OPC

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

The mission of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) is to protect and promote the privacy rights of individuals.  The OPC works independently from any other part of the government to investigate complaints with respect to the federal public sector and the private sector. As a public advocate for the privacy rights of Canadians, the OPC carries out activities including:

• Investigating complaints and issuing reports;Assessing compliance with obligations contained in the Privacy Act and PIPEDA;
• Responding to inquiries of Parliamentarians, individual Canadians and organizations;
• Promoting public awareness and compliance;
• Monitoring trends in privacy practices; and,
• Working with privacy stakeholders from other jurisdictions.

Based on the path-breaking work of the SSC at Queen’s, we are pleased to support the Big Data Surveillance research and believe that the projects outlined therein will help foster an understanding of the challenging privacy issues that are raised by interconnected, ubiquitous communications technologies and sensors.

Additionally, in tandem with our own internal work, we expect that the findings and research will help advance knowledge in this area and have valuable outcomes for the Canadian public.  We recognize the critical value of independent research that advances knowledge on issues that affect privacy and contributes meaningfully to informed debate.  We are delighted to extend our support to the underlying objectives of this innovative research project.

OPC Website