Computers And The Emergence Of Privacy Breaches

Several recent high-profile privacy breaches have begun to focus the attention of corporate Canada on the important legal issues that result from the disclosure of personal information of customers or employees in an unauthorized manner through loss or theft. What is the liability of a company when data is inadvertently disclosed? Should the company inform the affected data subjects, and if so, when? What steps should be taken to minimize the damage to the company’s reputation? And how can future privacy breach incidents be better managed?

These are all good questions. But before turning to them, consider some of the broader trends that are behind our current vulnerability to privacy breaches. It’s no coincidence that the volume and severity of these incidents are increasing. To understand why, reflect for a moment on the history of computing and networking over the past 40 years, particularly from the perspective of the challenges posed to computer security and data privacy by the