Introduction
The 2011 Census Dissemination Discussion Forum was developed to foster the exchange of ideas and suggestions for the 2011 Census dissemination strategy. This online discussion forum is a component of the 2011 Census and geography dissemination consultation process and offers users an opportunity to provide input into the planning of the 2011 Census and geography products and services.
Objectives
A privacy impact assessment for the discussion forum was conducted to determine if there were any privacy, confidentiality and security issues associated with the web application, and if so, to make recommendations for their resolution or mitigation.
Description
As is common practice with such online discussions, before being able to leave comments in the discussion forum, participants are asked to provide a user name (alias) and their e-mail address which may be used to correspond with them if required.
Participants are informed that the username they create will be displayed along with their comments and that Statistics Canada will protect their e-mail address from public disclosure. To ensure the latter, e-mail addresses will be removed from the forum database every work day.
Conclusion
This assessment of the 2011 Census Dissemination Discussion Forum did not identify any privacy risks that cannot be managed using existing safeguards.