Cooperation and privacy regulation

To meet the challenges of the decade ahead, privacy regulators “cannot function in isolation.” That was one of the key messages Canada Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart shared in her address, “

,” at the 11th Annual Privacy and Security Conference.

“Today, the task of protecting personal data is fraught with unprecedented challenges—from technology, from globalization and from the barrage of ever-changing societal norms,” she said. “At the same time, there is a growing recognition that personal information has become a commodity, and that it has monetary value…Without adequate protection, the risks are significant…A single, enforceable global standard for privacy won’t materialize overnight—if ever. But we need to move urgently and resolutely in that direction.”

As Stoddart pointed out, when she began her term as privacy commissioner seven years ago, “Facebook didn’t exist. Neither did Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Google Street View, Foursquare, iPods and all the many novel ways in which people now routinely connect with the rest of the world.” With so many changes in technology and in the way that individuals respond to that technology in just the past 10 years, it is impossible to predict what the decade ahead will bring, she said.

“But what we can say for certain is that the regulatory framework we have in place now for the protection of privacy and personal information is already being sorely tested…We need to examine what’s happening in other jurisdictions, and work with them on common approaches to the challenges we all share,” Stoddart noted, explaining that “…data knows no borders. With virtual businesses and cloud computing, data flows are instantaneous and global.”

Stoddart recommended that regulators learn from one another’s experiences, referring to recent “gratifying work” across international borders that has occurred between data protection authorities and officials from academic institutions, businesses and advocacy groups.

“Most recently, dozens of the world’s data-protection authorities endorsed a draft international standard on the protection of privacy in Madrid,” she said, noting the effort was spurred by a letter from 10 global corporations seeking for rules to establish legal grounds.

When it comes to privacy, she said, “Regardless of how people choose to act, they maintain a powerful belief that the choice must be theirs. Increasingly, the disclosure of personal information boils down to questions of knowledge and consent.”