Privacy Commissioner Of Canada Issues 2023-2024 Annual Report

On June 6, 2024, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) tabled its 2023-2024 Annual Report to Parliament on the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (the Annual Report). The Annual Report summarizes the OPC’s efforts over the past year to protect and promote the fundamental privacy rights of Canadians in the digital era.

In the Annual Report, the OPC describes the following pivotal privacy trends that reflect the concerns of Canadians and those around the world:

1. Despite greater volumes of data being shared online and larger reliance on digital platforms, Canadians have limited trust, particularly with social media companies, and are increasingly concerned about how their personal information is protected.
2. There is greater global concern for the privacy of young people, which is driving the development of new laws to protect children’s privacy rights.
3. The risk of cyber attacks and data exfiltration from threat actors continues to be a major concern for organizations.
4. The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) has Canadians concerned about how their data is being used for this technology.
5. There is continued global effort to strengthen fundamental rights through expanding privacy laws.

The Annual Report features key data breach statistics, such as an increase of 88% in the number of reported breaches received by the OPC relating to federal government institutions when compared to the previous year. The Annual Report also mentions that private sector organizations reported 693 breaches affecting approximately 25 million Canadians, as compared to the previous year where 681 breaches were reported affecting approximately 12 million Canadians.

The Annual Report also describes significant work carried out by the OPC, including, among other things, steps taken to strengthen Canada’s privacy laws through recommending changes to Bill C-27 (the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022). The OPC is set to continue its momentum from the past year through to 2027, with both its recent and future work focusing on the following priority areas:

• protecting and promoting privacy with maximum impact;
• addressing and advocating for privacy in this time of technological change with a focus on AI; and
• championing children’s privacy rights.

Summary By: Amy Ariganello