Backgrounder
2007-2008 Contributions Program

Following is a brief description of funded projects:

Organization: Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), University of Ottawa
Location: Ottawa, ON
Funding Amount: $50,000
Project: Online Privacy Threats: Trends, Developments and Responses

The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) will identify and analyze the trends and new developments in online privacy threats, and assess approaches to dealing with them, including the role of data protection legislation.
The study will focus on threats from criminals, fraudsters and others with malicious intent, but will also consider privacy threats posed by adware and other online technologies that covertly gather personal information for marketing purposes.

Organization: Centre for Innovation, Law and Policy (CILP), University of Toronto
Location: Toronto, ON
Funding Amount: $50,000
Project: Personal Information Protection in the Face of Crime and Terror: Information Sharing by Private Enterprises for National Security and Law Enforcement Purposes

This project will explore how information is shared by private entities with security services and law enforcement agencies. The research will be conducted by:

1. Describing the context of information sharing by private enterprises with public bodies in the airline, banking, telecommunications and retail industries; and
2. Considering what, if any, Charter restrictions or questions are raised by these information-sharing practices.

Once the research is concluded, the CILP will invite interested stakeholders to a one-day closed workshop to discuss the legislative or regulatory framework needed to clarify procedures surrounding privacy and security.

Organization: Law Area, Faculty of Business, Ryerson University
Location: Toronto, ON
Funding Amount: $47,725
Project: The Business Risks of Online Social Networks
The purpose of this research is to understand how individuals that engage in online socializing activities view their privacy and the risks posed by such activities. Two separate groups will be analyzed in this project.
Firstly, Ryerson University students will be surveyed to understand how they socialize online, their perception of their privacy, and the risks they consider when posting personal information online.

Secondly, executives with hiring responsibilities will be surveyed about how well their corporations understand and use social networks, and the information they reveal about employment candidates.

Organization: Option Consommateurs
Location: Montreal, QC
Funding Amount: $45,300
Project: Managing Personal Information in the Name of the Federal Government: What do Citizens Know About the Information They Provide to Financial Institutions and to What Degree is the Information Protected?
The goal of this project is to investigate:

1. If consumers have sufficient knowledge about the privacy management framework that applies to information sharing arrangements between financial institutions and national security agencies; and
2. The educational level of consumers doing business with financial institutions and to what degree compliance or lack of with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) could constitute a problem.

Organization: University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Location: Oshawa, ON
Funding Amount: $42,550
Project: PIPEDA-Compliant Privacy Access Control Model for Protected Health Information

The goal of this project is to enable healthcare sector compliance with PIPEDA by pointing to ways access to personal heath information may be better controlled.

This research project will investigate a model for policy enforcement defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force in order to build up a PIPEDA-compliant access control model that satisfies legislative requirements for personal health information.

Organization: Department of Computer Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Location: St. John’s, NL
Funding Amount: $22,425
Project: Private/Public Sector Sharing of Personal Information: Lessons from the Health Sector

This research project will examine alternatives to defining the requirements for protecting personal information shared between public and private sector entities.

There is a need to build on the concept of data stewardship to include methods for dealing with the harm caused to individuals when their privacy rights are violated. The researchers will try to close the gaps in the existing privacy policy paradigm by providing suggestions to deal with them.

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For more information, please contact:

Valerie Akujobi
Media Relations
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Tel: (613) 992-3745
E-mail: vakujobi@privcom.gc.ca
www.privcom.gc.ca