Protection of data a ‘problem’
Who owns our personal data, tracked when we click on a website, is the subject of much debate in corporate boardrooms and courtrooms.
A recent decision by Bell Canada to abide by the federal privacy commissioner’s recommendation that Bell only track customers who explicitly opt into its advertising program is an about-face with what the company originally wanted to do. Bell revealed the Relevant Advertising Program (RAP) in August 2013, and it included location and demographic information, specific websites visited, apps on mobile devices and service usage.
While North America is still largely finding its way on data privacy, the European Union is pursuing blanket legislation that would tighten the transfer of personal data to corporations looking for it.
Europe wants to move to a system where there is one uniform law for all countries, said Avner Levin, associate professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University.
“We are way behind,” Levin said on Wednesday.
Canada’s federal privacy commissioner can’t force Bell to change because they are more of an ombudsperson, he said. The commissioner can only make recommendations — it is not a regulator like the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
“With public pressure, getting the news out there, Bell decided not to fight this one. Bell has been taking a beating on other issues recently . . . This is a rare win,” he said.
Four years ago, the EU proposed a major reform of the protection of personal data, strengthening the rights of the individual in an era where people constantly hand over private information and their browsing habits — often without them knowing. The European Commission is streamlining the rules around the transfer of vast amounts of personal data sent between businesses, public authorities and people.
Conflicting data protection rules in different countries would disrupt international exchanges, the commission said in a statement. Individuals might also be unwilling to transfer personal data abroad if they were uncertain about the level of protection in other countries, it said.
Another problem for privacy is there are companies that play dual roles — companies that are content providers and our Internet pipelines. “They are trying to play both ends — providing content and the service. That is a real problem,” he said.
Google Inc. recently lost a challenge to a German regulator’s order that limits how it can combine user data that could allow it to obtain customers’ personal preferences, marital status and sexual orientation, Bloomberg reports.
Last year, the German watchdog ordered Google to give users more control over their own data.