Privacy

Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) have not changed dramatically over the past 20 years or so, or at least the approach to them hasn’t. Whether the starting point is in a Word or Excel template or [one hopes] by using actual technology to support the process, a PIA involves a group…

This was the year an overhaul of federal private-sector privacy law died. But one expert says 2022 may be the year of private-sector privacy law upheaval — if Parliament and three provincial legislatures move fast. “All of the signals suggest that we’re potentially going to see quite a bit of private sector…

If you’ve spent any amount of time discussing reforms to improve privacy online, you’ve likely encountered the Big Knob Theory. Like Covid it comes in variants, but its core tenet can be summarised thus: there exists (metaphorically) a Big Knob that can either be turned towards “privacy” or towards “competition”…

Aon’s global privacy tech director spoke to SiliconRepublic.com about the evolving privacy landscape and why security costs so much. While data is growing and transforming industries all the time, the privacy landscape is also changing. This means companies need to navigate the murky waters of being able to effectively use…

Photo credit : TechCrunch via Getty Images China, the most populous nation in the world, passed its first significant data privacy legislation in August. Moving forward, any global business or aspiring startup doing any type of trade or offering services online likely will be affected because they’ll be engaging with…

This is the first in a series of articles about privacy-related issues that may be of interest to state attorneys general. When I was in law school, “privacy law” wasn’t really discussed. Today, it seems like all anyone can talk about. That might be because I work on privacy and…

On September 22, the Act to modernize legislative provisions relating to the protection of personal information (“Bill 64”) received royal assent, after its adoption by the National Assembly of Quebec a day earlier. The Act represents a major reform of the current privacy regime in Quebec, with changes aimed at…

In Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, provincial governments are in various stages of public consultations on privacy legislation reform. Given that Canada’s key overarching legal framework, the Privacy Act, was created before the advent of the internet, this is not only natural, but long overdue. However, instead of a…

BACK IN FEBRUARY, Facebook announced a little experiment. It would reduce the amount of political content shown to a subset of users in a few countries, including the US, and then ask them about the experience. “Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to find and interact with political…

The mobile apps installed on our smartphones are one of the biggest threats to our digital privacy. They are capable of collecting vast amounts of personal data, often highly sensitive. The consent model on which privacy laws are based doesn’t work. App users remain concerned about privacy, as a recent…