Amendments To PIPEDA - Breach Notification Provisions

The Canadian Parliament gave First Reading to federal Bill C-12 in late September 2011 and, at the time of writing, no further progress has been made on this Bill. Bill C-12 proposes to amend the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. The most significant part of Bill C-12 is the breach notification provisions which will require organizations to notify the federal Privacy Commissioner of any "material breach" of security safeguards involving personal information under its control. Somewhat similar wording in Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act has resulted in numerous reports by organizations to the Alberta Commissioner and numerous decisions of the Alberta Commissioner requiring organizations to notify affected individuals.