Privacy Commissioner's New Year's Resolutions

Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart has listed her top 10 New Year's Resolutions on how to protect privacy:

"Threats to the privacy rights of Canadians will intensify in 2008 unless organizations resolve to do more to protect personal information, warns Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart."

" 'Heightened national security concerns, the growing business appetite for personal information and technological advances are all potent – and growing – threats to privacy rights,' says Commissioner Stoddart."

" 'The coming year will be another challenging one for privacy in Canada'."

"With that prediction in mind, Commissioner Stoddart today released her 2008 list of top 10 suggested New Year’s resolutions for businesses, individuals and government."

The list:

1) For business

• Protect personal information with strong security
• Use encryption to protect personal information on mobile devices such as laptops
• Ensure credit card processing equipment masks complete card numbers on receipts

2) For individuals

• Think twice before posting personal information on social networking sites
• Ask questions when someone asks for personal information
• Take steps to protect your personal information

3) For the Canadian government

• Overhaul the no-fly list to ensure strong privacy protections for Canadians
• Move forward with proposed reforms to Canada’s privacy laws
• Ensure that identity theft legislation is swiftly passed
• Develop anti-spam legislation