Reflections on Reform of the Federal Privacy Act
Reflections on Reform of the Federal Privacy Act David H. Flaherty* June 2008 *Privacy and Information Policy consultant, Victoria, BC; Professor Emeritus, University of Western Ontario; 1st Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia; author of Protecting Privacy in Surveillance Societies: The Federal Republic of Germany, Sweden, France, Canada, and the United States (1989). 1 “Today's commonplace information technologies — the Internet and new surveillance technologies such as digital video, linked networks, global positioning systems, black boxes in cars, genetic testing, biometric identifiers and radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs) — did not exist when the federal Privacy Act came into force in 1983. Characterizing the current Act as dated in coping with today's realities is an understatement — the Act is tantamount to a cart horse struggling to keep up with technologies approaching warp speed.”1 “The federal Privacy Act is woefully deficient as a vehicle for protecting the privacy rights of Canadians. Time and again, Privacy Commissioners and privacy advocates have called for a thorough review and modernization of the legislation. The Privacy Act contains no effective mechanism to deal strategically with complaints, requiring that every complaint be examined – a potentially overwhelming, but unnecessary, burden. The Act was drafted well before the extensive penetration of computing power and surveillance technology into our lives. It was drafted long before the era of globalization and the extensive sharing of personal information across borders with corporations, with governments, and indirectly through corporations to foreign governments. It was drafted long before the era when the word terrorism began to fall from everyone’s lips amid calls for ever greater amounts of personal information in the quest to enhance personal and national security.”2 “The Privacy Act is at the hub of the informational relationship between state agencies and individuals.
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