Canada Plans to Introduce a New Privacy Law

According to a report by the Canadian CBC, the country’s Innovation Minister is expected to soon introduce a bill which will seek to make substantial changes to the country’s privacy laws.

Although its details are not yet publicly available, a new legislation might include provisions to give Canadians compensation in cases of personal data breaches, new regulations for large digital companies to better protect Canadians’ personal data and encourage more competition in the digital marketplace, and to appoint a new data commissioner to oversee those regulations.  The new law might also permit erasure of basic personal data from a digital platform, similar to the GDPR’s “right to be forgotten.”

Canada’s current federal privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) came into force in 2004.  The law applies to private-sector organizations across Canada that collect, use or disclose personal information in the course of a commercial activity.  Organizations covered by PIPEDA must obtain an individual’s consent when they collect, use or disclose that individual’s personal information.  Individuals have the right to access their personal information held by an organization, as well as the right to challenge its accuracy.

Under the PIPEDA, personal information can only be used for the purposes for which it was collected. If an organization is going to use it for another purpose, they must obtain consent again. Organizations are also required to protect personal information with appropriate safeguards.

In addition, individual provinces have their own private-sector privacy laws that have been deemed substantially similar to PIPEDA. Organizations subject to a substantially similar provincial privacy law are generally exempt from PIPEDA with respect to the collection, use or disclosure of personal information that occurs within that province.

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