The Data Effect

Amid intense data-related conversations happening in the country, it is fair to ask: Is it time for Canada to create a national data strategy?

Blackberry co-founder Jim Balsillie has been speaking on this for some time, suggesting that if Canada doesn’t develop a national data strategy soon it may cost the country the chance to become a world-leader in data-related business.

Some recent news has made the need for coherent overarching plan obvious. For instance, after a brief honeymoon period, Toronto’s Sidewalk Labs is getting criticism over its vague plans for the data it collects in its smart city living lab along Toronto’s Waterfront. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has recently commented on something akin to ‘the right to be forgotten’.

Canada’s data leaders will be in Ottawa June 26 for The Data Effect, a premier summit on how Canada can prosper in the data age. We’ll be looking at such important questions as:

· Who owns the data people generated?

· What are the appropriate privacy protections?

· How does business and government prosper in the data age?

Read more about the Center for International Governance and Innovation’s work on the need for a national data strategy here: https://www.cigionline.org/data-governance-digital-age

Register for the Ottawa edition of The Data Effect here.