There are a number of opportunities for the world’s privacy regulators to get together. In Europe, the directive actually prescribes it, known as the Article 29 Working Party. Of course, there’s also the GPEN, or the Global Privacy Enforcement Network. And, there’s APPA Forum for the Asia-Pacific Privacy Authorities. 

This past Wednesday, APPA held an open meeting between the constituents of APPA and an impressive collection of privacy professionals from around the world. The meetings were held in Vancouver, and I was lucky enough to find myself in the room representing the IAPP. 

The meeting consisted of a number of different presentations on a variety of topics like:

• Accountability,
• Addressing privacy issues from a risk assessment perspective as opposed to a strictly compliance based perspective,
• Wearable technology (my beloved Fitbit was mentioned several times),
• Transborder data flow issues and
• The right to be forgotten. 

For me, the discussion on the right to be forgotten was particularly entertaining because the Google representative went toe-to-toe with the commissioner from the UK. It’s clear that the debate surrounding this issue will be interesting to observe as it plays out in Canada, the jurisdiction that is often seen as the middle ground between the American and European approach to many of these issues.

All in all, it was certainly worth the trip out west. A particular shout-out goes to the staff from both the OIPC BC and the OPC, who made the day a success, culminating with a KnowledgeNet held at the end of the day, which brought together event participants with other Vancouver-based privacy professionals. 

Opportunities to get together … they aren’t just for the regulators, and I encourage you to get involved in these opportunities whenever possible. Whether it be at a conference, a local KnowledgeNet or a Privacy After Hours, it’s always nice to hang out and exchange ideas with people in this line of work. We sure have enough interesting issues to talk about!