Privacy Commissioners Annual Report to Parliament

Yesterday the office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada issued there annual report to parliament. The report’s key findings are that much more could be done to protect the personal information of Canadians in particular with respect to information crossing the border.

Crucial to the report are the Commissioners findings from an audit of the Canadian Border Services Agency which she initialed shortly after being appointed Commissioner in December of 2003. At the time she expressed concern with the “transborder” flow of personal information. Since then these concerns have heightened with the passing of the US Patriot Act which gives the United States government comprehensive power to seize information from Canadian companies operating in the US (and American companies). The report claims that 85% of Canadians who are aware of the act express some concern over the issue.

“The overall issue of transborder data flows has certainly caught the imagination of Canadians, and we have received inquiries and complaints which focus on it as a threat to privacy,” said Ms. Stoddart.

While the report claims that the Canadian Border Services Agency does have policies, procedures and systems in place for managing and sharing Canadians’ personal information with other countries, more must be done to mitigate risks, and achieve greater accountability and control over that information including:

• Making Activities associated with sharing data across borders more transparent.
• Creating a coordinated method of identifying and tracking all flows of its transborder data.
• Information is often disclosed without first obtaining approval from a designated CBSA official, which contravenes the Agency’s policy.

For more information about the annual report you can visit the Privacy Commissioners website or view the complete report here.

Tagged as: pipeda, Privacy, Security