Two people who seem eager to understand AI and how it will impact their work: Peak Tech readers, and Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne.
What happened: The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) released a new strategic plan, laying out its priorities for the next five years, and a key theme is improving the OPC’s understanding of emerging technologies like AI. The intention is to not only help the OPC better respond to the concerns of Canadians, but also provide better guidance to ensure privacy is considered as tech is developed — a framework known as privacy by design.
- Since it was co-developed by former Commissioner Ann Cavoukian, privacy by design has been criticized for being too vague and difficult to integrate.
- But the OPC also plans to develop more clear, practical, and concrete privacy standards, as well as create tools for things like privacy-friendly contract clauses.
Why it matters: One way the OPC plans to broaden its network is by including more business groups and tech companies. This could be a welcome surprise to those companies, which might otherwise regard regulators and ombuds like the OPC with antipathy.
Yes, but: Don’t think this means tech companies will have more influence on policy or enforcement. The OPC seems mostly interested in broadening its network to make sure more organizations know about its own projects and to eliminate duplication of work.
Catch-up: Another priority in the five-year plan is adapting to changes that might come with new legislation, namely Bill C-27. If passed, the new privacy and AI rules would give the OPC more power to start inquiries and issue compliance orders to violators (the OPC can currently only release “findings” of violations, the equivalent of writing a strongly-worded letter). The OPC would not be able to levy fines, but it could suggest monetary penalties to a new tribunal that would also be created by the bill.