Privacy

Earlier this month, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (“OPC”) released a summary of its key recommendations for a new federal private sector privacy law (the “Key Recommendations”), one that would update or replace the existing Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”).[1] The federal government most recently attempted to amend…

The privacy environment has changed significantly since I took office in 2014. Following 9/11, the need to protect against further terrorist attacks seemed to outweigh privacy interests of individuals. This trend has changed with time, in part due to the Edward Snowden revelations made in 2013. The urgency of adopting…

Recent caselaw demonstrates that privacy laws reach further than some organisations might expect. Introduction: the identifiability test Most information privacy and data protection laws around the world have as their starting point some notion of identifiability.  Legal obligations will typically only apply to data that relates to an ‘identifiable’ person. For…

Standards and frameworks provide real benefits for privacy management. Standards are established norms to be applied consistently across organizations, while frameworks are a set of basic guidelines to be adapted to an organization’s needs. Both can help to fulfill compliance obligations, build trust, benchmark against industry best practices, support strategic…

VENMO’S BAFFLING DECISION to turn payments into a social media feed, where public transactions are the default, has rightly been met with criticism. But at the very least, it’s always been possible to make Venmo transactions private. Now, imagine a financial system that’s not just public by default, but can’t ever be made private,…

The risks of falling short on privacy compliance are greater than they have ever been.  New laws are going into effect around the world and in the states, enforcement agencies are exercising their authority and media organizations have teams devoted to identifying data protection failures. Legal judgments can run into…

Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok. The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that…

With heightened consumer consciousness about data privacy, regulators are moving fast to protect the data dignity of their citizens. Amid this wave of new regulations, businesses are looking for the responsible path forward with data privacy programs that operationalize privacy across the data ecosystem. Building sustainable solutions for privacy requires…

Remote hiring is an incredible opportunity for companies to hire talent anywhere around the world. Shifting to a remote workforce has many advantages like increased productivity and lower traditional operation costs. Teams also prefer working in a remote setup because it offers flexibility and better work-life balance.  As more and…

Identity and privacy have always been a point of contention both online and offline. But while we can generally control our identity and privacy in the offline world with ease, digital identity has long been controlled by third-party entities we interact with and promise to keep our data safe. History…