The Privacy Act of Canada was established in 1983 to define Canada’s laws around how our government and its agencies should govern and protect our privacy, and has barely been updated since. Canadians are relying on privacy rules for government drafted before AI, before the smartphone, and before even the Internet existed as we know it today! That approach is deeply outdated, and fails to address the privacy challenges of the 21st century.3
What’s wrong with the Act? Well, it mostly doesn’t work! It lacks any real teeth when it comes to holding governmental organizations accountable for mishandling personal data.4 There's a glaring lack of transparency and independent oversight around how government agencies collect, use, and share our information. And let's not forget the loopholes – outdated laws mean that our privacy is often left vulnerable to be passed around from one government agency to another, or even to corporations that work for them.5
From vague language that leaves room for interpretation to weak penalties for violations, the Privacy Act is riddled with shortcomings that leave Canadians vulnerable to privacy breaches and abuses of power. It's time to close those loopholes, beef up enforcement, and give Canadians the strong privacy protections they deserve.
Isn't Bill C-27 fixing? NO! There’s two sets of federal laws that govern privacy in Canada; the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which governs how companies and individuals handle our sensitive data, and the Privacy Act, which governs how government agencies can handle our sensitive data. After years of waiting, the government finally introduced Bill C-27 to start to clean up PIPEDA. Bill C-27 brings some welcomed changes to private sector privacy regulation, though there’s some concerning omissions and weaknesses in its proposals too.6 But despite a 2021 survey on how to upgrade and improve public sector privacy, which THOUSANDS of OpenMedia community members took part in, the government has done NOTHING to fix the Privacy Act since!7
With only C-27 on the books, we’re addressing only half of our privacy problems; it's like using a mop to clean up one-half of a flooded room. The days of paper records and filing cabinets are long gone, but our legislation hasn’t changed with it. Today we're swimming in a sea of data, and our current Privacy Act is like a leaky boat trying to stay afloat in it.
Nine years ago, Justin Trudeau promised us a new era of privacy rights by introducing Canada’s Digital Charter.8,9 But where are we now? There’s been no movement at all on public sector privacy since 2021– and our protections are falling further and further behind. Enough is enough – it's time for action, not empty promises. Canadians deserve the full package of privacy protections, private AND public. Sign the petition and demand a strong updated Privacy Act today!