Earlier this month, the Conference Board of Canada released a report analysing the economic costs and
benefits of privacy regulation in Canada. The Conference
Board's report was prepared with financial support from Google
Canada Inc.
The report is an attempt to frame the discussion relating to
privacy regulation in terms of a cost-benefit analysis. The report
is timely given that there are proposed legislative amendments to
Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic
Documents Act ("PIPEDA") pending before Parliament and
given that PIPEDA should be up for a legislated five-year
review.
As the Conference Board report notes, the Federal Cabinet Directive on Streamlining
Regulation requires (among other things) that policy options be
evaluated on a cost-benefit basis and that proposed regulations
must impose the least possible cost necessary to achieve the
intended policy objectives. In assessing the costs of privacy
regulation, the Conference Board stated
