Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
PIPEDA is a federal statute, which sets out rules that govern the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by organizations engaged in commercial activities. A licensed business entity engaging in an activity regulated by the PSISA is likely subject to PIPEDA. *****
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-8.6/FullText.html
PIPEDA is a consent based statute. This means that licensed business entities are limited in what third party personal information they can collect, use and disclose when they do not have the consent of the person to whom the personal information belongs. For example, many of the items included in a credit report are considered personal information and are protected by privacy laws. Therefore a credit check can be conducted with the consent of the subject.
Despite the foregoing, there are circumstances in which consent is not required for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. For example, Regulation SOR/2001-7, enacted pursuant to PIPEDA, lists publicly available records, such as some judicial records, which are not subject to the restrictions on the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, as set out in the Act.
Also, according to Regulation SOR/2001-6, licensed business entities may receive or disclose personal information without the knowledge or consent of the individual to whom it belongs for the purpose of investigating the breach of an agreement or the contravention of a law if they are a corporation or other body:
- that is licensed by a province to engage in the business of providing Private Investigators or detectives and that has a privacy code that is compliant with the Canadian Standards Association Standard CAN/CSA-Q830-96, Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, as amended from time to time; and,
- that is a member in good standing of a professional association that represents the interests of Private Investigators or detectives and that has such a code.
