Information & Ethics committee  In my understanding--and if I'm wrong, I'll report back to the committee via letter--all the data was stored in approximately the same place in the United States. So the data that would have been destroyed relevant to Ireland was stored in the United States before it was destroyed, but again, it was destroyed at a different point in time, and therefore the analysis that was done had different factors to consider, so....

Information & Ethics committee  I don't know specifically who that would be. I'd have to consult internally.

Information & Ethics committee  I can do that, but I should say that if the committee is interested in learning more about analysis of U.S. law, there will be all sorts of.... There are a lot of complications and moving parts to this. It might make sense, if the committee continues to be interested in this, to give us the chance to actually undertake the analysis and to conclude what we can and can't do.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, let me take a step back. First of all, I understand that we have agreed with the report from the Privacy Commissioner's equivalent in the United Kingdom, who has accepted our desire to delete the data in the U.K. I don't know that we've actually deleted the data yet. That's the question that's open in my mind and I just don't know the answer to that.

Information & Ethics committee  Again, we're doing the analysis just as the Privacy Commissioner envisioned it in her report, which is that U.S. and Canadian law are applicable here--potentially.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for asking for that clarification. No, we are not talking about analyzing the data. Google has no interest in trolling through the data, as we've said from the beginning, so thank you for allowing me the opportunity to clarify. I think this is just a poorly worded sentence, and you should take it at face value, which is that we're doing the analysis that the Privacy Commissioner and our own due diligence require of us, which is to ensure that we're in a legal position to be able to delete the data, as I've described to a number of members of the committee.

Information & Ethics committee  That's correct.

Information & Ethics committee  I wouldn't want to speculate on that. Ultimately, our objective is to delete all the data. We didn't want it in the first place, and we don't want it now, but we don't want to delete it prematurely and cause more headaches.

Information & Ethics committee  I won't speculate on the outcome of any particular litigation. I can tell you that it's something we would object to producing in a court proceeding, precisely to protect the privacy of the people whose data were mistakenly collected. There would be an irony to class action litigants demanding the production of data that they allege contains private data, but I can't speculate on what tactics any person, litigant, or regulatory authority might take.

Information & Ethics committee  Again, that's my understanding of the facts, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  We received the Privacy Commissioner's interim letter of finding, which the committee has in its possession, and which she released to the press and to the committee in October. It asked that we delete the data as soon as we had assured ourselves that we are able to do so under Canadian and U.S. law.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for that question. To clarify what I said, when I called the Privacy Commissioner in May to advise her of this unfortunate circumstance, I asked her what she wanted done with the data then. She asked that we preserve the data because perhaps she wanted to launch an investigation or review it in some manner.

Information & Ethics committee  No, I didn't say that.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  That's my understanding.