OTTAWA – Young Canadians are facing a host of privacy risks that previous generations never had to worry about, says the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
From ‘nanny cams’ to cell phone monitoring to a permanent trail of their online communications, youth privacy issues were at the forefront of the Commissioner's 2011 Annual Report to Parliament on the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
"While the young show agility in using any new kind of digital communication, and recognize the importance of protecting their privacy, they are also often unsuspecting about the potential privacy intrusions that can accompany novel technologies," said Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, in a statement. "All of that online communication creates a permanent record – and that could carry risks to their privacy and to their reputations. Not just today, but perhaps even more in the future."
Making youth issues a major focus of its outreach and public education initiatives, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has developed presentation packages for school and community use, a teen-oriented video, and a tip sheet for parents. In addition, it released a graphic novel called 'Social Smarts: Privacy, the Internet and You' (see below) designed to help younger Canadians to understand and navigate privacy issues in the online world.
"This graphic novel – a first for our Office – was developed with feedback from youth”, added Stoddart. “We hope it will help young people to understand the risks to privacy when it comes to social networking, gaming and texting."
The OPC also said that it accepted 281 formal complaints under PIPEDA in 2011, a 35% increase from the previous year.
