Think before you post, warns privacy commissioner
p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- Canadians, especially young Canadians, need to take control of their online personal information, says federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart (right).
As more and more people live their lives online, they need to take greater responsibility for securing their privacy — and think twice about what they post, she warns in her 2008 annual report to parliament.
Many young people have been fired, missed out on job interviews and academic opportunities, and suspended from school for instant messages, wall posts and other types of online correspondence they mistakenly thought were private conversations with friends, she says.
They’re, “choosing to open their lives in ways their parents would have thought impossible and their grandparents unthinkable,” Stoddart states, also noting the risk of unguarded personal information being exploited by identity thieves, continuing:
“Such openness can lead to greater creativity, literacy, networking and social engagement. But putting so much of their personal information out into the open can also … leave an enduring trail of embarrassing moments that could haunt them in future.”
Her report on the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) highlights the issue of youth privacy, but also looks at 2008 privacy complaint investigations; technology and privacy issues; and the commissioner’s efforts to encourage the development of international privacy standards.
Some 422 new PIPEDA-related complaints were received in 2008, “ending a downward trend that had lasted for several years,” it says, adding:
“In 2007, there had been 350 complaints, fewer than half the 723 received in 2004.”
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