Canada's Privacy Commissioners passed a joint resolution calling on governments, health sector institutions, and health providers to phase out the use of fax and unencrypted email for communicating personal health information “as soon as reasonably possible”. The Commissioners also urge stakeholders to amend laws and regulations to further provide for meaningful … [Read more...] about Securing Public Trust in Digital Healthcare
Legislation
European health data space
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the growing importance of digital health technologies, both to enable remote medical care and to facilitate the health response by international, national and local authorities. At the same time, personal health data have been key for containment measures such as the EU digital COVID-19 certificate. The European Commission's proposal … [Read more...] about European health data space
Expanding Access
Foreign nationals outside Canada now have the same access rights as Canadian citizens and permanent residents, as well as federal inmates and anyone else physically located in Canada. Now that the Privacy Act Extension Order No. 3, SOR/2021-174, has come into effect, non-Canadians outside the country are now able to gain access to their information, as well … [Read more...] about Expanding Access
Personal Digital Devices at the Border
A great deal of consternation and confusion recently arose thanks to the language in a new piece of legislation introduced in the Senate on 29 March 2022. Bill S-7, which amends s. 99(1)(a) of the Customs Act, is intended to remedy a deficiency in that legislation which, until now, has had no specific criteria for searching personal digital devices. Indeed, the Customs … [Read more...] about Personal Digital Devices at the Border
Elections: Political parties gathering and using information about voters
With Ontario elections taking place on June 2, some voters may question how provincial political parties use personal information. They may also wonder what federal parties have done with data that voters gave canvassers in the national election, held in September of 2021. In Ontario, the Privacy Commissioner has no jurisdiction over provincial political parties' … [Read more...] about Elections: Political parties gathering and using information about voters
Encryption HRIA
Signaling a major shift in the way Meta approaches users' privacy, the company recently announced plans to make all of its messaging services — WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram DMs — end-to-end encrypted (E2EE). As part of its initiative, Meta commissioned a human rights impact assessment (HRIA), which concluded that, "Meta’s planned expansion of strong … [Read more...] about Encryption HRIA
