GATINEAU – Canada’s privacy safeguards are too out of date to properly protect Canadians’ personal information, says the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Its annual report tabled Tuesday in Parliament says that 90% of Canadians are very concerned about their inability to protect their privacy, noting that both the Privacy Act, which applies to the federal public sector, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the federal private sector privacy law, predate many of the technological innovations that are creating new challenges for privacy protection.
“The government should give greater priority to the modernization of laws and policies and it should invest more resources in building robust privacy protection frameworks”, said Commissioner Daniel Therrien, in the report’s news release. “This is essential to maintaining public confidence in government and the digital economy."
The report also took aim at the TV show Border Security: Canada’s Front Line, which has aired on Global Television and National Geographic Channel Canada.
"The program followed the work of CBSA officers, most often as they interviewed travelers taken aside for secondary screening. Before filming would begin, individuals were asked by a CBSA officer for permission to be filmed. When filming finished—assuming individuals had provided verbal consent—the production company then asked them to sign a consent form, giving permission for the footage to be used on the show and waiving their rights under the Privacy Act. Those who did not sign had their faces blurred," explains the report.
"Our investigation examined both the filming of a complainant who was detained during a CBSA raid of a Vancouver-area construction site in 2012, as well as issues affecting the show more broadly. In concluding our investigation, we identified a number of privacy concerns—the most serious of which related to consent:
- As the CBSA permitted the production company to access customs controlled areas to film operational activities, there was a real-time disclosure of personal information by the Agency to the production company. For such a disclosure to respect the Privacy Act, the CBSA needed to obtain valid and meaningful consent from individuals.
- We were unsatisfied that the CBSA was obtaining such consent. There are many factors, including duress, impacting the validity of consent, which must be given freely, on a voluntary basis and with an appreciation of the related consequences. Due to the coercive nature of being detained, individuals may not have had a clear frame of mind to provide truly voluntary consent.
- In reviewing the raw footage involving the complainant—and contrary to the CBSA’s submission—we found that filming began before any effort to obtain consent was made. The complainant was asked several questions by the CBSA officer before being advised of the filming’s purpose.
- While the complainant later signed a consent form, we found no evidence that he or others were made fully aware of the significance of waiving their Privacy Actrights, or given an opportunity to seek independent legal advice prior to signing.
- We also raised concerns with the blurring techniques used to conceal individuals’ identities. The treatment level most often used was weak and there was usually an abundance of secondary information, providing a serious possibility that individuals could be identified.
"In concluding our investigation, we reminded the CBSA that privacy protection must be a core consideration in the initial development and administration of these types of initiatives. In response to our findings and recommendations, the CBSA ended its involvement in the program. The Agency also noted our recommendation that it conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment before pursuing a television show in the future," says the report.
