Foundation Senior Scholar & Former Privacy Commissioner of Canada

Jennifer Stoddart is Foundation Senior Scholar. As Privacy Commissioner of Canada from 2003 to 2013, Jennifer Stoddart and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada have become leaders both nationally and internationally in the privacy sphere.  Jennifer Stoddart has overseen a number of important investigations and audits of personal information handling practices in the public and private sectors. She was the first data protection authority in the world to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the privacy policies and practices of the popular social networking site, Facebook. Throughout her mandate, she advocated the need to ensure that both the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and the Privacy Act continue to provide the strongest possible protections for Canadians in an era of constantly evolving risks to privacy. Jennifer Stoddart has been involved in global privacy issues through her work with international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which are examining ways to protect and enhance privacy rights on a global scale. In 2010, she led an unprecedented collaboration involving 10 data protection authorities who issued a joint letter reminding online companies of their responsibility to respect privacy laws in countries where they launch their products or services. She was selected as the 2010 recipient of the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ Privacy Vanguard Award for her role in establishing Canada as a leading regulator on privacy issues.