Outdated privacy laws may hamper COVID-19 tracing: Therrien

The outdated state of Canadian privacy laws may harm efforts to launch a contact tracing app intended to combat the spread of COVID-19, as privacy concerns might make Canadians hesitant to use the apps, the country's top privacy watchdog told the House industry committee on Friday. Asked by Liberal MP Lloyd Longfield for examples that illustrate the need for a new privacy law, Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien said that a "good portion" of Canadians may not trust tracing apps. "If we have a more robust legal framework, it is highly possible, virtually certain, that people would have more confidence in the system and would rely on these applications because they would see the benefits for public health. They would be less fearful of violations of their privacy," Therrien told MPs, according to a simultaneous translation. In response to an earlier question from Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Therrien said that the privacy framework published by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in April contained a number of principles that go beyond what is in the federal Privacy Act. The OPC's framework puts forward several privacy principles related to COVID-19, including the assertion that there must be legal authority for the data collection, proportionality, purpose limitation, de-identification, transparency, and the destruction of collected data after the crisis ends. "There are several principles that we've put forward that aren't provided for in the act, for example to use applications solely for public health tracing purposes. So there's nothing in the present law that prevents a company to offer a tracing application that would allow that company to use the collected information for commercial purposes. There is just the requirement to obtain consent based on an ambiguous privacy policy," Therrien said according to a translation. Erskine-Smith told Therrien that he believed the government should proactively consult with the OPC “not only in the development of these applications, but certainly as they are leading the way in partnership with provinces in the development of these applications.” Asked by Conservative Industry critic Michelle Rempel Garner if current privacy laws were enough to protect Canadians in the event of a contract tracing app's data being breached, Therrien said they were not. "The current crisis, I would say, clearly shows that there would be a need to accelerate the technological revolution that was already at play before COVID, and this acceleration requires an even stronger legal framework," Therrien said. Later in the committee, University of Ottawa Law professor Teresa Scassa told MPs that the COVID-19 crisis had highlighted gaps in privacy law. "COVID-19 is a wake up call in many respects. It's caught us with our privacy pants down, essentially," she said. "We need to have the digital legal infrastructure in place so that we can respond to situations as they come up. And we find ourselves in the situation with outdated privacy laws for the public sector and the private sector, and I think this is a disadvantage." Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) executive director Michael Bryant told the committee that there were also concerns about use of the data, collected by contact tracing apps, by law enforcement agencies. "Bottom lines would need to be set," Bryant said, "for example around data leakage to police and other investigation institutions or agencies. They should not be getting what amounts to public health data, under any circumstances," Bryant said. Last week, executives from Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc. told the industry committee that both companies had designed apps with privacy in mind. The government of Alberta’s ABTraceTogether is the only contact tracing app currently in use in Canada. Therrien has been calling for updated privacy laws for some time, and in December said that there was a "crisis of trust" when it comes to privacy. Earlier this month, the CRTC rejected calls for a public hearing into the issue of contact tracing. The CRTC’s chief of consumer, research and communications Scott Hutton said there appeared to be “no evidence that current privacy frameworks are not sufficient to address recent efforts or that initiating a public proceeding would be beneficial to Canadians at this time," in rejecting a Part 1 application by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Adam Langenberg at alangenberg@thewirereport.ca

Outdated privacy laws may hamper COVID-19 tracing: Therrien

News | 05/29/2020 7:00 pm EDT

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