• Serena Nath, Principal and Founder, AI Advisory, ARI
• Lauren Reid, President and Principal Consultant, The Privacy Pro
• Teresa Scassa, Professor, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law

New and updated privacy laws in Canada will raise privacy risks for many organizations in 2023. A long awaited update to Canada’s private sector privacy law is being debated in Parliament and could become law by the end of the year.

The majority of Quebec’s Law 25, widely viewed as the strongest privacy law in the country, will come into effect in September 2023. Both laws entail significant monetary penalties for non-compliance.

Join Nicholas Cheung, GPC.D, VP Privacy Training and Director of Client Relations with The Privacy Pro, to learn more about these developments and what questions Boards should be asking now about the privacy risk in their organizations.

Some might argue that the pandemic has strengthened the case for digital ID cards. They could make it quicker and easier for us to access government services but also could make pandemic track-and-trace systems more effective. For example, if health data were linked to work data, governments might more quickly spot clusters of COVID cases.

What about privacy and security? Can privacy be protected by existing data-protection laws and updated security safeguards, such as two-factor authentication? How could we guard against ID cards being required for other purposes, such as law enforcement?

In addition, creating a digital ID system is complex and expensive. Can digital ID systems be introduced gradually building on existing platforms? What about public trust? If they are reasonably safe, and add convenience for interacting with governments, will citizens sign up for them?

With rapidly growing digital footprints, there has been a lot of talk regarding privacy of individuals.

Intelligent Reality is bringing an added layer of complexity, with many technologies like wearables, Digital Twins, and IoT fusing the physical world with digital spaces, with more data collection and real-time analytics.

Promoting and operationalizing privacy are paramount as Intelligent Reality and technologies continue to evolve.

Join us as we explore privacy solutions and challenges, and the balancing act between trust and consumers’ desires for applications and services.

As the smart city is gaining ground all over the world, people are increasingly worried about their privacy in the physical world.

As sensors and facial recognition technology become cheaper and more widely available, how do we know who is using it and why?

How can organizations build trust and show accountability in an environment where space is limited and people are only passing by?

For those organizations who are willing to bridge the gap with users, this session will discuss the challenges they will encounter when trying to develop an effective communication, and how design can help them to overcome these challenges.

• • Learn how design principles can guide infrastructure choices to promote a privacy by design approach

• • Learn how design can be used to communicate with the public on how their data is used

Whether you’re getting started in the privacy profession or have been around since the beginning, you have undoubtedly been influenced by “truisms.” Privacy is evolving, and so should our thinking and language.

This session will invite participants to challenge the assumptions their organizations may have inherited or developed over time. The panelists will discuss a few of the most common phrases or concepts that are considered canon, but whose use might need to be revisited.

Interpublic Group (IPG) and The Information Accountability Foundation (IAF) are leading a discussion about how risk balancing is carried out regarding all human rights affecting individuals in the digital age.

The side event is open to everyone registered for the 44th Global Privacy Assembly.

Deepen your knowledge of privacy issues even further by joining CPA Canada International for part two: Getting up to speed on international privacy enforcement actions.

Returning speaker, Nicholas Cheung will discuss the rising costs of data breaches and regulatory penalties on consumers, recent developments in privacy laws, and delve into recent cases from privacy regulators from around the world.

On May 19, 2022, the CPA event An International perspective on privacy issues focused on new privacy laws, international data transfers, data retention and privacy due diligence issues in Mergers and Acquisitions transactions.

Most privacy engineers, lawyers, regulators, and scholars are aware of the importance of privacy audits, but few have been through it as an auditor or auditee. There are often assumptions about what a privacy audit entails and what the results can tell us about the strength of a privacy program or product design.

Participants may be surprised to learn about the limitations of a privacy audit and the resources required to complete one. This session will address privacy audit frameworks, methodologies for testing controls, and interpreting audit results.

Participants will come away with important points to consider when deciding whether they need an audit and if so, which kind and when.

While both parties can reap benefits through working together, privacy challenges arise through public and private sector collaborations, including who owns data that is created through the relationship, who has decision-making power over the handling of such data, and which privacy laws govern. This session will help alleviate some of the headache that comes from navigating this terrain by setting out the legal landscape, providing proven strategies for addressing data management, and offering helpful tips when dealing with multiple public interest players.

What you will learn:

• Understand which privacy laws apply to public and private sector collaborations.
• Practical advice for how to negotiate the competing needs between parties.
• How to exercise good data stewardship, regardless of whether you are a private or public sector actor.

The future modernization plans for cities to develop policies and the general digital transformation is on everyone’s agenda. Leveraging smart technology and innovation to engage residents and solve some of our city’s most pressing issues is at stake. A well-connected, sustainable city where people work, live and thrive in the new digital future is at stake.

The goal to transform cities into a modern, global city at the leading edge of innovation and technology with the creation of labs to test new tech in real-life, solve local innovation challenges and to bridge the gap between those that have access to technology and those who don’t is the plan.

Digital hubs to provide networking, connections to services, training, and tools in the mobile workplace, connected parks, free WiFi and main streets. Inter-modal transportation options bikes, cars, electric vehicles, and automated traffic management systems are the benefits.
Portals that connect the digital ecosystem with access to services and information and open data, GIS, and other smart city technology will be central to the success of smart cities?

So what is the cost? Your data and your privacy, are we ready to address these challenges?

It’s not sexy, but solid data governance can help your organization minimize risk, reduce costs and increase the value of your data.

Equally important: data governance is about enabling employees to make better decisions by giving them relevant, trustworthy and easy-to-find data.

This session shares best practices for data governance in the age of analytics.

For more than a decade, privacy leaders have agreed on one thing: Canada’s privacy laws are out of date. Politicians, regulators, business leaders and advocates recognize the importance of modern privacy laws to protect Canadians while helping Canada compete in a global market. With the EU adequacy review coming up, will 2022 be the year of change? It looks possible, with the proposed Federal Bill C-11, a new draft law in Quebec, and consultations underway for an Ontario private sector law.

Privacy + Security Forum Fall 2021

How can we thoroughly investigate and respond to alleged sexual misconduct while protecting the privacy rights of EU-based employees? Explore this important topic during our interactive session based on a fact pattern and mock documentation concerning alleged sexual misconduct in a multinational company.

Questions asked will include: Can text messages, emails and instant messages of a sexual nature be accessed from EU-based employees, including their mobile phones? How can we notify the data subject without violating privacy rights of the accuser/accused? While the scenario is set in Germany, participants will come away with new insights, practical tips and advanced skills for handling such a scenario in other EU/EEA countries.

Chief data and digital officers are executing strategies to create data-driven value. Such strategies, however, introduce risks to the legal, fair and ethical use of data. They also contribute to looming public policy changes and regulatory guidance, such as the most recent Declaration on Ethics and Data Protection in Artificial Intelligence (AI) signed by data protection and privacy commissioners from 15 countries on October 2018.

This panel will explore questions such as: + how can companies effectively manage these privacy and data ethics risks; + how can companies build ethical and fair data processing into internal decision-making systems; + what new strategies do we need to extend to help mitigate the public policy risk, and; + what role do chief privacy officers play in this environment? By addressing these questions, companies can learn how to help sustain data-driven innovation and effectively manage the privacy, ethics and public policy risks that come along with it.

Across all levels of government, throughout the technology sector, and amongst the general public, smart cities are a hot topic in Canada. Communities across the country are competing for $50 billion in Federal funding as part of the Smart Cities Challenge, Toronto is eagerly anticipating a proposal from Sidewalk Labs to develop a smart city test bed on the waterfront, and startups from coast to coast are racing to emerge as leaders in the industry. The term “smart city” is a nebulous one, and it often invokes images of a dystopian future á la “Big Brother” or “Black Mirror”. In fact, smart cities are already here, and the technology and data use are generally not as scary as we imagine. A smart city is simply one that uses technology to improve outcomes across city operations and enhance the services it offers to its residents. Data and technology driven solutions are already being rolled out across Canada to improve mobility, sustainability, services, and safety, including water quality management and public transit infrastructure.

Many conversations about smart cities are overshadowed by fears about the risk to privacy. Privacy is and should be a top concern for anyone, including municipalities, as they design systems based on connected devices, big data, artificial intelligence. But privacy fears should not prevent creative thinking and innovation; it is possible to balance the benefits of new solutions with the risks, and it is possible to unlock the value of data in the smart city while protecting privacy.

An ethical ecosystem of personal data requires core values of ethics be built into the project development, assessment and oversight processes.  Stephen Kai-yi Wong, the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong, China, opened last year’s International Conference by saying that digital economies require privacy accountability and data governance.  Working with the Hong Kong business community and the Information Accountability Foundation, the Commissioner has developed a framework for determining when a data use beyond common understanding is fair.  The framework, which is to be introduced at this session, is a means for introducing data ethics into the project development process.  While curated in Hong Kong, the framework links to similar processes in Europe and North America.  At this session, we will introduce the framework, provide examples, and solicit feedback from the international community.

Privacy is a critical topic for developers, users, and regulators of AI solutions. The newly enacted General Directive on Data Privacy (GDPR) imposes strict penalties and harsh sanctions for actors that contravene this privacy regime of the European Union (EU). The co-evolution of increasingly sophisticated AI applications and comprehensive privacy legislation have created many opportunities and challenges for developers, users, and regulators of AI technologies. Join the host, Vik Pant, as he convenes a panel of specialists to discuss the implications and applications of AI for Privacy.

These techno-functional professionals are in a great position to discuss the application of mission-critical, industrial-strength, and production-grade privacy solutions in organizational settings. The format of this conversation will be a free flowing and easy going discussion between the panelists. Panelists will discuss the types of compliance and governance problems that they solve with various privacy techniques, the tools as well as data sets that they use, the challenges they face, and data science jobs in their organizations

In a closely watched urban project, Sidewalk Toronto aims to combine people-centred design with cutting-edge technology to achieve new standards of sustainability, affordability, and economic opportunity. The project’s primary objective is to create a complete community that improves quality of life for a diverse population of residents, workers and visitors. With data’s prominent role in Sidewalk Toronto innovations, how can the project keep privacy paramount, with values of ethics, accountability, and respect guiding explorations?

This panel explores the answers to these questions as a sneak preview of technology being developed for the project. See how Sidewalk builds Privacy by Design into their projects and gain ideas for how Privacy by Design can work at your organization.