If you follow me on LinkedIn, you may have seen that this past week, in my privacy law school class, we had the privilege of having Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario Patricia Kosseim join us.
It was a completely unscripted and genuine address to a room full of about 60 eager law students who are passionate about privacy, digital law, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Many of them even took the occasion to wear business attire.
It's not the first time I've had commissioners address my students. Last year, Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufresne took time out of his busy schedule to come to my class twice — once during the fall term and once during the winter term. His remarks, like Kosseim's, also excited and inspired the students.
In her talk this week, Kosseim explained the laws she enforces, but spent most of her time discussing her philosophy on enforcing privacy laws. A good combination of negotiation, compromise, understanding, carrot and the occasional stick. She shared her perspective that it's good for regulators to point out when organizations are doing a good thing, and not just to harp on those that have failed to meet obligations.
Then she spoke about what "a day in the life" is like for her. My life is super busy, but I sometimes wonder when these regulators find the time to exercise, grocery shop or make dinner. From dealing with files about DNA privacy to neurotechnologies, that use our personal information for all sorts of reasons to more "regular" cases involving access to personal information, there are a ton of issues to tackle as a society.
I saw, again on LinkedIn, that Kosseim had a very collaborative meeting with the chief coroner for Ontario this past week. I spoke to her about it, and she revealed there is so much need for information sharing — responsible information sharing — that many law enforcement and regulators are starting to understand the need to collaborate with one another properly.
She ended her remarks — before taking a ton of questions — by talking about the IPC's Info Matters Podcast. If you haven't listened to an episode yet, you should check it out. It's one of Kosseim's ideas on how to educate people about their rights and obligations, and I think it's great. In fact, so much so, my law students get graded on doing four podcasts per term on a privacy topic that is of interest to them. After reviewing their assignments recently, it looks to me like this next generation of privacy professionals is going to continue to propel our profession forward.
While we may not always agree with our regulators' decisions, and it's more than OK to debate them on issues and positions, I've always thought we are lucky in Canada to have such nice and personable people at the helm. So much so, that they are willing to participate in our (shameless plug) annual game show.
Kris Klein, CIPP/C, CIPM, FIP, is the managing director in Canada for the IAPP.