Information & Ethics committee  Okay. First, we are doing more work with institutions that have relationships with school boards to give teachers tools, and that is happening across Canada. Second, young people have trouble imagining all the possible repercussions, given the complexity of how these sites are designed.

Information & Ethics committee  No. In answer to the last part of your question, I would say that we will use virtual tools more extensively. As I already told another member of the committee, I believe that virtual tools are less expensive and are probably increasingly efficient. We will try to be more careful about choosing audiences we think will benefit the most from our efforts.

Information & Ethics committee  Bill C-30 does not give us any specific additional roles. If my memory serves me correctly, the bill mentions that we can conduct audits, but we can do that anyway. What we're worried about is the overall content of the bill. Since the bill is currently being discussed and the same issues have been raised for three years, our efforts are currently focused on the final version of the bill.

Information & Ethics committee  I am ready, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. Honourable members, Mr. Chairman, I'm very pleased to be able to have a second hour with you to talk about some of our key priorities now for the coming year. We go into the future, having done the annual reports, and once again will attempt to answer your questions.

Information & Ethics committee  I think that now, with our technology analysis branch and the laboratory that we have developed, we have a lot of high-level, senior information technology people who have the contacts and the know-how necessary to communicate with companies like RIM. Of course, we don't have the resources to embed somebody in Google or RIM, even if it were possible, but I think our people make those companies aware of what our requirements are.

Information & Ethics committee  May I ask the assistant commissioner to tell us more about this?

Information & Ethics committee  Indeed, the idea of potential technological problems or programming errors is worrisome. One of our annual reports talks about such a case. On a Service Canada website, personal information on a number of individuals was suddenly exposed. We are talking to the government about the security standards needed to establish new steps for providing Canadians with access to an online government.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, absolutely, honourable member. It has been clear for many years now—and I've always said this to the committee—that the nature of privacy online now means that privacy is an international issue. One of my own personal focuses, and the focus of Canada when we take part in international organizations like the OECD, is to encourage cooperation and the emergence of standards that can be shared among different groups when we're faced with the doings or the developments of international companies like some that we've met here.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, certainly we're looking at enforcement issues. There are some technical issues that have come up in previous work, but certainly enforcement is a major topic for consideration, because as you know now, there's an investigation, and if the alleged victim, the complainant, consents and the case is not resolved, we can go to the Federal Court.

Information & Ethics committee  We have been preparing for the next PIPEDA review for the last three years. We will have completed our final positions, I'd say, by this summer, so I am very interested in your question. I'm really hoping that Parliament will look into PIPEDA. The last review was in 2006, I believe, by this committee.

Information & Ethics committee  I will ask the assistant commissioner to answer your question.

Information & Ethics committee  I think I would wait until the director general of elections has finished looking into this. But certainly in the past we have met with various members of Parliament, different parties, and we've also developed material on helping MPs secure the personal information of many of the voters they represent.

Information & Ethics committee  As I mentioned, we've been following this for three years and have done a lot of substantive work that we have shared with provincial and territorial privacy commissioners. That's why we could together take a position on it. I think there's a common viewpoint among privacy commissioners across Canada.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for your question. We have made a conscious attempt to develop not only our website but also a youth website. We have a youth blog. We have increasingly invested in online information as Canadians and young people are increasingly online, as compared to reading written material or even watching TV.

Information & Ethics committee  It's a very good question. In the time I've been Privacy Commissioner, which is a little over eight years now, yes, things have evolved tremendously. The pace at which we have to rethink and reposition ourselves has just increased exponentially. All over the world people are looking at what the definition is of “personal information”, what should be public and private, and of course at the same time you have the parallel discussion about open government and all of those developments.