Cross-Border Data Processing

Many thanks to Dan Michaluk at All About Information for the heads up that the Privacy Commissioner has new Guidelines for Processing Personal Data Across Borders.

Processing? According to the Commissioner:

PIPEDA does not distinguish between domestic and international transfers of data.

Processing
“Processing” is interpreted to include any use of the information by the third party processor for a purpose for which the transferring organization can use it.

Here at Slaw we have talked about outsourcing on occasion. It is somewhat comforting to have a document to point our sources at to guide the way Canadian personal information must be treated.

I have to wonder if these guidelines were drafted after this complaint.