Well, the big news this week comes from the release of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s Annual Report to Parliament on matters relating to PIPEDA. It must be tough to try and get into the mainstream news while seemingly half the world is on vacation, but kudos go out to Commissioner Daniel Therrien and his team for an excellent report—which, by the way, was fittingly dedicated to Jennifer Stoddart.

The main theme of the report is transparency: about being truthful and open when it comes to what organizations do with personal information. Obviously, there is nothing too novel about this idea, but it is refreshing to see a regulator emphasizing the principle, even if it's one that has been around for a while. That, and the fact that PIPEDA has now been around for 15 years, should make it second-nature, right? Alas, it's still something that many organizations seem to continue to struggle with, particularly in the online space. 

You know, transparency wasn't just a private-sector theme this week. The commissioner for CSEC issued his report as well, on the activities of the surveillance agency. Again, it was refreshing to see some of this information out in the open and perhaps demystified a bit. 

I, for one, hope the dialogue about the need for increased transparency continues and that we start to see some real models for this principle—by business and by government. We all know that honesty is a cornerstone for gaining trust; that's not such a lofty goal, after all.