Ottawa, October 6, 2005 – The Privacy Act
is an outdated and often inadequate public sector data protection law,
according to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Jennifer Stoddart, in
her 2004-2005 Annual Report on the Privacy Act, which was tabled today by Parliament. The Privacy Commissioner's 2004 Annual Report on the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Canada's private sector privacy law, was also tabled today.
In her 2004-2005 Annual Report on the Privacy Act, the
Commissioner highlights some of the most significant issues her Office
has faced in the past year. These include security and the voracious
appetite for personal information and surveillance that has sprung up
in the post-9/11 environment, and the sharing of information and
outsourcing of data operations across borders. She also emphasizes the
long overdue need to modernize the Privacy Act, a first generation privacy law which has not been substantially amended since its inception in 1983.
“The privacy landscape is infinitely more complex today than it was
a decade ago,” states Ms. Stoddart. “Faced with increased globalization
and extensive outsourcing of personal information processing and
storage, Canada's Privacy Act lags woefully behind.” [Privacy Digest: Privacy News (Civil Rights, Encryption, Free Speech, Cryptography)]