A word from Stephanie Perrin, President:
“When I founded Digital Discretion in 2002, I set up a blog called
Indiscretions.. It seemed like the right name where one could offer frank comments about privacy. However, some of my most indiscreet
colleagues, or shall we say most forthright and fearless, immediately lined up
to post their views. Since I was still
an employee of the federal government, and the law I spent the previous years
working on was only just coming into force, I decided that discretion would be
the better part of valour, as the saying goes, and I backed off the blog.
During the past ten years, blogging has certainly grown up, for
better or for worse. I still wonder who
reads all these blogs, and if you are wondering why you should read this one,
here is why.
We intend to use this blog to post commentary that examines in
depth little known facts, history, and current issues having to do with privacy
and access to information. Sometimes we
will be controversial, sometimes (we hope) insightful, and sometimes just old
and grumpy. Our intent is that all of
our blog posts be well-informed, and polite. That’s why we are operating a
moderated blog.
To start this off, I want to explain the name Digital
Discretion. It is not, as a dear friend
and colleague teased back in ’02, a dating or escort service. The phrase came out of my efforts to shepherd
a well-framed, properly balanced data protection law for Canada through
Parliament. I know that no matter how
carefully drafted or well intentioned your proposal is, once a law is on the
books, the results can be not what you expected. Some things that you thought would be illegal
are found to be legal, and vice versa.
This is the way of all laws.
But while a data protection law is important and necessary, the
boundaries of the law are not the only touchstone for determining whether any
given conduct or activity is proper. Just
because it is legal, doesn’t make it right.
Some things are in bad taste.
Some things are immoral. Some
things are just plain greedy. Every time
you make a decision about the processing of personal information, you are
exercising discretion.
That’s what Digital Discretion offers to help clients to do. Whatever you do must be something legal, of
course, but it should otherwise also be appropriate for your business and your
customers. That’s where the discretion
comes in. Lawyers anywhere can tell you
what’s legal. Digital Discretion has the
best lawyers for privacy for that purpose, but we offer more than that. We help clients to do the right thing. Doing the legal thing is mandatory. Doing the right thing is discretionary. Now that everything is digital and casts a
shadow that can last for years, you have to exercise digital discretion. We are here to help.
As for the blog….we may at times be indiscreet, but we will
always try to help!”
Do you want to contribute to this blog, moderated by Bob Gellman?