Industry committee  The answer to the specific question is that I don't know when we're launching in Canada. I'm hoping it will be soon, and I'm advocating internally that we launch in Canada soon. Fundamentally Google Wallet is a technology that allows you to store your credit card details on your phone, so that if you have a properly enabled phone with what's called a near field communication chip, or NFC, and you go to a register at a store, you can tap your phone and enter your PIN and pay for goods that way, rather than swiping or entering or tapping your card on the same card reader.

Industry committee  Okay.

Industry committee  The short answer is no.

Industry committee  There are no costs to consumers for making transactions with Google Wallet; there are no costs to retailers for using it; and there's no charge to credit card companies for using it. You're asking about the reason Google is in this business. You're saying, “Show me the money”, as the kids say—though maybe they don't any more.

Industry committee  For Google that answer is that this is part of a broader commerce strategy. It's to encourage consumers to be out there using their mobile devices, using Google's local offers business. It's not been launched in Canada, but in the U.S. Google has a local offers business that will be tied to the Wallet, such as Groupon.

Industry committee  Thanks very much for the question. In Kitchener-Waterloo, roughly 1,100 businesses have signed up and about 250 have published new websites. Those 250 businesses in Kitchener-Waterloo weren't on the Internet before. For Google, it's really as simple as thinking that our business hinges on the success of all those other businesses, in terms of making sure that they're online and engaged.

Industry committee  The research we've done suggests some of the psychological barriers I mentioned. The research suggests the following about businesses. One, they think it's too costly to get a domain name and a website. It's not, by the way: it's very cheap, and cheap enough that most businesses can afford it.

Industry committee  I'll start by thanking you for the question and for your interest in the product. I'll back up to say that a lot of the technology behind Google Wallet is developed in Kitchener, Ontario.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Happy Halloween, everybody. I hope you'll find today's session a treat. I can assure you there is no trick.

Industry committee  My name is Jacob Glick. I'm Google's Canada policy counsel. I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to participate in your study on e-commerce in Canada. It's an issue that is close to Google's heart. This topic is a little like Dickens: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times—well, maybe not the worst of times, but the “we could do a lot better of times”.

Information & Ethics committee  Could you say that again so that I understand precisely what I'm agreeing to?

Information & Ethics committee  I'll do my best to try to get you an exhaustive list of those outcomes.

Information & Ethics committee  To be clear, you're not asking for a list of the outcomes from every data privacy authority, but rather about whether we've been subject to criminal penalities in other countries of the world.

Information & Ethics committee  I want to thank the committee again for turning its attention to this matter. It's obviously a very serious matter, one that we are taking incredibly seriously to ensure that something like this never happens again and that we continue to earn the trust--which the member just spoke about--of our users every single day.

Information & Ethics committee  I think it would be irresponsible of me to speculate before the analysis is complete.