Privacy commisioner right Editorial Ottawa Citizen, July 31 Bruce Phillips, the privacy commisioner, has again called for reinforcements to defend personal privacy against the assaults of commercialism and technology. It is a call that demands action-from the federal government, Parliament and every Canadian. The commisioner's annual report proposes two essential recommendations. First, the government should make the protection of privacy a condition of sale whenever a government enterprise is sold to the private sector. Second, the government and Parliament must pass a law extending the enforcement of privacy rights to private-sector businesses in federal jurisdiction. Phillips is right. As thousands of public servants are transferred out of government service, they lose the protection of the Privacy Act -- which covers only government departments and agencies. And as more personal information about all of us accumulates in the corporate sector, there is an intensified public interest in extending legal protections. ******* Phillips acknowledges the profitability of buying, selling and exploiting personal data on employees and customers. And he sees the power of new technologies to make privacy violations faster, cheaper, more comprehensive and always more intrusive. ******* But he insists that preserving personal privacy is both possible and necessary: "If we discard the notion of privacy and simply treat one another as data subjects, as objects of surveillance, we abandon that fundamental, democratic notion of autonomy and self-determination." Right Again.