Fuelling our economic recovery

I watched an old episode of Parks and Rec the other day. It featured a company called Gryzzl that was sending personalized gifts to people in the town. The characters were angry that the company had presumably mined their data to know what they would each like. But they were equally thrilled with their gifts, with many declaring they would treasure them forever. 

Marketers know that personalization is appreciated and expected by consumers – but only if their privacy is respected. Research bears this out.

Canadian privacy law is two decades old and needs updating. With amendments in a few key areas, the government’s proposed Bill C-11 provides a balanced approach to update privacy law for the benefit of both consumers and businesses.

I worry that we are losing a critical window of opportunity to have it advance through Parliament. On that basis, we have been meeting with many MPs over the past several weeks, to garner support for advancing the bill to a parliamentary committee for study.

This is not just a marketing issue. The companies fueling our economic recovery across all sectors need clear, consistent and modern privacy rules – and so do consumers.

Some of you might have noticed that we have been posting on social about this lately. We hope you will engage with our tweets and our LinkedIn posts, and ask your organization to do so as well.

Together, we can help shine a light on the need to advance this important legislation.