How Old Are You Really? Canadian Privacy Commissioner Issues Statement On Common Approach To Age Assurance

On September 19, 2024, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) issued a Joint Statement on a Common International Approach to Age Assurance (the Joint Statement), joining other global regulators in moving towards a more common international approach to the data protection and privacy implications of age assurance methods.

The Joint Statement clarifies that age assurance is the process of establishing, determining, and/or confirming the age or age range of a natural person, and allows providers to tailor users’ experience to their age or to enforce age-appropriate access restrictions where legally required.

The Joint Statement sets out eleven shared principles from different international regulators on age assurance practices as they relate to data protection and privacy.  Providers and suppliers of online services are urged to take these principles into account in their approach to age assurance.  The shared principles include:

1. The use of personal information for age assurance must be lawful, fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory.  Any personal information collected must be limited to what is necessary for the purpose of age assurance.
2. Providers should establish with reasonable certainty whether children are likely to access their platform or website.  Where it is inappropriate or unlawful for children to be accessing a website, its provider should focus on deploying an effective means of age assurance to prevent children from accessing the site.
3. Providers should be aware of the state of the art in age assurance technology in order to ensure they implement methods that are effective, while also protecting users’ rights and freedoms, and to keep these methods under review.

The Joint Statement has also been endorsed by privacy regulators of the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, the Philippines, Argentina, and Mexico, and will remain open for signatures from other working group members and regulators.  

The OPC also noted that the Joint Statement complements the efforts that are already underway to consult with stakeholders in its development of related policy and guidance.  Specifically, the OPC is currently reviewing stakeholder feedback in response to its exploratory consultation on the privacy implications of age assurance systems, as previously reported by the E-TIPS® Newsletter here.

Summary By: Steffi Tran