2009 Annual Report to Parliament on the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act

Earlier this month, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada published her annual report to Parliament on the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the country's private sector privacy law.

The report looks at privacy complaint investigations in the last year, emerging technology issues and the Commissioner’s efforts to encourage the development of international privacy standards.

The Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, defines 2009 as a "watershed year":

"We saw an exponential growth in investigations dealing with new technologies – and it seems clear that technology issues will dominate our work in the years ahead."

"Our investigation into a wide-ranging complaint against Facebook made waves around the world. And that was just the most high-profile example of our 2009 work to address the privacy risks stemming from new technologies, the Internet and our increasingly online world (...)"

"Canada cannot function in isolation. The international picture is increasingly critical to protecting privacy here in Canada."

"In today’s wired world, my national mandate to protect the personal information of Canadians demands a global approach. Protecting privacy can no longer be done on a country-by-country basis – the international data flows are too great; the technologies are evolving too rapidly; and the jurisdictional challenges are too daunting"

"Internet privacy challenges are international and therefore require global thinking and global solutions."