Teresa Scassa - Blog

 

Bill C-11, the Act to reform Canada’s private sector data protection legislation – contains a new provision – one that has no equivalent in the current Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Section 39 will permit the disclosure of an individual’s personal information without their knowledge or consent where that the disclosure is for “socially beneficial purposes.” This post examines the proposed exception.

In the course of their commercial activities, many private sector organizations amass vast quantities of personal data. In theory, these data could be used for a broad range of purposes – some of them in the public interest. There are a growing number of instances where organizations offer to share data with governments or with other actors for public purposes. For example, some organizations have shared data with governments to assist in their research or modeling efforts during the pandemic.

There may also be instances where data sharing is part of the quid pro quo for a company’s partnership with the public sector. Los Angeles County, for example, has sought to require data-sharing in exchange for licence to operate dockless scooter rental businesses. The ill-fated Sidewalk Toronto project raised issues around data collected in public spaces, including who would be able to access and use such data and for what purposes. This led to debates about “data trusts”, and whether an entity could be charged with the oversight and licensing of ‘smart city’ data.

It is into this context that the proposed exception for “socially beneficial purposes” is introduced. Section 39 of Bill C-11 reads:

39 (1) An organization may disclose an individual’s personal information without their knowledge or consent if

(a) the personal information is de-identified before the disclosure is made;

(b) the disclosure is made to

(i) a government institution or part of a government institution in Canada,

(ii) a health care institution, post-secondary educational institution or public library in Canada,

(iii) any organization that is mandated, under a federal or provincial law or by contract with a government institution or part of a government institution in Canada, to carry out a socially beneficial purpose, or

(iv) any other prescribed entity; and

(c) the disclosure is made for a socially beneficial purpose.

The first thing to note about this provision is that it reflects a broader ambivalence within the Bill about de-identified data. The ambivalence is evident in the opening words of section 39. An organization “may disclose an individual’s personal information without their knowledge or consent” if it is first de-identified. Yet, arguably, de-identified information is not personal information. Many maintain that it should therefore be usable outside of the constraints of data protection law, as is the case under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation. Canada’s government is no doubt sensitive to concerns that de-identified personal information poses a reidentification risk, leaving individuals vulnerable to privacy breaches. Even properly de-identified data could lead to reidentification as more data and enhanced computing techniques become available. Bill C-11 therefore extends its regulatory reach to deidentified personal data, even though the Bill contains other provisions which prohibit attempts to re-identify de-identified data, and provide potentially stiff penalties for doing so (sections 75 and 125).

The Bill defines “de-identify” as “to modify personal information – or create information from personal information – by using technical processes to ensure that the information does not identify an individual or could not be used in reasonably foreseeable circumstances, alone or in combination with other information, to identify an individual”. The idea that it would include information created from personal information makes the definition surprisingly broad. Consider that in the early days of the pandemic, a number of companies – including Google and Fitbit – released data about mobility – in the form of charts – as we moved into lockdown. These visualizations might well fit the category of ‘information created from personal information’. If this is so, the release of such data – if Bill C-11 were passed in its current form – might constitute a breach, since according to section 39, the disclosure without knowledge or consent must be to a specified entity and must also be for a socially beneficial purpose. Perhaps Bill C-11 intends to restrain this self-publishing of data visualizations or analyses based on personal information. It is just not clear that this is the case – or that if it is, it would not violate the right to freedom of expression.

Under section 39, de-identified data may be disclosed without knowledge or consent to specific actors, including government or health care institutions, public libraries and post-secondary institutions. Data may also be disclosed to any other “prescribed entity”, thus allowing other entities to be added to the list by regulation. In the current list, the most interesting category – in light of debates and discussions around data trusts – is “any organization that is mandated, under a federal or provincial law or by contract with a government institution or part of a government institution in Canada, to carry out a socially beneficial purpose”. This category allows for a range of different kinds of “data trusts” – ones created by law or by contract. They may be part of government, operating under a mandate from government, or engaged by contract with government. Such arrangements must be for a “socially beneficial purpose”, which is defined in subsection 39(2) as “a purpose related to health, the provision or improvement of public amenities or infrastructure, the protection of the environment or any other prescribed purpose.”

While a data trust-type exception to facilitate data sharing is intriguing, the proposed definition of “socially beneficial purpose” may be too limiting. Consider a private sector company that wishes to provide de-identified data from personal fitness devices to a university for research purposes. If these data are used for health-related research there is no problem under section 39. But what if a social scientist seeks to examine other phenomena revealed by the data? What if a business scholar seeks to use the data to understand whether counting steps leads to more local shopping or dining? If the research is not about health, the provision or improvement of public amenities or infrastructure, or the protection of the environment, then it does not appear to fall within the exception. This might mean that some researchers can use the data and others cannot. There is a separate exception to the requirements of knowledge or consent for research or statistical purposes, but it is not for de-identified personal information and is more complex in its requirements as a result.

There are also some rather odd potential consequences with this scheme. What if a short-term rental company is willing to share de-identified data with a provincial government that is looking for better ways to target its tourism marketing efforts? Or perhaps it seeks to use the data to better regulate short term accommodation. It is not clear that either of these purposes would fit within the “improvement of public amenities or infrastructure” category of a socially beneficial purpose. And, although Bill C-11 sets out to regulate what private sector companies do with their data and not what data provincial or municipal governments are entitled to use, it does seem that these provisions could limit the access of provincial public sector actors to data that might otherwise be made available to them. By allowing private sector actors to share de-identified data without knowledge or consent in some circumstances, the implication is that such data cannot be shared in other circumstances – even if appropriate safeguards are in place.

Finally, it seems as if the de-identification of the data and a reference to socially beneficial purposes are the only safeguards mandated for the personal data under this scheme. The wording of section 39 suggests that shared data cannot simply be made available as open data (since it can only be shared with a specific entity for a specific purpose). Yet, there is no further requirement that the new custodians of the data – the public sector or prescribed entities – allow access to the data only under licenses that ensure that any downstream use is for the prescribed socially beneficial purposes – or that impose any other necessary limitations. For entities such as post-secondary institutions, public libraries, and ‘data trusts’, use by third parties must surely be contemplated. Section 39 should therefore require appropriate contractual terms for data-sharing.

Overall, the concept behind s. 39 of Bill C-11 is an important one, and the effort to facilitate data sharing by the private sector for public purposes in privacy-friendly ways is laudable. It is also important to consider how to place limits on such sharing in order to protect against privacy breaches that might flow from re-identification of de-identified data. However, section 39 as drafted raises a number of questions about its scope, not all of which are easily answered. It would benefit from a better definition of ‘de-identify’, a more flexible definition of a socially beneficial purposes, and a further requirement that any data sharing arrangements be subject to appropriate contractual limitations. And, even though individual knowledge of the sharing arrangements may not be feasible, there should be some form of transparency (such as notice to the Commissioner) so that individuals know when their de-identified personal data is being shared, by whom, and for what socially beneficial purposes.

Published in Privacy

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