Consider the Iintroduction of Privacy Laws

Question: Discuss about the Consider the introduction of privacy laws at both the federal and provincial levels and the restrictions and controls this imposes on business. Does this place an unreasonable burden on business? Answer: Comment: Privacy is one of the important aspects to Canadians. With advancement of technology, business organizations focus to collect, store, transfer or disclose information about the customers more frequently as compared to previous years. To accumulate more personal information has certainly increased more risks to the organizations which are doing their business operations in Canada (DBIC, 2015). In the present scenario of social media, global networking, cloud computing or data flow, frequent security breaches related to data or identity theft is making headlines in countries like Canada. This indicates that public or policy concerns can be reduced by adopting appropriate privacy protection. Federal: In Canada, PIPEDA act (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) is used in private businesses that regulate to collect, disclose and use the personal information of the customers. The organization which works under federal business has limited access to personal information of the employee under the PIPEDA. The compliance of this law is more reasonable in circumstances where organizations collect, disclose or use personal information for particular purposes (Flaherty, 2014).This law is not applicable in case of provinces that legislates privacy according to federal government. In Canada, the organizations which are operate on international or interprovincial basis needs to regulate their business under both federal as well as provincial privacy legislation. Provincial: Quebec, Alberta and B.C. provinces in Canada have also enacted with privacy legislation according to PIPA act (Personal Information Protection Act) that focuses to protect personal information of the individuals in private sector. These laws are quite similar to PIPEDA act but some difference is still in this provincial legislation. This law is generally applicable in all private organizations regarding the collection, disclosure and use of individuals personal information and not with business operations only (Malcolmson et al, 2016).Quebec privacy act is also applicable in private sector for collection, disclosure and use of personal information. These laws, in a certain way, restrict the business operations of private organization in Canada and cannot use personal information of individual to enhance their commercial activities. References: DBIC (2015). Privacy law. Retrieved from: https://gowlingwlg.com/GowlingWLG/media/Canada/Guides/DBIC-2015-PRIVACY-O.pdf Flaherty, D. (2014). Protecting privacy in surveillance societies: The federal republic of Germany, Sweden, France, Canada, and the United States. USA: UNC Press Books. Malcolmson, P., Myers, R., Baier, G. and Bateman, T. (2016). The Canadian regime: An introduction to parliamentary government in Canada. Canada: University of Toronto Press.