Page 18 - CCCA Magazine Spring 2014

{ PROFILE } “ We’ve had remarkably few privacy issues. It’s management always being alive to the ” issue and receptive to making sure they do the right things. In Canada, retailers also have a “sig- nif cant advantage” over U.S. counter- parts because most credit and debit card transactions use advanced chip and PIN technology, compared to only magnetic stripes and signatures in the U.S. Wal-Mart has also begun to establish a much bigger online presence. And similar Wal-Mart opened for business in 2011. to its diligence in becoming CASL com- However busy he is, Dolan, his wife pliant, e-commerce and how the company Marian and daughters Alexandra and collects personal information over the In- Zoe still f nd time to travel and are avid ternet has become an “enormous focus.” weekend skiers. When time allows, he also Worldwide, Wal-Mart customers can keeps f t by playing recreational hockey read the company’s privacy policy in clear, and squash. understandable terms. It’s a point of pride Born in Missouri, Dolan is a Canadian for Dolan: “I’m certainly of the view that citizen who grew up mostly in southern plain language is of paramount impor- Ontario. He earned his honours BA in tance because to me if the end users, cus- political science at Dalhousie University tomers, can’t understand it, then it’s not before attending the University of Western worth having.” Ontario for law. Called to the bar in 1993, The policy, available online and writ- he f rst worked for Baker & McKenzie in ten by Dolan and outside counsel, is used Toronto, followed by the Canadian Air Line in the 27 countries where Wal-Mart op- Pilots Association, and then joined Wal- erates. It is as consistent as possible from Mart as associate general counsel in 2000. market to market although tailored when It’s a path that’s suited him well. As a necessary for a particular country. consumer he’s always alert to how his per- There’s also a policy for Wal-Mart’s sonal information might be handled. 95,000 Canadian employees, dealing with “There are privacy practices that I f nd the use of laptops, tablets, smartphones distasteful,” he says. “It shapes my opin- and other mobile devices. While Dolan ion. One of the favourite things about my characterizes it more as a security issue role is that what I do is so relevant to my around business information rather than day-to-day life outside of Wal Mart.” privacy and personal data, everyone in Dolan says privacy commissioners in privacy-security circles wrestles with the Canada have done an excellent job to edu- issue. He says, “We, like most businesses, cate the public about privacy, the rights have our own BYOD policy — bring your people have and what they should expect own device to work — and we have rules from organizations that handle their per- and policies in place how you’re supposed sonal information. He adds, “Public aware- to do that. The issue is that everyone has ness around issues of privacy have really smartphones, and their whole life is on advanced and exploded in the past 10 years.” their smartphones, so it’s diff cult to seg- It’s becoming a bigger part of the con- regate that stuff.” versation, he says. One he continues to Whether it’s a privacy or a labour and have with his girls. ❚ employment matter, Dolan is stimulated by his work. It takes him across Canada and to countries like South Africa, where Michael Dempster is a writer based in Calgary. 18 CCCA MAGAZINE | SPRING 2014 PRINTEMPS