By Elishya Perera
MONTRÉAL, Québec (CWBN)_ The Trudeau government is set introduce legislation this week to shake up Canada’s privacy laws.
Even though details of the bill, officially called “An Act to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act and the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts”, will not be available until the legislation is tabled, however, it is aimed at better safeguarding the privacy of Canadians in the digital era.
The mandate letter of Innovation Minister, Navdeep Bains, indicates that the new bill intends “to advance Canada’s Digital Charter and enhance powers for the Privacy Commissioner, in order to establish a new set of online rights”.
The “online rights” recommended in the letter includes data portability (the ability to withdraw, remove and erase basic personal data from a platform), the knowledge of the mount of personal data collected and how personal data is being used, the ability to withdraw consent for the sharing or sale of data, the ability to be informed when personal data is breached with appropriate compensation and the ability to be free from online discrimination, including bias and harassment.
The bill is also expected to create new regulations for large digital companies to better protect personal data of the people and encourage greater competition in the digital marketplace, and these regulations will be overseen by the newly created role of Data Commissioner.
According to Statistics Canada, the government agency producing statistics, about 57% of Canadians reported cyber security threats in 2018.
Earlier this month, a joint investigation by privacy commissioners of Alberta and B.C. discovered that cameras had been embedded inside 12 shopping malls in major Canadian cities and had collected millions of images and used facial recognition technology without customers’ knowledge or consent.
B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner, Michael McEvoy, said he and the commissioner of Alberta would most likely have pursued fines against the real estate company behind the shopping centres, if they’d had the power.
“Fines in a case like this would have been a consideration. It is an incredible shortcoming of Canadian law […] We as privacy regulators don’t have any authority to levy fines on companies that violate peoples’ personal information and that should really change,” he said.
Meanwhile, John Power, a spokesman for Bains, said last month that the government was moving to strengthen the country’s privacy laws as online security breaches continue to grow.
“Our government will ensure respect for the privacy of Canadians, support responsible innovation and enhance reasonable enforcement powers,” Power said. “We expect to have more to say on this soon.”
Edited By Chathushka Perera
