Privacy Laws

The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act - PIPEDA

In Canada there are Privacy Laws that regulate how the sharing and storing of health records can occur. There are Federal Regulations for all of Canada and then Provincial regulations in all of the provinces. The Federal Laws are referred to as PIPEDA, which stands for The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. It is important that you as an individual or your clinic is compliant with these regulations.

The law requires that:

organizations must obtain an individuals consent when collecting, using, disclosing any individuals personal information.
people have the right to see and access any personal information that is being held by an organization
people have the right to challenge the accuracy of the personal information that is held by an organization.
personal information can only be used for the purpose that it was collected for. If the organization wants to use if for a different purpose they must get consent again.

In this way personal information is protected and safe-guarded against misuse.

The goal of this webpage is have all the links to each province's regulations in one place for ease of access.

Provincial privacy laws which are similar to PIPEDA

Many of the provinces have adopted privacy legislation that is very similar to the Federal PIPEDA in their rules surrounding the collection, use or disclosure of personal information. British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador are adopted private-sector privacy laws that are very similar to PIPEDA. It is important that you check with your provincial regulatory bodies to confirm you are abiding by the privacy regulations in your region.

Organizations in Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut are under the Federal PIPEDA regulations.

Information that crosses borders

Any businesses that has any personal information that is crossing any provincial or national borders are bound by the rules of PIPEDA.

Federally regulated organizations

All Federally regulated organizations that conduct business in Canada are always subject to PIPEDA. The Act also applies to their employees’ personal information.

What is personal information?

Personal information about a person is as follows:

age, name, ID numbers, income, ethnic origin, or blood type;
opinions, evaluations, comments, social status, or disciplinary actions; and
employee files, credit records, loan records, medical records, existence of a dispute between a consumer and a merchant, intentions (for example, to acquire goods or services, or change jobs).

More information can be found at the PIPEDA website