself may be stored elsewhere. We look at those factors, those links, and then we apply the law to the organization and to the treatment of the information at issue.

Information & Ethics committee  In preparing for this appearance, I was briefed on these types of reports. I think the question to be considered is about the extent of it. If you're pointing to a report to say that this report will give transparency, I would ask what the report is about. What will it report on?

Information & Ethics committee  This is not something that we've investigated or turned our minds to. Generally, if we look at a matter on the protection of information, we'll look at the safeguards. We'll look at what the risks are. We'll look at what measures you're putting in place to protect that information.

Information & Ethics committee  This is where the order-making power is an important element. Right now, we would make recommendations. It's up to them to decide if they're going to follow up. If there's order-making power, that can be enforced.

Information & Ethics committee  Again, we are focusing on specifically data practices with respect to children's information. We're looking at the safeguards, tools and rules. There is a provision under PIPEDA that talks about an organization being responsible for information in its “custody, including information that has been transferred to a third party for processing.”

Information & Ethics committee  I reviewed the transcript.

Information & Ethics committee  I have not looked at it from that standpoint. The investigation is ongoing. We have not made our findings and we have not drawn our conclusions, so I wouldn't be in a position to draw conclusions on this point, at this stage.

Information & Ethics committee  I think, in the testimony of the TikTok witnesses, they mentioned Singapore, if I remember the transcript I saw.

Information & Ethics committee  Sure. I'll give you an example of what we did with Home Depot. When we made that investigation public, we talked about the recommendations we made to Home Depot, but in doing that—I don't recall whether it was in the report of findings itself, or in my statement—we gave advice to Canadians.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't want to speculate as to what we would say, but we would consider appropriate advice to Canadians in a circumstance.

Information & Ethics committee  There are extra issues, in the sense that we will generally consider minors' information or children's information to be “sensitive information”. That brings with it greater obligations in terms of care and in terms of methods of consent. We've issued guidance under current law about obtaining meaningful consent.

Information & Ethics committee  I'll look to Mr. Maguire. My sense is that—

Information & Ethics committee  Sure. When we announced the investigation on February 23, 2023, we indicated that this was initiated in the wake of now settled class action lawsuits in the U.S. and Canada, as well as numerous media reports related to TikTok's collection, use and disclosure of personal information.

Information & Ethics committee  We have exchanges with other regulators, those being the Competition Bureau and the CRTC. We've launched this new digital regulators forum, and the goal is to talk about areas of common interest with privacy components and law enforcement. We have exchanges with the RCMP to discuss issues of new technology and provide our input.