On occasion, Privacy Commissioners, even Canadian ones, have come in for a fair measure of criticism here. It is therefore only proper to draw attention to a Privacy Commissioner that has distinguished herself from her peers by repeatedly demonstrating an understanding of technology, democracy, individual rights, law and a habit of thinking through how these forces interact with each other.
Champion of Privacy by Design hails 'year of the engineer' (The Register - UK)
Ann Cavoukian is Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (earlier mentions here and here). Click through to see her responses to:
♦ Tell us more about Privacy by Design.
♦ Do you find by mandating that certain protections or practices are followed in your province, it ultimately means those practices are going to be followed universally?
♦ In a nutshell, what is Privacy by Design? Is it a set of programming interfaces, is it a concept, practices?
♦ Can you give me an example of Privacy by Design in action?
♦ Privacy for users of smart grids, too.
♦ Do you see there being a market for companies to use privacy as a competitive advantage? Can companies use privacy as a feature to compete?
♦ We've heard regulators in Europe talk a bit about the right to be forgotten. Is that something you also advocate?
♦ 'The problem with anonymity' What do you think about anonymity. Should people have the right to be anonymous on the internet, for instance?
♦ What common misconceptions do you see people who are building websites or designing software or hardware have? Do they have common misconceptions about how to ensure privacy, or what privacy even is?
♦ How do you think the Do Not Track initiative spearheaded by the FTC, is going so far?
I maintain that "Privacy Commissioner" is a very strange job title for a government official in a democracy. That subject, however, deserves its own, very long chapter. Nevertheless, if you're going to have a Privacy Commissioner, Ms. Cavoukian is a good role model.
Privacy by Design has come in for a brief mention on this blog here.
