CBC: Great to See Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien welcoming our community’s Privacy Plan

Check out this great media coverage of our Privacy Plan, a crowdsourced plan to fix Canada's privacy deficit. Over 125,000 took part in this process and we're happy to know your views on privacy have been endorsed by Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien. You can read the complete plan here: https://PrivacyPlan.ca/ Article by Kady O'Malley for CBC News

With the government's controversial proposed anti-terror law set to be passed into law within weeks, some of Bill C-51's most outspoken critics are supporting a "pro-privacy action plan" that calls for an end to warrantless and mass surveillance and more independent oversight.

• READ: Canada's Privacy Plan – full report

According to OpenMedia president David Christopher, what he describes as "Canada's growing privacy deficit" has "alarming consequences for democracy."

• Bill C-51 passes in House of Commons 
• C-51 anti-terrorism bill 'excessive,' Privacy Commissioner says 
• Bill C-51: Privacy watchdog Daniel Therrien blocked from committee witness list 

"We're at a tipping point where we need to decide whether to continue evolving into a surveillance society, or whether to rein in the government's spying apparatus," he notes in the release accompanying the report.

"This report outlines common sense steps to strengthen privacy safeguards for all of us."

Privacy watchdog 'welcomes' report

The plan, released on Wednesday, identifies the "key privacy concerns" that Canadians want to see addressed, according to OpenMedia:

• Warrantless access to personal information.
• Widespread dragnet surveillance of entire populations.
• Insufficient oversight and accountability of surveillance activities.

Among the suggested fixes: requiring that surveillance operations garner "judicial, not political authorization," put a stop to the collection and analysis of social media chatter and ask the parliamentary budget officer and auditor general to develop "clear cost projections for surveillance activities."

- Read more at CBC