Take Your Data With You When You Go: Competition Bureau Releases Report On Data Portability

On January 15, 2026, the Competition Bureau (the Bureau) published a report examining how data portability can empower consumers, enhance competition and drive innovation in Canada. The report analyzes the potential economic and consumer benefits of data portability, using the insurance sector as a case study, and identifies key factors necessary for the creation of a successful data portability framework.

The Bureau defines data portability as a person’s “ability to transfer their data to themselves or to a third party in a structured, machine-readable format.” The Bureau’s findings in the report are based on behavioural economics research; a survey of over 3,000 Canadians; and a cross-jurisdictional comparison of data portability approaches.

In the insurance market, the Bureau noted that introducing data portability may make it easier for consumers to compare providers and switch services, and generate between $1.10 billion and $3.83 billion in annual savings for Canadians. Despite this potential gain, the report highlights several behavioural barriers that may limit consumer adoption of data portability, such as privacy concerns, perceived inconvenience and lack of awareness of the benefits of data portability. The report emphasizes that smart design may be critical to overcoming challenges, such as ensuring interoperability so that different systems and platforms can operate together to make it easy to share information. The Bureau also highlights the importance of learning from international experiences, explaining that global examples demonstrate both the benefits and challenges associated with data portability, including system complexity, data standardization issues and high implementation costs.

Lastly, the report outlines several key factors for policymakers to consider in developing a data portability framework in Canada, including:

• ensuring consumers trust oversight bodies and understand how their personal data is used;
• emphasizing robust privacy protections, consent rules, and high interoperability to foster data sharing between digital platforms; and
• drawing lessons from other countries, such as open banking in the United Kingdon and Australia’s Consumer Data Right.

The full report is available here.

Summary By: Victoria Di Felice