Recruiting software company sets up data centre in Canada to address Patriot Act concerns

This is the first public announcement of the establishment of a data centre in Canada in response to privacy concerns about data being hosted in the United States:

Cytiva Responds to Canadian Privacy Concerns With New Canadian Data Centre: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Wednesday February 7, 9:00 am ET

New Data Centre Helps Canadian Employers Comply With Privacy Laws and Addresses Concerns About the United States Patriot Act

VANCOUVER, BC--(MARKET WIRE)--Feb 7, 2007 -- Cytiva Software Inc. (CDNX:CRX.V - News), a leading provider of on-demand recruiting software solutions, announced today the establishment of a new data centre located in Burnaby, BC.
This new data centre provides Canadian clients of Cytiva's SonicRecruit recruiting software with assurance that their candidate and employee data will remain in Canada. This is important news for Canadian companies trying to comply with privacy laws. A growing number are concerned about their employee data being subject to a United States Patriot Act that lessens requirements for government seizure of personal data in U.S. territories.

Because of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and other provincial privacy laws, Canadian companies that use software from U.S. companies to manage their recruiting and other human resource processes face a complicated landscape in trying to protect employee data. When employee data is transferred outside of Canada to U.S. servers that run on-demand human resources software, the issue becomes even more complicated. This data may become subject to the United States Patriot Act, which supersedes PIPEDA inside the U.S.

Canadian privacy laws are some of the most stringent in the world and have been evolving rapidly over the last ten years. All this has compelled many Canadian companies to require that their customer and employee data stay in Canada.

"Some vendors walk away from Canadian business, while others try and deal with the issue through contractual language regarding privacy," said Jason Moreau, president and CEO of Cytiva Software. "But Cytiva recognizes how important an issue this is to Canadian companies, so we have taken the extra step of establishing a data centre on Canadian soil."

The Burnaby BC data centre provides state-of-the-art security, network access, climate control and power backup.

Cytiva announces the establishment of the Canadian data centre a few months after implementing a host-based Intrusion Protection System (IPS) which goes beyond mere firewalls or detection systems and provides the highest level of data protection available.

"With the Intrusion Protection System and the option of local hosting for our Canadian clients, Cytiva sets the standard for privacy and data protection for on-demand recruiting software," says Moreau. "We believe that all companies should expect this level of protection."

About Cytiva Software Inc.

Cytiva Software Inc. (CDNX:CRX.V - News) provides innovative recruiting software and services to mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. More than an application, its flagship talent acquisition product, SonicRecruit, allows corporations to screen applicants, automate their recruiting departments, customize their corporate career sites and hire great people. This premier applicant tracking system improves recruiting effectiveness, speeding up the hiring process and reducing cost per hire. For more information, visit http://www.sonicrecruit.com

The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this news release, which has been prepared by management.

Distributed by Filing Services Canada and retransmitted by Market Wire

Call for a privacy law in Thailand

The Managing Director of Oracle ASEAN is calling on the Thai government to pass a strong privacy law so that Thailand will not be left behind in the BPO boom:

Bangkok Post : We need data privacy act to attract BPO:

"Thailand needs to quickly pass the Data Privacy Act if it is to avoid being left out of the world's IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) boom, according to Natasak Rodjanapiches, managing director of Oracle ASEAN.

Other requirements include a need for strong security standards, interoperability standards as well as the legal and privacy frameworks that are needed for a knowledge-based industry to flourish.

'Nobody will feel secure outsourcing to Thailand if the legal and privacy framework is still so uncertain. The interim government has an opportunity to do something good for the industry now by passing this law quickly,' he said. ..."

Australia's Attorney General presses India on privacy

Individual countries tend to leave each other alone in the area of law reform, privacy and data protection. So it is rather unusual that the Attorney General of Australia is pushing India's government to strengthen privacy in the outsourcing sector. Currently, NSSCOM (the Indian outsourcing advocacy group) is working on voluntary guidelines for data protection, which the Indian government says may be replaced with legislation if they are not robust enough. See: Australia's Attorney General presses India on privacy data .:. NewKerala.Com, India News Channel.

UK intelligence outsources terror alert service to US direct marking company

People who want to stay on top of the UK terror alert level can sign up to receive periodic e-mail updates from MI5. Sorta but not quite, since MI5 has outsourced managing the e-mail service to an American company. See: MI5 terror alert blunder sends private data to US mailshot firm | the Daily Mail.

This is not a disaster, but clearly the UK intel folks didn't think about the perception of doing things this way.

What's the lesson here? When you are dealing with personal information, think about every facet of how the service is being offered and how it may be perceived.

Update (20070117): According to Spy Blog, MI5 is now handling its email subscriptions in-house.