Privacy commish funding work on rules for connected cars

OTTAWA — The federal privacy commissioner will be working with stakeholders to develop a “code of practice” to help address privacy concerns around connected and autonomous vehicles, a Senate committee heard Tuesday. There are a wide range of questions that still have to be answered when it comes to connected cars, Daniel Therrien told the standing committee on transport and communications as part of their study on the regulatory and technical challenges related to the deployment of connected and autonomous vehicles. Those questions include who is responsible for what data, who is responsible for ensuring no one has access to information when a car is sold or rental vehicle returned, and how consumers are informed about the collection and use of personal information. In the United States, vehicle manufacturers came together to develop a set of privacy principles that resemble the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Therrien said. “In Canada, my office will soon be funding, through our contributions program, an arms-length project which aims to develop a code of practice for connected cars. To the extent that they can ensure compliance with, or even surpass manufacturers obligations under PIPEDA, efforts such as these should be encouraged,” he said. Speaking to reporters after his committee appearance, Therrien said an announcement on the exercise is will be made “in the coming days. I’m not ready to say with whom at this point . But we will fund an exercise to develop a code of practice and that exercise will involve a number of stakeholders, private and non-private.” As Therrien told the committee Tuesday, “there are many players in what I refer to as the ecosystem,” ranging from the manufacturer to the dealer to municipalities to institutions responsible for parking. “Don’t count on your fingers — there are probably hundreds of players, public or private, that can ultimately receive information from the car.” The type of information that is accessible falls into two categories, Therrien said. With telematics — information about the vehicle’s systems derived from sensors — “further information can be extrapolated about the vehicle’s driver, including how and where they drive,” he said, in French. The second comes from infotainment systems, or “conduits for information relating to navigation, traffic, weather or entertainment such as streaming audio,” he said, adding “these systems can be paired with a driver’s phone to enable hands-free communications, giving the systems access to the user’s contact list as well as incoming calls, text messages and emails.” In addition to recommending the requirement of privacy by design, Therrien also repeated a recommendation he made to the House of Commons committee reviewing PIPEDA last month that his office shouldn’t have to rely on its current reactive powers. In response to a question from Nova Scotia Sen. Terry Mercer about how the office of the privacy commissioner can respond quickly to as-yet unknown problems with access to personal information, Therrien said there are a variety of potential problems arising from new technologies, beyond connected cars, including the rise of artificial intelligence. “So you need to have the proper legislative framework, flexible. You need to ensure that corporate players involved in these activities are accountable,” he said, adding that this also requires having someone who can act quickly if something goes wrong. And most potential problems won’t be picked up by consumers on a complaint basis, Therrien said. “We’re better placed — we’re not ideally placed — but we’re better placed than individual consumers to know where the problems are and if we were to have greater authority to act proactively then we would be closer to being able to act quickly, as you say.” — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Privacy commish funding work on rules for connected cars

News | March 28, 2017

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Privacy commish funding work on rules for connected cars

News | March 28, 2017

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

ISED launches consultation on AI computing power

Doing good means doing well financially, Entwistle tells Canadian Club

International cooperation needed to tackle uncertain future of AI, says expert report

Irekvist promotes Ericsson’s efforts to reach net-zero emissions

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us