Privacy Commissioner

A government position with the mandate to protect the privacy of its citizens in the electronic age. Typically, this role is an advisory or ombudsman capacity, at arms' length from government policy. For example, the Privacy Commissioner might help bring a lawsuit against the government or business on behalf of a citizen. It is also common for the Privacy Commissioner to appeal to citizens to adopt encryption as a proactive measure of privacy protection. Obviously, not all countries have such roles. Canada, New Zealand, and Australia have privacy commisioners with varying areas of responsibility.

• Canada (federal)
  Responsible for investigating complaints under the Privacy Act, which applies to personal information held by the federal government and the new Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which applies to the private sector
• Australia (federal)
  Under the Australia Privacy Act, is responsible for personal information that is handled by Federal and ACT government agencies; personal tax file numbers used by individuals and organisations; and information about your credit worthiness held by credit reporting agencies and credit providers.
• New Zeland (federal)
  An independent crown entity established under the New Zealand Privacy Act, with a wide mandate.

Sources:

1. http://www.privcom.gc.ca/english/index_e.htm
2. http://www.privacy.gov.au/about/index.html
3. http://www.privacy.org.nz/top.html