* Chief statistician flags concerns in annual report
* Privacy watchdog advising Statscan to mitigate risks
* Government agency vows to uphold security, privacy
By Louise Egan
OTTAWA, May 22 (Reuters) – Government budget cuts could
threaten the privacy of personal and business information as
Canada’s statistics agency abandons its st andalone computer
system and finds cheaper ways to obtain its data.
Canada’s privacy watchdog, who famously challenged policies
at Facebook and Google, and chief statistician
Wayne Smith both se e risks in Statistics Canada cost-cutting
measures, part of a broad effort to eliminate the Canadian
federal budget deficit by 2016.
As well as cutting staff and eliminating some of its surveys
, Statscan must merge email and data systems with
those used by 42 o ther government departments and agencies and
likely rely more heavily on outside sources of data.
“We have underlined the fact that consolidating the email
functions of so many federal organizations into one service
could result in greater vulnerability for personal information,”
said Scott Hutchinson, a spokesman for the Office of the Privacy
Commissioner of Canada.
Statscan, which must cut spending by C$33.9 million ($33.33
million) by 2015, has traditionally kept its computer systems
separate from external ones to ensure the confidentiality of all
the sensitive information it manages, as is required by law.
That enables it to protect personal data such as names,
addresses, employment and financial assets as well as sales and
production data obtained through some 350 surveys.
Chief statistician Wayne Smith said in his annual report
that his agency “faces significant new challenges in delivering
its program and protecting respondent confidentiality” once it
joins a p rogram called Shared Services Canada (SSC), created
last August to unify information technology across the federal
bureaucracy to cut waste and replication.
HACKERS FEARED
Alice Nakamura, a University of Alberta economist who
follows Statscan issues closely, worries the changes are being
rushed through without a proper risk analysis.
Other experts – pointing to cyber attacks at several
government departments last year – fear hackers could access
private information more easily if it is stored on a new system.
“It is worse than senseless to force Statscan to make
changes in their communications and data systems at this time,”
said Nakamura.
“Those systems are the core of their operations. The agency
was already pressed for time and human resources to figure out
how to remake their data production operations because of the
unprecedented budget cuts.”
SSC said government bureaucracies will continue to manage
their own data, but it will operate the hardware. It promised to
work with Statscan to ensure a smooth transition and said
government security and privacy policies won’t change.
“SSC takes very seriously the responsibility to protect
privacy and security in accordance with relevant legislation and
policies,” said spokesman Ted Francis.
PUBLIC’S CONCERNS
The other concern at Statscan centers on the possible
increased reliance on data from third parties rather than
through costly Statscan surveys.
The agency already obtains records from outside bodies such
as police and tax authorities for some statistics like homicide
rates and payrolls, to name a couple. Smith said the best way to
save money while ensuring data quality was to expand the number
of these partnerships for obtaining what is known as
“administrative data”.
But he added: “There are risks associated with balancing
greater use of administrative data with Canadians’ privacy
concerns about this practice.”
Privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has advised Statscan
in the past on protecting confidential information, and she
urged Statscan to work closely with other or ganizations i f it
uses this met hod mor e.
Canadians should be told their information will be used for
statistical purposes, and should be able to access and correct
that information, she said.
Stoddart earned a global reputation in 2008 with the world’s
first investigation of privacy practices at social media site
Facebook. Facebook responded with steps to limit sharing of
personal information with third-party applications and to tell
users more about privacy settings.
She later locked horns with Google Inc for
collecting personal information as it photographed Canadian
streets for its Street View projects.
