On May 9, 2018, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (Commissioner) appeared before the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in response to a January 2018 study on the regulatory and technical issues related to the deployment of automated and connected vehicles. The study provided five key recommendations for government to help it prepare for autonomous vehicles as follows:

  1. Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Transport Canada should create a joint policy unit to co-ordinate federal efforts to implement a national strategy on automated and connected vehicles;

  2. Transport Canada should work with provincial and territorial governments on a model provincial policy for these vehicles on public roads;

  3. Transport Canada should develop vehicle safety guidelines, including design aspects to be considered when developing, testing and deploying these vehicles on Canadian roads;

  4. Transport Canada, the Communications Security Establishment and Public Safety Canada should develop cybersecurity guidance; and

  5. Government should empower the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) to proactively investigate and enforce industry compliance with privacy legislation.

Notably, regarding the fifth recommendation, the Commissioner called for expansion of the investigative powers of the OPC to investigate and enforce industry compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). According to the Commissioner, “proactive enforcement is required to ensure independent review of compliance with these requirements and to hold organizations to account”.

The Commissioner’s submissions are available on the OPC website here.

Commentary on the Commissioner previous submissions in November 2017 regarding improvements to protect privacy in respect of connected vehicles is available here.

Summary By: Jae Morris

E-TIPS® ISSUE

18 05 16

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