Authors: Erin Wolff, Kristél Kriel
The Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner (the “OIPC”) has recently recommended the creation of stand-alone legislation that will regulate data matching activities by public bodies in Saskatchewan.
“Data matching” refers to the creation of individually identifying information by combining identifying or non-identifying information from two or more electronic databases.
The legislation is being proposed to address various privacy challenges associated with data matching, and would require data matching to be done in an open and transparent manner while respecting the privacy rights of individuals. Similar laws regulating data matching already exist in some Canadian jurisdictions, including British Columbia and Alberta.
Although the legislation would be aimed at public bodies, the impact on private entities is unclear at this time.
Learn more about the OIPC’s data matching recommendation.
We will be watching developments on this front with interest. To stay up-to-date, subscribe for the Privacy Law Insights e-newsletter.