Things are going to change in Canada this year.
In one big upcoming shift, Alberta will appoint a new information and privacy commissioner. Alberta had invited Jill Clayton to seek re-appointment for a third term, but she declined. Commissioner Clayton has been commissioner there since 2010 — the same year data breach notifications were made part of their private sector law.
On the privacy side of her mandate, Commissioner Clayton focused on prioritizing and promoting accountability in data governance, transparency through privacy breach notification, promoting knowledge about privacy rights in Alberta's education system, and more recently, ethical assessments in technology innovations that involve the collection, use or disclosure of personal or health information.
It'll be interesting to see what she does next. Remember that before she joined the Alberta office in 2004 to work with former Commissioner Frank Work, Commissioner Clayton worked as a privacy consultant in the health care, oil and gas, telecommunications and nonprofit sectors.
I, for one, hope she remains a strong and visible part of our great privacy community and I wonder if I can convince her to join us one last time at the commissioner’s game show in Toronto in May — she has lots of interesting perspectives to share, plus she’s fun. I realize that her mandate is up at the end of this month, but surely she’ll be renewed for at least a few months because it doesn’t look like there’s anyone set to replace her quite yet.
In fact, the Alberta legislature has an open process to look for and appoint the next commissioner. So if you’re interested in the position, you want to receive a lot of breach notifications you have to mull over and you like beautiful mountains like the ones in Alberta, you have until Feb. 11 to apply.