PIPEDA Amendments in Force April 1

We have mentioned before that the Anti-Spam act (bill c-28) will not come into force until the fall. (It may potentially be delayed because the election has delayed the creation of the regulations that must be in place before it is in force.) Several sections of the act that amend PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) were however proclaimed in force effective April 1

The PIPEDA amendments from the Anti-Spam act are in force to the extent that they are administrative in nature. Those that interact with the anti-spam provisions are not yet in force, and presumably will come into force at the same time as the Anti-Spam act. 

These are some of the noteworthy changes.

A new section 12 gives the Commissioner the ability to refuse to investigate a complaint in certain circumstances. Essentially if there is a better forum for the complaint, or if a compliant is not filed within a reasonable time.

Section 12.2 gives the Commissioner the ability to discontinue a complaint in certain circumstances, such as where there is insufficient evidence, the complaint is frivolous, the organization has given a fair and reasonable response, or where it has been addressed in another procedure.

A new section 23 expands the scope of permitted sharing of information by the Commissioner with provincial and international counterparts. The idea is to foster co-operation in investigations.

And of course the bill that proposed specific changes that arose from the 5 year PIPEDA review died with the election. It contained many housekeeping changes that were essentially shortcomings to the legislation raised by experience. It also contained new things like notice requirements for privacy breaches. We will have to wait for a while to see what happens to that draft bill.

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