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DevFeb 9, 20221 min read

Speaking with Canadian legislators about anonymization

On February 7, 2022, Replica’s Senior Vice-President and General Manager, Khaled El Emam, appeared by invitation as an expert witness before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI). ETHI launched a study into the  Collection and Use of Mobility Data by the Government of Canada, a matter that has recently been the subject of media coverage and is being investigated by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.  

The purpose of Dr. El Emam’s testimony was not to assess the approach in this case, but to provide an overview of de-identification, and some other privacy enhancing technologies and best practices for responsible reuse and sharing of data, and to then answer questions from the Members of Parliament.

As a follow-up to the appearance, the Committee was provided with our whitepaper,  10 Recommendations for Regulating Non-identifiable Data, as well as a brief primer on synthetic data generation, as they expressed an interest in learning more about the technology.

You can read Dr. El Emam’s opening statement  here.

To watch a recording of the meeting, visit  this page (at the 12:06 mark).

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