A few big stories in this week’s Digest caught my attention, and I assume yours, as well. 

First, the Stingray investigation results were made public by the complainant, OpenMedia. This is the case where the Office of the Privacy Commissioner was looking into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s use of a tool that surreptitiously tracked people who used a cellphone within proximity to a particular cellphone tower. As it turns out, most of the instances where the RCMP used the technology were OK, but there was a small handful of times where it wasn’t. As usual, two themes emerged from the investigation: (1) It pays to be cooperative with the OPC while it conducts investigations; and (2) Everyone has to do a better job being transparent with respect to the techniques they use to collect, use and disclose personal information of Canadians. 

Second, there’s an article from IT World Canada that opines on the recently released proposed data breach notification regulations. Have you read them yet? If not, maybe this article will pique your interest. Considering that the data breach notification provisions are likely to come into effect in a few months, I’d say it’s important to start planning now.

Third, and related to data breach notification, I wonder how the people at Equifax are feeling these days? I suspect they are a little shellshocked. What seems to be irking everyone is the slow pace at which information is being shared with the public. But do you remember when the OPC itself experienced a breach? It took them, the regulator, a while to figure out exactly what happened and the extent of the damage. I think it’s fair that people in Canada express their concern because of the sensitivity of the information we’re talking about, but, at the same time, it’s only reasonable that a bit of time is needed to figure out the details. In the end, as with the first story I mentioned above, I think this will come down to transparency. And the sooner Equifax can achieve that, the better it will be for everyone affected, including Equifax.

There’s plenty of other news, too, so scroll through at some point over the weekend. Hope you have a good one. We here in Ottawa are having splendid weather right now, making up for a less-than-ideal summer — I'll take it!