The federal Liberal government has taken another crack at legislating privacy with the introduction of Bill C-27 in the House of Commons.
Among the bill’s highlights are new protections for minors as well as Canada’s first law regulating the development and deployment of high-impact AI systems.
“It [Bill C-27] will address broader concerns that have been expressed since the tabling of a previous proposal, which did not become law,” a government official told a media technical briefing on the proposed legislation.
“We are concerned that the government is not engaging robustly with Canadian companies that work in the digital realm.”
François-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, together with David Lametti, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, introduced the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022. The ministers said Bill C-27 will significantly strengthen Canada’s private sector privacy law, create new rules for the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence (AI), and continue to put in place Canada’s Digital Charter.
The Digital Charter Implementation Act includes three proposed acts: the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act, and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA)- all of which have implications for Canadian businesses.
Bill C-27 follows an attempt by the Liberals to introduce Bill C-11 in 2020. The latter was the federal government’s attempt to reform privacy laws in Canada, but it failed to gain passage in Parliament after the then-federal privacy commissioner criticized the bill.
The proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act is meant to protect Canadians by ensuring high-impact AI systems are developed and deployed in a way that identifies, assesses and mitigates the risks of harm and bias.
For businesses developing or implementing AI this means that the act will outline criminal prohibitions and penalties regarding the use of data obtained unlawfully for AI development or where the reckless deployment of AI poses serious harm and where there is fraudulent intent to cause substantial economic loss through its deployment.
Organizations will also be expected to report on incidents of imminent or actual harm.
Companies can be ordered to undertake a variety of measures to prove that they are acting responsibly and in line with the law, and to register these orders with the court to prove they can be enforced.
The government said that in the early days of the framework it would expect companies to comply voluntarily and work with the government to mitigate any issues that come to light.
An AI and data commissioner will support the minister of innovation, science, and industry in ensuring companies comply with the act. The commissioner will be responsible for monitoring company compliance, ordering third-party audits, and sharing information with other regulators and enforcers as appropriate.
In the early days of the framework, companies would be expected to comply voluntarily and work with the government to mitigate any issues that come to light.
The commissioner would also be expected to outline clear criminal prohibitions and penalties regarding the use of data obtained unlawfully for AI development or where the reckless deployment of AI poses serious harm and where there is fraudulent intent to cause substantial economic loss through its deployment.
A government official told the technical briefing that they believe the new bill will align with key trading partners, including with the European Union. Key updates to the law that are consistent with international efforts include for individuals to have greater control over their data, and a right for individuals to ensure their information is no longer kept, the technical briefing heard.
Canada already collaborates on AI standards to some extent with a number of countries. Canada, France, and 13 other countries launched an international AI partnership to guide policy development and “responsible adoption” in 2020.
The federal government also has the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy for which it committed an additional $443.8 million over 10 years in Budget 2021. Ahead of the 2022 budget, Trudeau had laid out an extensive list of priorities for the innovation sector, including tasking Champagne with launching or expanding national strategy on AI, among other things.
Within the AI community, companies and groups have been looking at AI ethics for some time. Scotiabank donated $750,000 in funding to the University of Ottawa in 2020 to launch a new initiative to identify solutions to issues related to ethical AI and technology development. And Richard Zemel, co-founder of the Vector Institute, joined Integrate.AI as an advisor in 2018 to help the startup explore privacy and fairness in AI.
When it comes to the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, the Liberals said the proposed act responds to feedback received on the proposed legislation, and is meant to ensure that the privacy of Canadians will be protected, and that businesses can benefit from clear rules as technology continues to evolve.
“A reformed privacy law will establish special status for the information of minors so that they receive heightened protection under the new law,” a federal government spokesperson told the technical briefing.
The proposed legislation includes more protections for children, including limiting organizations’ right to collect or use information on minors, and holding organizations to a higher standard when handling minors’ information.
The act will give parents the ability to exercise the rights and resources of the law on behalf of their children.
The act is meant to provide greater controls over Canadians’ personal information, including how it is handled by organizations as well as giving Canadians the freedom to move their information from one organization to another in a secure manner.
The act puts the onus on organizations to develop and maintain a privacy management program that includes the policies, practices and procedures put in place to fulfill obligations under the act. That includes the protection of personal information, how requests for information and complaints are received and dealt with, and the development of materials to explain an organization’s policies and procedures.
The bill also ensures that Canadians can request that their information be deleted from organizations.
The bill provides the privacy commissioner of Canada with broad powers, including the ability to order a company to stop collecting data or using personal information. The commissioner will be able to levy significant fines for non-compliant organizations—with fines of up to five percent of global revenue or $25 million, whichever is greater, for the most serious offences.
The proposed Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act will create a new tribunal to enforce the Consumer Privacy Protection Act.
Although the Liberal government said it engaged with stakeholders for Bill C-27, the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) expressed reservations about the process. Nick Schiavo, CCI’s director of federal affairs, said it had concerns over the last version of privacy legislation, and had hoped to present those concerns when the bill was studied at committee, but the previous bill died before that could happen.
Following the election, CCI had hoped to discuss with Champagne how the government could modernize Canadian privacy laws to balance the needs of citizens and Canadian companies. However, that conversation didn’t take place, according to Schiavo.
“We will need time to study the new privacy bill when it is made publicly available, but based on the process thus far, we are concerned that the government is not engaging robustly with Canadian companies that work in the digital realm,” Schiavo said. “We hope innovative Canadian technology companies will be invited to discuss the bill with MPs as parliament debates the issue and make necessary amendments.”
Image source Justin Trudeau Flickr account.
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