Privacy should be considered in competition decisions, conference hears

OTTAWA — The concept of privacy should factor more prominently in competition law when it comes to regulating social media and big data, a conference heard on Thursday. “Users need to be able to vote with their feet when their privacy is invaded,” said Sally Hubbard, former assistant attorney general in the New York antitrust bureau, adding privacy considerations must factor into whether or not regulators approve a merger of two companies. Hubbard was joined by some other speakers at the Data Forum in Ottawa on Thursday in promoting the importance of privacy in competition law decisions, a concept that is more common in Europe than in North America. Earlier in the week at the International Grand Committee on disinformation and fake news, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith had asked Facebook Inc.’s Kevin Chan if he thought privacy should be included as a consideration in competition law. Chan replied that he did not. Top Facebook executives Zuckerberg and Sandberg did not show up at the committee, which to Hubbard showed how powerful the companies are compared to the government and why the companies should be broken up -- for example, Facebook being separated from Whatsapp and/or Instagram. But Melanie Aiken, a former head of Canada’s Competition Bureau, warned against being “hysterical” amidst a “populist” negative attitude toward the data giants. Pointing out that the Competition Bureau’s budget has remained flat while ISEDs has doubled in the last three years, the C. D. Howe Institute’s associate director of research Grant Bishop said on a panel that “it’s not clear that the minister has been putting the requisite emphasis on competition law enforcement, and we have encouraged him to do so.” In his remarks before the day’s final panel, commissioner Matthew Boswell said he would be attending meetings with his regulatory counterparts in the American Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice next month. The meetings will address abuse of dominance and and unilateral conduct cases, according to a Competition Bureau spokesperson.

Privacy should be considered in competition decisions, conference hears

Brief | May 31, 2019

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Privacy should be considered in competition decisions, conference hears

Brief | May 31, 2019

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