Canadian Privacy Commissioner Releases Annual Reports

Canada's federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart released two annual reports towards the end of the week focusing on public and private sector privacy laws.

The report about the federal Privacy Act draws attention to a number of areas of concern, among them "security and the voracious appetite for personal information and surveillance that has sprung up in the post-9/11 environment, and the sharing of information and outsourcing of data operations across borders".

Stoddart also underlines the gaps in the current legislation, such as the fact that many federal institutions are not subject to the Act, and that only those present in Canada have the right to seek access to their personal information, a situation that excludes immigration applicants and other foreigners with information in Canadian government files from correcting erroneous information or knowing how their personal data is being used.

Stoddart also released a separate report on PIPEDA, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, covering the collection and use of information in the private sector. A brief description of that report is found in the accompanying news release.