Global Standards?

Today, we are receiving data protection authorities and privacy advocates from around the world at the 29th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners. 

Over 40 countries will be represented, and nearly 600 delegates. One of the speakers will be Peter Fleischer, the Global Privacy Counsel for Google.

In recent days, Mr. Fleischer and Google have made proposals for the development of a global privacy standard. His suggestion is to begin with the framework put in place by APEC members.

Mr. Fleischer has posted the text of his initial speech proposing these standards, originally delivered to a UNESCO sub-committee meeting in Strasbourg. (The Need for Global Privacy Standards)

He has also posted the text of an op/ed prepared for Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, in support of the initiative. (Eric Schmidt on Global Privacy Standards)

Ann Cavoukian, the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner, has posted some additional history on the matter as a comment to this last post.

Unfortunately, all these documents are only available in English.

This will be a subject of much discussion – both this week and in months to come.

One Response to “Global Standards?”

  1. Kevin McArthur Says:

    The timing of the Google release, and call for global standards is most interesting.

    First this office sends out a fairly pointed warning. The response, well, we need global standards of course. When the pundits saw through this, they changed their story and will now, apparantly, fully respect our privacy laws and blur faces, license plates and other personally identifiable information.

    APEC is not the right venue to discuss privacy. Stakeholders from bloggers to university professors, even the general public have practically no voice at APEC. Further, how can one discuss privacy while in one of the most surveiled locations, while people are fighting with police outside.

    Beyond this lack of public interest, APEC would globalize our policy standards and almost certainly water them down. Many Canadians are wary of even Federal privacy standards, and several provinces have passed their own, often stricter, legislation. If we cannot agree even within Canada, how is it even conceivable that we could agree with other nations?

    In their Street View release, Google said: “We understand that the expectation of privacy in a public place in Canada is different than in the U.S.” … truer words have never been spoken, and thus any harmonized standards are likely impossible.

    This is one area where we really need our own soverignty and laws that respect our distinct Canadian culture.

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