Canada’s Privacy Commissioner awards $500,000 to 13 projects to advance frontiers of privacy research

OTTAWA, June 3, 2010 – Today, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart announced the recipients of her Office’s 2010-11 Contributions Program, which funds privacy research and public education initiatives.

Recipients of this year’s Contributions Program are advancing research in a number of areas of interest to Canadians  and others around the world:

• Targeted online advertising
• Data-sharing between governments and commercial organizations through national security programs at the border and at airports
• Video surveillance in public spaces by commercial organizations
• The privacy implications of patient websites, online health record databases and other “Health 2.0” tools

“The pace of technology has meant we must face new privacy challenges everyday – online, at the airport, on our streets and in our homes,” says Ms. Stoddart. “Research projects like these help all of us become better informed to meet those challenges.”

This year’s projects involve research initiatives that focus on the Office’s four key privacy priority areas: national security, identity integrity and protection, information technology, and genetic privacy.

For a full list of the successful recipients and their projects from 2010-11, visit: http://www.priv.gc.ca/resource/cp/2010-2011/cp_bg_e.cfm.

This year, the OPC will make available $500,000 to fund 13 research and public education initiatives.

The OPC received 62 funding proposals for the 2010-11 Contributions Program. Each proposal was weighed on its merit and recipients were selected after a rigorous screening process. These projects are expected to be completed in 2011.

Created in 2004 to support non-profit research on privacy, further privacy policy development, and promote the protection of personal information in Canada, the Contributions Program is highly regarded and considered one of the foremost privacy research funding programs in the world. To date, the program has allocated over $2 million to more than 60 initiatives in Canada.

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada is mandated by Parliament to act as an ombudsman, advocate and guardian of privacy and the protection of personal information rights of Canadians.

For more information about the Contributions Program and/or media interview requests, contact:

François Cadieux
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Tel: (613) 947-3090
Email: francois.cadieux@priv.gc.ca