With the shift from industrial manufacturing to knowledge creation and service delivery, the value of information and the need to manage it responsibly have grown dramatically. At the same time, rapid innovation, global competition and increasing system complexity present profound challenges for informational privacy.
While we would like to enjoy the benefits of innovation − new conveniences and efficiencies − we must also preserve our freedom of choice and personal control over our data flows. Always a social norm, privacyhas nonetheless evolved over the years, beyond being viewed solely as a legal compliance requirement, to also being recognized as a market imperative and critical enabler of trust and freedoms in our present-day information society.
Authors:
Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D.
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
Ontario, Canada