Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome again to the industry committee, Minister, and your top officials.
Many Canadians broadly welcome action by the government on digital privacy. It has certainly been long overdue. Canadians do want enhanced protection for their digital privacy.
I want to, as some of my colleagues have, ask questions about certain parts of the bill that many consider to actually threaten Internet and digital privacy of Canadians. I'm specifically referring to clauses 6 and 7, which add to the exemptions in which personal information can be collected, used, or disclosed without consent or the knowledge of the individual. Testimony at the Senate hearings on this bill raised these concerns.
A member of the Canadian Bar Association on the national privacy and access law section said:
We are concerned that, as drafted, the proposed PIPEDA amendment, section 7(3)(d.1) and (d.2), is unnecessarily broad and would permit disclosure without consent in an inappropriately broad range of circumstances.
The office of the Privacy Commissioner said:
First, we believe that the grounds for disclosing to another organization are overly broad and need to be circumscribed, for example, by defining or limiting the types of activities for which the personal information could be used. The proposed 7(3)(d.2) would allow disclosures without consent to another organization to “prevent fraud”. Allowing such disclosures to prevent potential fraud may open the door to widespread disclosures and routine sharing of personal information among organizations on the grounds that this information might be useful to prevent future fraud.
Minister, are you of the opinion that sharing personal information without the knowledge of consent between businesses is helping the privacy of Canadians?