Canadian Datacentres!

Microsoft announced they’re officially planning datacentres in Canada! (and yes I know it’s “datacenters”)

I started thinking about privacy and Canadian law a lot when I was the privacy officer at the Medical Council of Canada.  As an individual I recognize the benefits of privacy.  But, as someone that’s worked in small and medium sized business, I must admit I’m not a big fan of protectionist policies because I think they slow down innovation.

As someone who lived in Quebec and worked in Ontario, I’m a huge fan of the approach that Dr. Ann Cavoukian took in Ontario: focusing on getting a good agreement that respects privacy legislation no matter where the hardware sits, in combination with de-identification techniques and (if needed) encryption of data before uploading it to the cloud, plus a good business continuity plan.  I really struggle with the privacy laws that are only in force for public bodies (and their service providers) in Nova Scotia and BC.

As an Information Management (IM) professional, I’m a fan of a T.R. Schellenberg who used Records Management (RM) principles to ultimately preserve a useful set of Archival records that can be used by Historians to promote better social understanding and economic prosperity for the human race as a whole.  I don’t like the idea of letting IM Pros get sucked into nationalistic politics.  It’s true that once upon a time in the 1930s there were some US plans to invade Canada, and the fact that these only got declassified in 1974 caused a bit of a delayed reaction in Canada.  But call me a naive optimist/realist when I think that most Americans are nice folks, the US is our closest neighbour and ally.  They’re also big enough to invade us whenever they feel like it, and whether or not we store our records containing personally identifiable information (PII) in the U.S. or not… All in all, I’d prefer to think positive and focus on a better future.

If you’re interested, here’s my growing collection of favourite links from lawyer David Fraser in Nova Scotia plus some others:

• http://blog.privacylawyer.ca/2012/09/ontario-information-privacy.html
• http://blog.privacylawyer.ca/2012/09/nova-scotia-trade-union-resurrects-usa.html
• http://blog.privacylawyer.ca/2012/05/cloud-computing-and-patriot-act-red.html
• http://blog.privacylawyer.ca/2012/12/keeping-data-in-canada-provides.html
• https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/25/canada-cse-pony-express-email-surveillance/
• http://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2015/mar/24/sorry-europe-data-localization-is-not-the-killer-app-for-privacy/
• http://www.itbusiness.ca/news/exit-interview-ann-cavoukian-leaves-privacy-watch-dog-role-to-lead-ryersons-big-data-institute/49527
• https://www.gowlings.com/services/dbic/?p=15
• https://www.clouda.ca/data-privacy-canadian-data-residency/
• https://www.sync.com/pdf/sync-canada.pdf

If you disagree with everything I said, then we should go for a beer so I can try and see the world differently and did I mention that Microsoft announced they’re officially planning datacentres in Canada!