I’m writing this on my rainy flight from Toronto back to Ottawa after a day of privacy training with a great organization.
This organization had undertaken a voluntary audit, and the report, like so many investigation or audit reports, recommended mandatory privacy training for staff. Human error is so often at the core of so many privacy incidents.
In this case, they determined that all staff should be sensitized to privacy. It was a good plan. Too often, mandatory training involves a one-hour online click-through-this, check-that-box scenario. Audit report, done.
This wasn’t that. The audit found a need. The organization followed through. The staff showed up and really engaged. I anticipate maybe not perfection but a vast improvement and an awareness that will permeate through their work going forward.
I have to admit these days require a certain energy beyond the at-desk work of producing a legal opinion or a PIA, but much like my weekly privacy law classes at Ottawa University, I am encouraged by the growing number of people and organizations that want to understand and get privacy right and who hire a trainer to help them.
On another note, before I lead you to read the below clips, I want to highlight some important Canadian privacy news this week. Not that Terry McQuay needs any more ink right now, but you may have noticed that Nymity was sold to TrustArc. The announcement made up the better part of my LinkedIn feed for the last couple of days. I’m not sure if anything else has happened, honestly.
What this announcement shows me is that Canada still has it when it comes to privacy expertise on the world stage. We punch well above our weight, we’re a major international player, and we can influence the direction of privacy protection.
We’re smart, we inherently know privacy, and we’re really good at bringing people together. Congrats to the Nymity and TrustArc teams for a successful venture and future.
I also want to point out that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and provincial data protection authorities put out a privacy snakes-and-ladders game for kids. It’s very cool, and I challenge you to print it out today — in color (don’t tell your corporate services people because they always complain that printing in color costs too much).
Bring it home, and play it with your family. And do some at-home privacy training this weekend.