Privacy commish asks Canadian gov’t to push for U.S. privacy protection

The federal privacy watchdog is asking the government to petition its counterparts in the United States to include Canada in a list of countries whose citizens are afforded protection for their personal information. In a Tuesday letter to the ministers of public safety, foreign affairs, national defence and justice, privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien said he “strongly urged the Government of Canada to ask the United States to add Canada” to the list of countries designated under legislation that expands privacy protection to non-U.S. citizens. Therrien’s letter follows an executive order regarding the enhancement of public safety signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Jan. 25 that said “agencies shall, to the extent consistent with applicable law, ensure that their privacy policies exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents from the protections of the Privacy Act regarding personally identifiable information.” In 2016, the Judicial Redress Act authorized the American Department of Justice to select foreign countries whose citizens can “bring civil action against” the U.S. government its Privacy Act “for purposes of accessing, amending, or redressing unlawful disclosures of records transferred from a foreign country to the United States to prevent, investigate, detect, or prosecute criminal offenses,” according to a summary of the legislation. Under the act, “citizens may pursue such civil remedies if the person's country or organization: (1) has appropriate privacy protections for sharing information with the United States, as provided for in an agreement with the United States or as determined by DOJ; (2) permits the transfer of personal data for commercial purposes between its territory and the United States; and (3) has DOJ-certified data transfer policies that do not impede U.S. national security interests.” Canada is not one of these designated countries, Therrien noted in his letter, adding that the executive order doesn’t change the level of protection afforded Canadians — or lack thereof, since the American Privacy Act never applied to Canadians. What it does, he wrote, is “shed light on a significant gap in protection of Canadians’ personal information south of the border.” That gap could be “meaningfully addressed “ by adding Canada to a list that currently includes the European Union and 26 European countries, Therrien’s letter said. During a Feb. 16 appearance in front of the House of Commons’ ethics committee, Therrien was asked about the executive order and its implications. “The information that is made available through things like Nexus or the FAST pass that trucking operators use is extensive,” NDP MP Nathan Cullen said, according to a transcript. “Canadians give up a great deal of information when they cross the border… Should this be concerning to Canadians as we see certain disruptions and certain people profiled, particularly Muslim Canadians?” Therrien responded that “yes, it should be a concern,” but that his office was still “actively looking at this issue” following communication from advocacy group OpenMedia. A February letter to the privacy commissioner from OpenMedia executive director Laura Tribe said the most pressing concern is one that is ongoing in “the volume and extent of information sharing between Canada and the U.S. Vast amounts of personal data routinely shared with U.S. agencies by Canadian government agencies.” She also highlighted as a vulnerability that a sizeable amount “of Canadian Internet traffic is routed through U.S. exchange ports, even if only intended for a Canadian destination.” OpenMedia asked the commissioner to “take immediate action, to investigate and report on what impacts information sharing between Canada and the U.S. has on privacy rights for Canadians.” A Friday response to OpenMedia from Therrien said he has concluded “Canadians do have some level of privacy protection in the U.S., but that protection is fragile because it relies primarily on administrative agreements that do not have the force of law.” These include “classified arrangements under the British-U.S. Communications Intelligence Agreement of 1946 (the ‘5-Eyes Agreement’)” as well as a 2014 policy directive which “extended the identification, suppression and minimization procedures applied for US citizens in foreign intelligence to all individuals, regardless of nationality,” according to the letter to ministers. In the letter, Therrien asked for his office to be provided with “copies of at least the most significant information-sharing agreements” that the Canadian government has with its U.S. counterpart to “properly assess the concerns of Canadians on the impact” of the executive order. He also requested that his office be consulted on their content and that they “remain vigilant in monitoring any changes to how information-sharing activities with the U.S. are being operationalized” and how any changes may affect Canadians’ privacy. — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Privacy commish asks Canadian gov’t to push for U.S. privacy protection

News | March 10, 2017

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Privacy commish asks Canadian gov’t to push for U.S. privacy protection

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