Lexpert Magazine

68 LEXPERT MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 TECHNOLOGY | COLUMNS | George Takach is a senior partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP and the author of Computer Law. From there, the truck drives itself along the inter-city four-lane highway system to the outskirts of the final destination (let's say Winnipeg), where a human driver again takes over in order to stickhandle the various deliveries and detours in the construction-plagued urban road network (where problem-free AV navigation is still a number of years away). With this model, the number of truck drivers decreases, though the ones who remain are much happier. But what about the unemployment rate, driven by out-of- work truck drivers now made redundant by technology, and their counterparts in many similarly vulnerable industries? is is a big question, and a major policy chal- lenge, that would require an entire column of its own — or several of them — to really do it justice. But here are some of my pre- liminary thoughts. Yes, there will be some employment dislocation by the new technologies and business models. But I believe it won't be as severe as some are predicting. You will still need truck drivers, but they will be deployed somewhat differently. And there will be demand for a new army of technical people who will design, build, implement and manage the new technologies. Indeed, the shortage of tech-skilled people is al- ready slowing down the economy. Currently there are some 550,000 open- ings for IT positions in North America. And the supply is not even close to keep- ing up. It will therefore be very interesting to watch where Amazon locates its second headquarters to (and from where it will then recruit the required 50,000 largely technological staff ). Frankly, while some 200-plus cities have thrown their hats into this high-tech ring, realistically the num- ber of urban communities that can accom- modate Amazon's needs are probably in the low single digits. And whoever wins this prize will be confronted with a num- ber of challenges, particularly on the educa- tion and training front (which of course are good "problems" to have in 2018), but are challenges nonetheless. FINANCIAL INDUSTRIES SELF-DISRUPTING Another industry that will begin to see massive IT-related change in 2018 (though the past couple of years have been skewed this way as well) is financial services. Some fundamental technological shis are al- ready underway, such as the move from on- premises computing resources (essentially, the model where the bank or insurance company owns its own computer servers and other hardware and stores them in its offices, and runs licensed soware on the proprietary IT infrastructure) to the cloud. Amazon and Microso are leading this charge, but a bunch of other players are participating as well, including Google, Accenture, IBM, CGI, and a range of more focused application providers such as Sales- force and Workday. If this weren't enough change for the financial institution sector, there is block- chain, a dramatically redesigned distribut- ed ledger IT platform that could, if proven over the next few years, really mark a shi in how banking records are devised and used. In 2018 some key initial blockchain proof-of-concepts are coming to fruition, and you need to keep an eye on them. And then along comes artificial intel- ligence (AI) and the dawning of the big data era ushered in by it. Massive digital datasets, including many containing cus- tomer information of all types, have been building up within financial institutions and others servicing the sector, and now the algorithms are being deployed that can unlock the valuable insights in them. And of course it's not just the banking sector waking up to AI's potential; every other organization touching consumers wants to benefit from the resulting mass custom- ization era that will be starting in 2018. In Montréal, Toronto and Edmonton, univer- sities and institutes have been investing in AI expertise for some time. In 2018, han- dling big data and AI with skill and adroit- ness will becomes a core competency for business. Miss this wave, and you will be playing catch-up for the next decade. A NEW PRIVACY PROTECTION MODEL Legal issues raised by privacy concerns alone related to these new business models will be front and centre for the regulators, the courts and the legislatures. Last fall, the federal Office of the Privacy Commission- er released its annual report. It contained an important discussion about consent, which up until now has been a cornerstone of the data-protection regime in Canada. e OPC takes the view that the current consent regime as it applies to these new business developments is inadequate. And in a few short months, European privacy law will take a dramatic turn with the coming into force of the European Union's new General Data Protection Reg- ulation. is is a hugely important develop- ment; and while it applies only to Europe it will have important ramifications for Canadian business, government and indi- viduals. In the next issue of this column we will look at privacy law consent as well as the GDPR. LEGAL ISSUES raised by privacy concerns alone related to these new business models will be front and centre for the regulators, the courts and the legislatures. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner takes the view that the current consent regime ... is inadequate.

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