Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security
Ookla, everyone's favourite speed test service has just published internet performance metrics for North American airports. Calgary Airport has been rated as the best performer of all Canadian airports and is the third best in North America.
Montreal's Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport was rated the worst. Toronto's expensive Toronto Pearson International Airport is rated 23rd.
The average consumer is starting to realize how much personal data companies collect about them.
RELATED: How Target knows you are pregnant through data analytics
Consumers should be concerned about what data is collected, how is is used and who it is shared with.
Canadian privacy laws ( like Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) allow consumers to access their information (aka companies must respond to a request for personal information held by the company).
“Principle 4.9: Upon request, an individual shall be informed of the existence, use, and disclosure of his or her personal information and be given access to that information. An individual shall be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate.”
PIPEDA section 4.9 mandates that companies respond to Data Access Requests within 30 days of receipt. The information must be made available for free or at a reasonable cost.
“Principle 4.9.4: An organization shall respond to an individual’s request within a reasonable time and at minimal or no cost to the individual.”
Some companies use legally complex wording and vague statements in their privacy policies to hide the level of detail collected and to obfuscate how it is used. The Data Access Request allows any individual to understand (and see) what has been collected and what is being done with their information.
Toronto based Citizen Lab has created and operated a site called Access My Info. The site was created to simplify how Canadian's create and submit Data Access Requests using templates.
I will submit a couple of test requests and see how companies respond. If you are a Canadian, I encourage you to try this as well.
Flickr. Creative Commons image by YLev
This is an older bit of news but one I think is interesting and wanted to share it. In July 2013, Amazon released its list of Most well read cities in Canada. The list comes from Amazon compilling its sales data for all Canadian cities with more than 100,000 residents and the top 20 cities are:
I was surprised that my home city of Montreal isn't part of the list.
Root Metrics performed an exhaustive 47,000 point network test in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to determine which network would be crowned king. The final results show that each city had a different winner.
They did point out that all 3 players offered reliable services throughout.
This is a conut:
"Described by many as a half croissant, half doughnut — this pastry hybrid by Chef Dominique Ansel is taking the world by storm. After its launch on May 10, 2013, Cronut™ fans spanned the world from Berlin to Singapore, making it the most viral dessert item to date. " - http://dominiqueansel.com/cronut-101/
CTV Toronto is reporting hat a maple bacon cronut burger will be sold at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto (from August 16 - September 2).
All of this for $10.