MPs hear about ‘surveillance capitalism,’ Google data use

OTTAWA — Two sides of the data-use debate squared off at the House ethics committee Thursday, with the Canadian head of public policy at Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Colin McKay, justifying his company’s treatment of data while ex-tech CEO Jim Balsillie spoke about the dangers of “surveillance capitalism.” Balsillie outlined a need for a national data strategy in a world where giant international internet companies collect and leverage the personal data of their users for behaviour-predicting advertising. “The Cambridge Analytica and scandal is not a privacy breach, nor is it a corporate governance issue. It’s not even a trust issue,” said Balsillie, former leader of Research in Motion (now BlackBerry Ltd.) who was testifying in his role as chair of the Council for Canadian Innovators, in his opening statement. “It’s a business model issue based on exploiting current gaps in Canada’s data governance laws.” The ethics committee has heard from various groups while examining the use of personal data by internet companies. The scandal involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica has prompted multiple privacy investigations around the world, and unprecedented international cooperation. Estimates say data of roughly 620,000 Canadians could have been swept up in an election-influencing effort. Balsillie argued that Facebook and Google are “companies built exclusively on the principle of mass surveillance.” But McKay told the committee that Google takes steps to protect its users, and denied that it sells personal info directly to advertisers. He told MPs that there were privacy controls found in users’ Google account settings. “A data strategy does not need to be as restrictive or prescriptive as Mr. Balsillie has suggested,” said McKay. “Creating a strategy that tries to box Canada in, or tries to create obligations that are not either parallel or similar to those available elsewhere in the world will actually limit opportunities available to Canadians to innovate both in Canada and internationally.” “There needs to be consistency and predictability in any regulatory framework that gets set up,” he added. McKay was later asked to explain what exactly, in layman's terms, Google does as a business with its users’ personal data, by Liberal MP Michel Picard. He told the committee that Google uses the signals that indicate a users’ preferences while observing their habits online, giving the example of Google maps offering parking spots at hockey games, after it learns the individual is a fan of going to hockey games. The company doesn’t “provide a service that allows advertisers to target individuals,” instead targeting in aggregate and connecting advertisers to groups of people with specific qualities, he said. The company also doesn’t provide direct details of Google users’ personal info to third parties, according to McKay. Also mentioned was the new Google Duplex product, a service unveiled this week at a Google developer conference which would enable human-sounding automated software to book appointments over the phone. McKay assuaged Conservative MP Jacques Gourde’s fears it could allow for wide scale robo-calls, saying that wasn’t the intended use for the service. These answers did not seem to satisfy Balsillie. Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith asked the former tech CEO if there were still practises currently undertaken by Google that could change or be improved. “You have to look at the ethics of the algorithms and how that impacts and persuades people's behavior,” said Balsillie. Balsillie pointed to YouTube’s automatically-chosen suggested next video feature as “designed to get you to watch more,” as well as media reports of extremist or violent content being recommended to viewers. YouTube has committed to using other algorithms to detect and hide those videos after advertisers complained their brands were being associated with offensive content. He also made a comparison to the California emission laws that, he said, car-makers at the time had grave predictions about. “Everybody said 'Oh, that's the end of the automotive industry. You can't innovate. It's not going to be profitable,'” added Balsillie. “Well, we've got better cars. We got better emissions. We got record profits from the automotive companies. These things, properly implemented, can all positively reinforce one another.” Also touched upon was the upcoming European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Balsillie’s testimony called for GDPR-like rules for Canada, but the committee also got a glimpse of the law’s impact on Google’s activities. McKay denied that the new laws will create two tiers of Google users, one in the EU and another outside, and said “it is driving change both at our company and in other companies.” But McKay also argued that the GDPR is “presenting a real challenge to companies that don't have sophisticated internal I.T. systems, or a clear understanding of what data they hold, and what responsibility they have to their users. Especially companies that try to export or import from Europe.” Balsillie agreed that determining jurisdiction of data protections will be a challenge to overcome, as a significant portion of Canadian internet traffic is routed through the United States. When asked what Canadian regulators should learn from the development of the EU data regulation, he pointed to the rules keeping data within its borders. “Per U.S. law, Canadian data has no rights whatsoever in the United States. So you have no right to privacy,” said Balsillie. “So what the EU did is they managed the routing so that it never left the jurisdiction of what they prescribed as appropriate treatment of that data.” Before the appearance of Balsillie and McKay, the committee heard testimony from the U.K.’s information commissioner Elizabeth Denham and B.C.’s privacy commissioner Michael McEvoy. McEvoy used his opening statement to call for political parties in Canada to adhere to privacy legislation. Asked after the meeting if there are other industries that the government should examine for data abuse, Balsillie told The Wire Report that fundamental changes could alleviate concerns across sectors. “If you solve the root issue of owning the data and governing its behaviour appropriate to the benefit of society, and making sure that it doesn't route out of your standards, then I think it'll stop all bad behaviour,” he said. — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

MPs hear about ‘surveillance capitalism,’ Google data use

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