There's some news out of the EU this week that relates to Canadian privacy. The European Commission issued its report reviewing the data protection adequacy of 11 countries' privacy regimes for the purpose of allowing the transfer of personal information from the EU to those countries.
The bit about Canada's adequacy reads: "Based on the overall findings set out in the SWD, the Commission concludes that Canada continues to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the EU to recipients subject to (the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act)."
I suppose that is a practical conclusion, but I was personally a little surprised they could simply determine that adequacy remains for Canada, with the law in its current state.
PIPEDA was written in the late 1990s and is a far cry from a modern data protection law. It is even a further cry from the EU General Data Protection Regulation, their litmus test. I had always thought one of the main reasons for introducing privacy reform under Bill C-27 was to try to ensure an adequacy decision from the Commission would remain. That reason has disappeared with this latest report.
Now, the Commission did use the opportunity to recognize Canada is in the midst of updating the law. It encouraged Canada to codify and clarify its rules, and did say it would keep an eye on developments. But what does that mean in practical terms? If C-27 doesn't pass, they'll simply change their minds?
Without an adequacy decision as a motivating factor to getting C-27 passed, "or else," I wonder if the government and the parliamentarians will place less priority on passing this law prior to the next election — which sounds to be more and more imminent every day.
I know there are tons of other reasons C-27 should move forward, but the EU adequacy decision was, I think, a major driving factor. The Commission's decision must have been made reluctantly. After all, back in 2001 when they first looked at PIPEDA, it sounded like they weren't thrilled. There must have been some pretty strong and effective lobbying done by the part of the good folks at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to secure this decision.
What do you folks think will happen to C-27 now that one of the major drivers to getting it studied, amended and passed has potentially slipped away? With Parliament resuming in the not too distant future, we might have an answer to that question relatively soon.
In the meantime, have a great weekend!