You know, one year I missed Canadian Thanksgiving and, instead of eating turkey, I actually flew to Turkey on behalf of the IAPP to provide privacy training. 

Turkey is, of course, in the news and generating a little activity on social media because it’s the host country for the 44th annual Global Privacy Assembly taking place this week. This is the conference that is organized by and for the data protection authority community. They always have a number of sessions that are open to the public, and I would have loved to attend the open session on facial recognition technology. Some of the meetings are restricted to members and take place behind closed doors.

There were a few Canadians on the agenda including Michael McEvoy, Brent Homan, Ann Cavoukian, Colin Bennett and Valerie Steeves. Also notable were Canadian award winners this year. Elizabeth Denham was honored with the 2022 Giovanni Butarelli award, which recognizes international leadership and collaboration. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, meanwhile, won an innovation award for a tool that helps assess real risk of significant harm.

Be on the lookout for the formal announcements coming out of this conference. It’s worth paying attention to what comes out of the closed session, as data protection authorities tend to spend a good part of the year working together on different resolutions that can signal to the privacy community what some of their broader concerns and priorities are.

The last time the conference was hosted in Canada was 15 years ago — in 2007 — when then-Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart hosted the community in her hometown of Montreal. I still hear people talk about what a great one that was and I’d like to see Canada host again, one of these days, hopefully in the not-so-distant future.

Have a great weekend.