David Navetta writes:
Earlier this month (May 1, 2010), Alberta became the first Canadian province to pass a broad breach notice law (“Bill 54”) as part of their comprehensive data privacy statute, the Personal Information Protection Act (“the Act”; technically, Alberta is the second province to pass a breach notice law in Canada, Ontario previously passed a breach notice law that focuses on health information custodians).
It will be interesting to see whether the Alberta law ushers in the passage of additional provincial laws similar to way California’s SB 1386 lead to breach notice laws in over forty U.S. states. There appear to be several breach notice initiatives at the provincial and federal level in Canada, some of which may be on the verge of passing. If a wave of breach notice laws do pass throughout Canada, it will be interesting to see if it will have the same impact as in the United States (e.g. frequent reporting of breaches, lawsuits, etc.). It will also be interesting to see whether the Canadian approach differs from the U.S. approach.
This blog post breaks down Alberta’s breach notice provisions in a “Frequently Asked Questions” format, and includes commentary and comparisons to existing U.S. law. Note that the Act also now includes obligations concerning collecting and transferring of personal information outside of Canada. That is also discussed briefly in this blog post.
Read the FAQ on InformationLawGroup.