De-identification: Cross-Canada Regulatory Perspectives

The national artificial intelligence innovation agenda is spurring a push for data access, making the need to facilitate responsible data use imperative. Done well, de-identification can mitigate privacy risks and allow effective uses of data. Done badly, it raises new risks to personal information and to public trust. Canadian privacy regulators broadly support privacy-respecting data use to inform policy and support innovation. In this panel, Dr. Khaled El Emam will moderate a discussion with the federal, Quebec and Ontario privacy regulators about their approaches to de-identification and related activities. With mandates to ensure privacy-law compliance and uphold individuals’ privacy rights, Canadian regulators are increasingly interested in the promise of privacy enhancing technologies and methodologies to support those priorities. The commissioners will share their thoughts on a range of questions related to the practice and use of de-identification, drawing on their jurisdictions’ laws, recent investigations, decisions, guidance and thought leadership.

What you will learn:

• Insight into the regulatory expectations for de-identification practices and processes in three jurisdictions.

• The similarities and differences in the legislation that inform each regulator’s work relating to de-identification.

• The commissioners’ thoughts on best practices and the big questions raised by de-identification as a privacy-risk mitigation technique.