Last week, several news outlets reported that Google will alter the version of its Street Views product that it plans to launch in Canada. To comply with Canadian privacy law, the images of Canadian cities available through Street Views – photos of public places taken at eye-level to give the perspective of a pedestrian – will have human faces and vehicle license plate numbers blurred. Google decided to take this step after receiving a letter from Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, who raised concerns about whether the product would respect national privacy laws.

This incident reveals one of many useful functions that a national privacy commissioner performs. By having an independent privacy entity with the appropriate authority and expertise, the privacy of Canadian consumers is proactively protected. In contrast, privacy policy in the U.S. suffers from a crisis-driven approach – with each new privacy-invasive technology or sector-specific issue that arises, reactions and solutions are tailor-made to manage the particular problem at hand. Commissioner Stoddart was able to identify a potential privacy threat ahead of time, and the pressure her authority provides will hopefully result in a privacy-protective outcome for Canadian consumers as Google Street Views is rolled out in Canada. Unfortunately, we are not so lucky in the United States to have a federal official whose job it is to protect our privacy interests.

Going back nearly a decade, CDT has promoted the creation of an independent privacy entity within the federal government empowered with the scope, expertise, and authority to guide our nation’s policies on privacy. This entity would not only monitor commercial and technological developments with respect to privacy, but could also conduct research, recommend new policies, and provide oversight for government agency privacy compliance. Our neighbors to the north seem to have embraced this concept, and perhaps one day soon we will follow their lead.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Consumer Privacy, International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.