Information & Ethics committee  It's tremendously important that you do. The person I'd suggest would be Andrew Clement at the University of Toronto.

Information & Ethics committee  It really depends on what other uses are made of that information. The question about big data has already been raised several times, and that seems to me to be crucial here, because there are many bits of information about us that are far more trivial than our birthdates, and they can be used, once they are concatenated with other data, to create a profile of us so that we end up with profiles that exist within both corporations and law enforcement and national security agencies that are fictions, in a sense, because they are a creation from tiny fragments of data collected from all over.

Information & Ethics committee  There has been a requirement for warrants for many years, and this requirement has been seen as essential to maintaining the integrity of the individual's privacy. It seems to me that gaining access without a warrant to people's personal information in the pursuit of law enforcement or for any other purpose is simply unacceptable.

Information & Ethics committee  This is not an area that I deal with specifically, but it does seem that there needs to be a lot more oversight of the agencies that might be involved in receiving and sharing that information. That seems to me to be a critical issue. How the actual mechanism would work is not something I'm privy to or know about.

Information & Ethics committee  There are things that we have already been talking about. In a sense, they can be talked about in terms of technological changes and the new kinds of means of finding out about individuals for one purpose or another. There are things I mentioned in terms of the trends toward a greater use of biometrics, and sensors being embedded in buildings, streets, vehicles, and so on.

Information & Ethics committee  Do you have a national security or law enforcement regime in mind here? Is that the situation?

Information & Ethics committee  It's difficult to answer the second part about the possibility of enforcement. As to the actual revelation about the breaches, it seems to me that it is is essential that we, as a public, know what is happening and when privacy breaches have occurred. These things tend to be displayed under certain circumstances, but they can also be kept under cover.

Information & Ethics committee  I might add, too, that the question suggested some kind of deliberate transfer of data for the purposes of trade or law enforcement or whatever, but in fact data frequently travels through the States between one Canadian location and another. The routing system can take data into the United States and then return it to Canada.

Information & Ethics committee  The only thing I wanted to say was that I couldn't hear very clearly what the question was. The mike didn't seem to be picking up the questioner.

Information & Ethics committee  Okay. Yes, I think the comments of Lisa Austin spoke directly to that and I think that's the way that I would answer.

Information & Ethics committee  It's a great question. I haven't finished writing the book yet, but what we're working on is looking at the ways in which.... Well, it's in contrast with the situation in the 1980s, when these kinds of issues were still seen as relatively discrete in that they didn't apply to everyone.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much for inviting me to participate in what I think is an important initiative. The Privacy Act is out of date, and Canadians urgently need a new and strong law that speaks to the tremendous technological changes and political economic shifts that have occurred since the 1980s.