Dear Mr. hidden-to-protect-my-vanity:
The Minister Responsible for Statistics Canada, the Honourable Maxime Bernier, has asked me to respond to your email of May 6, 2006.
I would like to assure you that Statistics Canada has taken a number of important safeguards to protect the privacy and confidentiality of your Census responses. These safeguards have been independently assessed by IT security specialists and the entire assessment process overseen by a Task Force headed by the former Auditor General of Canada, Mr. Denis Desautels. The task force was clear in their conclusion: "Canadians can trust that the information gathered during the 2006 Census will be secure." The entire report is available at www.census2006.ca. I would also like to expand on some of the security safeguards in place for the 2006 Census.
Statistics Canada is completely responsible for every phase of conducting the 2006 Census. The contract with Lockheed Martin Canada, IBM Canada and Transcontinental Printing Canada is strictly for the provision of hardware, software and printing services. No contractor ever has access to or is in possession of Census responses.
Census information is, at all times, under the complete care and full control of Statistics Canada employees. In fact, all census databases, facilities and networks containing confidential data are physically isolated from any networks outside Statistics Canada. Therefore, even if a request were ever to be made by an external authority to any contractor for confidential data, it would be physically impossible for a contractor to comply, given that they are never in possession of census responses.
Public Works and Government Services Canada awarded the contract through an open, transparent, and stringent competitive bidding process following all the laws and regulations pertaining to procurement. Statistics Canada has relied on the private sector in the past to provide equipment and services to conduct a Census in a cost effective manner, without compromising confidentiality, and the 2006 Census is no exception.
Census data are a vital source of information for decisions by governments and private citizens and businesses that affect the daily lives of Canadians. The data must be complete and accurate for these purposes. We have put so much emphasis on security and confidentiality measures regarding contractor provided systems to ensure that Canadians can complete their Census questionnaires in full confidence of these measures. It is critical that we all be part of the Canadian family portrait that is the Census. I urge you to be part of that portrait.
Thank you for your interest in the census.
BACK TO ME TALKING: i don't buy it. the idea that a company (in this case, Lockheed Martin) could print the document on their hardware (printer) means that that company has a copy of a digital file on their computers, and those files, the minute they're there, can be accessed by the US government via the Homeland Security provisions, and we'd never know about it. are the files erased by an accredited data wiping technology? and why are american companies involved in this process in the first place?
anybody with an iota of economics knowledge knows how important it is to keep money IN the economy. in this instance, profits flow south. this type of thinking helps banana republics to keep selling bananas. it also costs Canada jobs in the long term. it's flawed thinking. and it makes me ill. the long term repurcussions of this are that it doesn't save money, it costs Canada money.
write your MPS. let people know.
also, i got some more love from the links yesterday. you can check it out HERE: it's pretty funny, but not my most intellectual work. (link is now working, thanks lou)
2 comments:
Thoughts on an ultra-quiet revolution (why it's a waste of time to write about our supposed loss-of-freedoms on the internet) -
You think that the USA really has to take the long legislative route to getting our information if they want it? unlikely. If the American government has any real interest in someone living in Canada, I'm sure they go through our own security people to get it and we never hear a word. Nice to think though that they'd do their shady dealings out in the open for bloggers to debate...but my opinion is that it is unrealistically naive to think we have any privacy left in tangible terms (as in, if they want it, they can already get it)...and what's the big deal anyways...American government is interested in nabbing suspected "bad guys", not in making sure that Haliburton has your address so they can mail you their spring newsletter. Which is hardly an infringement on your rights and freedoms, btw. You do have a good point about Canadian money going south through the purchase of these equip. and services...but since the Canadian economy receives much of itself from the pockets of Americans, I would say that objecting to yet another cross-border deal is probably a waste of your effort.
To summarize (sorry, I don't have my own Blog), I feel that posting anti-establishment writings on the worldwideweb is sort of "preaching to the choir"...and this choir of monitor-faced ergobots are probably not the people who will spearhead any sort of effective and meaningful 'revolution', seeing as we're all busy checking our email...even if we may by some chance be the first people to know that a revolution is necessary...
If you want to make a difference, get off the internet and go to teacher's college.
H
i politely disagree.
the dissemenination of information on the internet is incredibly important.
the fact that you haven't been paying attention is evident in the statement, but i'll keep going :)
your disbelief is cynical but not empirical.
almost every single person i know is actively engaged in reading/sharing/learning via the internet, on topics concerning the fate of the world, politics, the environment, art, thought and ideas.
you say i'm writing 'anti-establishment' on the internet, but i view my writing as 'mildly concerned'.
but my opinion wins, as you're writing ideas in it, disseminating your own voice through a medium you claim has no power to do so. whether those listening are 'the choir' or not is also up for debate. (do you see internet users as being 15 year old science fiction fans?)
my concern about the outsourcing of census data is ultimately a sovereignty issue.
When you say "American government is interested in nabbing suspected "bad guys", not in making sure that Haliburton has your address so they can mail you their spring newsletter.", you forget that that statement is also the sentiment that allows wiretapping on your phone (i'm not doing anything wrong, so go ahead and listen) to implanting RFID tags because "i've got nothing to hide". that may be extreme, but the ideology is the same.
and i was never concerned about the US reading my personal data, i'm concerned about the macro view:
1) american access to Canadian information - it's not theirs to take. why should they have access? we pay for it.
2) what can or can not be done with the information is not for us laymen to define. i think it's safe to assume that there are things that can be done with the information that might benefit american advertisers, or big box stores, the same way the canadian government sells the information to big box stores and marketers here. why do the americans get for free what our tax dollars pay for?
3) is there not one single military/diplomatic/bargaining advantage that you could think of that the US would get by having access to the information?
4) on principal alone, it's sickening.
the drudge report is a million-hit-a-day blog. drudge helps MAKE news. his counterpoint, thehuffingtonpost.com is growing rapidly, with a huge increase in powerful readers and writers, as evidenced by her recent profile in Vanity Fair (so it started online, moved to print... is it still the 'choir'? when does it become the brass section?)
who is the choir and why don't they matter?
last point: i emailed my MP, the Minister of blah-blah, and the prime minister of canada to voice concern.
i did this because i read a blog on the internet. and then i wrote to them on the internet. that's powerful stuff, to me anyway.
For every letter an MP gets, it counts as the opinion of 10,000 people. one letter counts.
and if i do my blogging at work, how can you call it a waste of time!? :)
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