Osgoode Certificate Program in eDiscovery, Records Management, Information Governance and Privacy – Day Two

​Escalating volumes of electronic information increase the risk of inadvertent disclosure of privileged and personal information. Thematically, Day Two covered the risks of this type of disclosure, and the best practices to implement to avoid these risks. Good information management is essential for protecting of privileged and personal information.

The highlight of the day was the keynote speaker, Dr. Anne Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. It was a privilege have Dr. Cavoukian attend this inaugural course to speak about the future of privacy in Canada and around the world. She is a passionate speaker who is a fierce advocate for the protection of individual privacy rights.

During her address, Dr. Cavoukian outlined the benefits of Privacy By Design. Her view is that to be effective privacy considerations need to be the default setting, embedded in systems from the beginning, rather than an afterthought. Other foundational principles of this approach to privacy include: emphasizing prevention over remedial actions, full lifecycle protection, transparency and a user-centric approach.

Dr. Cavoukain also emphasized the need to change the current privacy paradigm from a Zero Sum model (one example of which is the assumption that an increase in police protection will cause a corresponding decline in personal privacy) to a Positive Sum model. The Positive Sum Privacy Model creates win-win scenarios instead of either/or scenarios which involve unnecessary trade-offs.

​Course attendees left Day Two with an enlightened view of individual privacy rights. They went home armed with questions to ask the next time they are asked to provide personal information to an organization, and definitely ready to encrypt their personal data.