Privacy and Security in Canada, China, and the United States

Berglund Authority Level 3


by Jeffrey Barlow <barlowj@pacificu.edu>
Editor, Interface

I recently had the privilege of being invited to speak at the 7th Annual Privacy and Security Conference in Victoria, B.C., Canada. [1] The conference, the largest of its kind ever held, with well over a thousand registered attendees, was a marvelous experience.

The understanding which I gained of Canadian practices with regard to security and privacy within electronic environments was very valuable.  Briefly, at the national level there is a “Privacy Officer,” currently Jennifer Stoddart, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, who is the equivalent of a sub-cabinet level official in England or the United States.  At the provincial level, David Loukidelis is the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia.  These officials both advise executive, legislative and judicial branches on privacy matters and support individual claims of legal violations against either government or industry.

The attendees at the conference, drawn from government, industry, and academia, were deeply concerned about privacy issues.  When comparing the network of Canadian legislation, both local to British Columbia and nationally, it was quickly evident that citizens of the United States, at least, have almost no legal protections or rights.  In fact, sadly, it was apparent that a major concern facing Canadians is the degree to which American security practices threaten increasingly to violate the rights of Canadian citizens.  Speaker after speaker referred to the U.S. Patriot Act as the greatest danger to the privacy rights of Canadian citizens.

While I hope to prepare a more thoughtful editorial digesting my experiences at the conference, here I rather offer the paper I was invited to present, as a guest of the government of British Columbia, “Security and Privacy within the Chinese Cultural Sphere.”  See the outline of the paper at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/blogs/privacy/outline.html  A fuller and more linear form of the presentation is found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2006/01/editlong.php

[1] See the conference web pages at: http://www.rebootconference.com/privacy2006/