Decision Makers Series: Long-time public advocacy lawyer leaves Ottawa

After five and a half years at the helm of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) Philippa Lawson is hanging up her boots, with a warning that privacy issues on the Internet, convergence and deep package inspection (DPI) still pose challenges that need to be monitored to protect the interests of the consumer.Lawson became CIPPIC director in the fall of 2003. She will be leaving to set up her own private practice in Whitehorse, where her husband is taking up a job with the Yukon government. She plans to do the same kind of work as she has in Ottawa, but on contract. Under her leadership, CIPPIC launched a spirited campaign on a slew of high profile privacy issues that have seen the clinic presenting cases before the Privacy Commissioner, the House of Commons and the courts. The most recent high profile case that caught the attention of most Canadians and the world was a filing with the Private Commissioner alleging the popular social networking site Facebook infringes on the privacy of Canadians.CIPPIC, the first legal clinic of its kind in Canada, brought forth 21 alleged violations that Facebook was committing. These include the alleged failure to safeguard users’ personal information after they close their accounts, the sharing of private information with third parties, the unauthorized access and failure to provide consent for opting out of the social networking site. Facebook has dismissed the charges, stressing they have serious factual errors.Even as the case still awaits a ruling from the Privacy Commissioner, Lawson says it is important to highlight such issues because social networking sites on the Internet have expanded by “leaps and bounds” with serious implications through unintentional exposure of sensitive personal information, especially among young people.“We were allowing the networking sites to develop based on commercial motive, without any kind of input or control from our social mechanisms and legal mechanisms designed to put breaks on commercial activity that has serious adverse effects,” she says of CIPPIC’s decision to complain to the Private Commissioner. While there’s still no legal decision about the complaint, Lawson suggests it has had a positive impact, however modest.“There have been some little things they have done to tighten up the privacy controls but they haven’t done some of the things that we think are obvious. The main issue there I think is the default settings. We think by law in Canada, they should be set to no sharing. And then people would have to go in to personally select who they want to share with,” she says, adding that Facebook has taken steps to improve communication on such issues with its users.In terms of enforcing privacy issues through legislation, Lawson says she’s disappointed at the absence of reforms that are needed. She posits that there is a feeling among the government, that enforcing privacy issues on the Internet is not feasible.“The Privacy Commissioner can find, as she did in response to some complaints by us, that some of the federal administrative tribunals are posting very sensitive and detailed personal information on the Internet that can just be googled up about people ,” she says.“She’s even recommended that the law requires that they take measures not to post that information and they are, in some cases, refusing to take the message that she has proposed and there’s nothing she can do about that because there’s no enforcement under the Privacy Act. And this is something that needs to change."Equally disappointing, says Lawson, is the fact that the Privacy Commissioner doesn’t want to acknowledge the existence of weaknesses inherent in the law. “They like to just go on merrily thinking that the industry is largely compliant and that the complaints-based system is working."Touching on the convergence that has been going on in the telecommunications industry for some years now, Lawson warns that is has created a situation in which corporations with money and power will take advantage of those who do not have immense financial resources. Convergence, she adds, has heralded an advent of “rough waters” rife with conflict of interest scenarios, which the industry has yet to fully grasp.“We’ve now created a playing field in which there are huge conflicts of interest, …and that is rife with entities that have a lot of power to use and abuse in ways that benefit them at the expense of their competitors. And I don’t think we’ve figured out the answers to that."Regarding deep package inspection, Lawson says the issue has huge social implications that are not yet so obvious to policy makers. Telecom companies say DPI allows them to manage traffic efficiently but CIPPIC says it can be used to gather information on consumers, which can be used for targeted advertising.“I don’t think we’ve got our heads around that. To me the big questions are ‘what are the limits to behavioural targeted marketing?’ Are there no limits to what commercial interests can collect our information for their marketing purposes?"As she prepares to leave, Lawson says one disappointment she’s had at CIPPIC was seeing the CRTC throw out a case the clinic had presented against net neutrality. Last month the CRTC ruled that Bell Canada’s Internet traffic management procedures are not illegal. Lawson noted that CIPPIC will be intervening on the matter when new proceedings on begin in February next year.As the CRTC prepares for a public hearing on new media in February, Lawson says she is against the idea of a levy on ISPs to fund Canadian content, arguing that while she supports Canadian content, there are better ways of getting funding for it than imposing a levy on ISPs.“We need to support Canadian content but the Internet has become more of an essential service for citizens over the years and the last thing we should be doing is taxing it."Looking back at her five-year career with CIPPIC, Lawson says her biggest achievement has been setting up the clinic as a voice for under-represented issues in the telecommunications sector. Prior to joining CIPPIC, she worked at the Ottawa-based Public Interest Advocacy Centre, non-profit organization that offers legal and research services for consumer interests.To read the full interview with Philippa Lawson, click here.

Decision Makers Series: Long-time public advocacy lawyer leaves Ottawa

News | 12/18/2008 8:32 pm EST

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