Privacy Commissioner of Canada Publishes Consent Model Submissions

As previously reported by E-TIPS® Newsletter, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) held a public consultation to review the current consent model under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronics Documents Act (PIEPDA).  The public consultation requested comments on four questions:

1. Of the solutions identified in the discussion paper exploring potential enhancements to consent under PIPEDA, which one(s) has/have the most merit and why?
2. What solutions were not identified in the discussion paper that would be helpful in addressing consent challenges and why?
3. What roles, responsibilities and authorities should the parties responsible for promoting the development and adoption of solutions have to produce the most effective system?
4. What, if any, legislative changes are required?

On October 5, 2016, the OPC published the submissions it received in response to the consultation.  The OPC also published a brief overview of the submissions, which summarizes common themes, recommendations and issues.

Some common suggestions from parties who responded included:

• amending Section 7 of PIPEDA to including EU-type “legitimate business interest” language;
• giving OPC expanded or increased enforcement powers; and
• integrating Privacy by Design principles into PIPEDA.

Other key themes in the responses included:

• a simplification or standardization of privacy policies;
• making use of technical solutions, such as “tagging” data to restrict its collection, use, disclosure and retention;
• producing more OPC guidance documents to assist businesses and the legal community to interpret individuals’ rights and obligations under PIPEDA, including guidance relating to the use of de-identified or anonymized data; and
• a general support for ethical assessments tools and a privacy-focused ethical framework.

Summary By: Michael House