Leaders of Canadian business associations expressed varying degrees of support for proposed privacy legislation reform before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
But Jim Balsillie, former co-CEO of Research In Motion (now BlackBerry), told the House of Commons Industry Committee that the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA) needs a serious overhaul before being passed.<\/p>\n
He complained the CPPA has <\/span>\u201c<\/span>a <\/span>business interest carve-out<\/span> that allows corp<\/span>oration<\/span>s to put the pursuit of profits<\/span> above the interests of consumers. Bus<\/span>inesses<\/span> are\u00a0allow<\/span>ed to determine what constitutes legitima<\/span>t<\/span>e surveillance and behaviour modification <\/span>to trample on fundamental rights<\/span>, but<\/span> are<\/span> under no obligation to notify consumers how they are tracking and profiling them.<\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n Balsillie, who is founder of the Centre for Digital Rights<\/a>, also said the proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) should be scrapped.<\/p>\n Related content: The latest amendments to C-27<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n T<\/span>he two pieces of proposed legislation are combined under Bill C-27<\/a>. Neither have <\/span>much <\/span>merit, Balsillie said.<\/span> In fact, he compared the CPPA to a leaky bucket. Proposing AIDA without proper public consultation is like the government putting on shoes and then trying to put on socks, he added.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cC-27 turbocharges surveillance capitalism,\u201d he maintained.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>package of bills<\/span>\u00a0<\/a>\u201c<\/span>prioritizes <\/span>the interests of large <\/span>data monopoli<\/span>e<\/span>s<\/span> and their ecosystem of [data] traffickers. It sets a <\/span>dangerous precedent<\/span> by allowing corp<\/span>oration<\/span>s to allocate to individuals, children and vulnerable gr<\/span>o<\/span>ups the harmful economic, political, and social consequences of the data<\/span>\u2013<\/span>driven economy. It<\/span> normalizes and expands surveillance<\/span>, treating human rights as an obstacle to corporate profits. C-27 requires a wholesale re-do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Liberal MP <\/span>Francesco <\/span>Sorbara <\/span>asked<\/span> Balsillie if the CPPA, which <\/span>would replace <\/span>the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Data Act (PIPEDA) that <\/span>many businesses now have to deal with, <\/span>is <\/span>at least <\/span>going in the right direction. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI<\/span>t<\/span>\u2018<\/span>s like saying my bucket has 25 holes and that<\/span>\u2018<\/span>s better than 30 holes<\/span>,\u201d replied Balsillie. \u201cIf we get rid of 20 of the holes so we only have 10 left <\/span>\u2026.<\/span> I think the nature of <\/span>the digital <\/span>and knowledge <\/span>economy is non<\/span>\u2013<\/span>linear<\/span> in its harms<\/span> for imperfection<\/span>. It<\/span> takes a small hole to drive a truck through<\/span>. You need relative completeness<\/span> [in laws]<\/span>, or somebody will escape through a small hatch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n If we\u2019re getting rid of 20 of 25 holes, at least we\u2019re making progress, Sorbara countered.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut you still have five holes in your bucket \u2014 and it\u2019s not a bucket,\u201d replied Balsillie. \u201cIt has to be complete.\u201d The CPPA can only be fixed with<\/span> comprehensive changes, he maintained, not by patching its holes.<\/span><\/p>\n Related content: Former privacy commissioner testifies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Businesses have been thinking about preparing for the two pieces of legislation since they were introduced in Parliament over a year ago. They know that some form of overhauling of PIPEDA is necessary, in part because it may be declared offside of the European Union\u2019s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).<\/span><\/p>\n As for AIDA, around the world, governments are looking at possible legislation because people are worried that advanced AI systems may make their jobs obsolete<\/span>, or deny them jobs<\/span>. As a result, business leaders want some sort of law \u2014 but one that doesn\u2019t stifle new technologies. <\/span><\/p>\n A<\/span>mong <\/span>Balsillie\u2019s<\/span> complaints:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 the CPPA says in some cases businesses don\u2019t have to notify people how their personal data is being <\/span>collected or <\/span>used. <\/span>That gives businesses too much power, Balsillie said;<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 the CPPA also diminishes the protection of data of children and vulnerable persons, he said. \u201cT<\/span>he omission of meaningful measures that curtail insidious surveillance and behavioural manipulation practices<\/span> \u2026<\/span> are driving the current youth mental health crisis<\/span>.<\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n \u2013<\/span>\u2013 AIDA creates an AI commissioner to oversee the act, but that person will report to the Minister of Innovation and not be an independent officer who reports to Parliament;<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 AIDA also doesn\u2019t give the right to individuals to<\/span> contest A<\/span>I-based<\/span> decisions <\/span>of businesses on the granting of insurance, or credit scoring, or education institutions on <\/span>school admissions<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n He got some support on scrapping AIDA from Siobh\u00e1n Vipond, <\/span>e<\/span>xecutive <\/span>v<\/span>ice-<\/span>p<\/span>reside<\/span>nt<\/span> of the Canadian Labour Congress<\/a>, who complained the proposed legislation hasn\u2019t had a full public consultation,<\/span> and it wouldn\u2019t apply to the federal government<\/span> and Crown corporations. <\/span>That means it wouldn\u2019t protect<\/span> public <\/span>servants, she said. <\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, <\/span>S<\/span>ara Clodman,<\/span> v<\/span>ice <\/span>p<\/span>resident, <\/span>p<\/span>ublic <\/span>a<\/span>ffairs and <\/span>t<\/span>hought <\/span>l<\/span>eadersh<\/span>ip<\/span> at the Canadian Marketing Association<\/a>, urged speedy adoption of the CPPA with what she called \u201climited amendments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Similarly, Lorraine Krugel, vice president for privacy and data at the Canadian Bankers Association, asked for \u201ctargeted amendments\u201d to the CPPA.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are <\/span>concerned <\/span>there\u2019s a <\/span>real risk<\/span> of significant adverse consequences<\/span> i<\/span>f <\/span>the <\/span>sc<\/span>o<\/span>pe <\/span>of certain provisions are not better defined and necessary exceptions aren\u2019t included,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to avoid situations where organizations have <\/span>to give too much infor<\/span>mation to be transparent to customers [as required by the CPPA]. For example, some things may result in online customers having <\/span> \u2018consent fatigue\u2019<\/span> or \u2018cookie banner fatigue\u201d with no meaningful value to the consumer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Catherine Fortin LeFaivre, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce\u2019s<\/a> vice-president of strategic policy and global partnerships, said the CPPA should be passed as soon as possible. But she also agreed AIDA needs more public consultation.<\/p>\n The committee has grouped witnesses who largely want to comment on the CPPA to be heard first. Later, those who want to speak specifically about AIDA will be called. Some experts have already said passing a flawed AIDA is better than having no law, while others say AIDA should either be split from C-27 for extensive debate or completely withdrawn and started from scratch.<\/p>\n The committee hearings continue Thursday.<\/p>\n The post Proposed Canadian privacy law is like a leaky bucket, Balsillie tells parliamentary committee<\/a> first appeared on IT World Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Proposed privacy law favours business,, former Research in Motion head complained, while the proposed AI law should be scraped<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":40518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,361],"tags":[415,527,275],"class_list":["post-42600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-privacy","tag-government-of-canada","tag-legislation","tag-top-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42600"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42685,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42600\/revisions\/42685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}