Navigating the complex landscape of data protection laws in Canada: What you need to know

Canadian data protection laws are constantly evolving, and it's crucial for privacy, data governance, and information governance professionals to stay ahead of the curve. Equip yourself with the knowledge and tools you need to ensure compliance and mitigate risk.

Canadian data protection laws you need to know

The following are the most important federal and provincial data protection laws for businesses operating in Canada.

• Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA): Federal law governing data protection in Canada for private sector organizations.
• The Privacy Act: Federal law governing the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information by federal government institutions.
• Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA): Provincial law governing the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information by public bodies in British Columbia.
• Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA): Provincial law governing the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information by private sector organizations in British Columbia.
• Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA): Provincial law governing the collection, use, and disclosure of personal health information in Ontario.
• Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (ATIPPA): Provincial law governing access to government-held information and protection of personal information by public bodies in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Key principles of data protection in Canada

The essential principles of data protection in Canada include transparency, accountability, accuracy, and consent. Read on to learn how these key principals can help your business comply with Canadian data protection laws.

Security and breach notification: Keeping personal information safe

Protecting personal information is a top priority for businesses in Canada. Adhering to security and data breach regulations plays a crucial role in preventing data breaches.  

• Conduct a thorough risk assessment of your organization's data security practices.
• Implement appropriate physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.
• Develop and test a comprehensive breach response plan to ensure timely notification of affected individuals and regulators in the event of a security breach.
• Know where your data lives, what’s in your data and how long you need to keep it. Using a system like RecordPoint makes it adhering to these regulations through automated destruction and AI/ML categorization and discovery.  

Breaches happen, here’s how to minimize the impact

Even if you adhere to every data protection law in Canada, your organization is bound to be impacted by a data breach at some point. Rather than being reactive to a breach, here’s how RecordPoint can help you be proactive to minimize the impact.  

• Automate records management by connecting to any source you store sensitive data. Understand what data you have and where it lives.  
• Automatically classify data so you can target the right information for protection under the proper regulations.
• Cut costs and risks with automatic retention rules. Eliminate unnecessary data and reduce storage costs while ensuring compliance with retention policies.

Consent and control: Understanding your customers' rights

Understanding your customers data privacy rights is the first step in complying with Canadian data governance laws. To stay compliant, you must obtain consent from customers, provide them with control over their personal data, and be transparent about your data collection and usage.  

1. To clearly communicate with customers about personal information being collected, use a privacy policy, terms of use, or consent form. A privacy policy is suitable when collecting personal information like name, email, address, and phone number to inform customers about how their information will be used, stored, and protected. Use terms of use to establish guidelines for how the service or product can be used and use a consent form to seek explicit permission from customers for a specific purpose such as marketing, research, or analytics.

2. Obtain explicit and informed consent from customers before collecting, using, or disclosing their personal information. This can be done through opt-in forms or checkboxes. Consent must be recorded for auditing purpose and customer requests.  

3. According to Canadian data governance laws, it is important to implement procedures that allow customers to access, correct, or delete their personal information upon request in a timely manner. This can be achieved through a designated point of contact or an online portal, and it is recommended that organizations respond to such requests within 30 days. By doing so, businesses can ensure compliance with regulations and build trust with their customers.

Government agencies across the globe use RecordPoint to streamline lifecycle data management

RecordPoint makes it easy to stay compliant and navigate complex data protection laws in Canada.

Improve your digital transformation projects

RecordPoint helps government agencies appraise their legacy content repositories (such as file shares) and identify a range of data trends, sensitive information and Redundant, Obsolete and Trivial (ROT) data.

Reduce time and effort to remain compliant

Managing compliance with public records regulations can be a major challenge for government agencies, requiring significant time and resources. RecordPoint makes it easier to consistently categorize, enforce retention schedules, enable legal holds and defensible dispose of records at scale.

Govern information beyond Microsoft 365

RecordPoint enables government agencies to connect to any source where personal information is stored, providing a complete view of their data beyond the Microsoft 365 suite. Capture, set policies, and manage your records across your entire data estate.